XB2 apu repurposing benefits

Jay

Veteran
Previously I thought MS would have a 2 tier xb2.
As it turns out the lower tier would be the streaming device that we've heard about now.

Consoles are different than cpu and gpu's who can use binning to make the most of the wafer, consoles just can't do that. I thought the lower tier xb2 would have been the lower specced chips.

So what about taking chips with a few disabled cu's, and clocked lower and putting them in a surface aio device or in a surface studio?
It doesn't need to be a big seller, far from it, just enough to use up those lower specced chips.
It would be capable enough cpu, being zen based with enough gpu grunt for its purpose. It's not meant as a gaming rig, just light gaming (in pc terms), its a productivity device.

That way ms is not paying intel, Nvidia for chips, you can produce xb2 with fully enabled gpu without the big loss that it would entail.

  • Higher specced xb2 at same price or even cheaper
  • Savings/higher margins on a surface device
  • Board, chip, everything already designed
  • Windows 10 would just run.
Why wouldn't they do this?
In the past they couldn't do this due to consoles processor architecture, but shouldn't be a problem with xb2's apu.
The only problem I see is open gl, vulkan drivers, so may not be able to run software without dx12 code path, how much software is that, and could it use amd vulkan driver's / customized version, or a shim of some sorts.
They would also need to produce dx10/11 drivers but shouldn't be a problem for them.
 
Xbox next?
What are people calling the scarlet none streaming version device

Xbox / Xbox classic
Xbox 360 = Xbox 360
Xbox one
Xbox 4 k
 
If Windows runs on that AMD APU with Zen+Vega+GDDR5, it would probably run on XBone and XBoneX. And a x86-based next-gen console too, of course.

Problem here is that the Surface team is:

1 - completely dissonant with the Xbox team. There's absolutely nothing that links Surface to Xbox (like Xperia devices that run remote play from PS4) even though both teams have been co-existing for over 6 years.

2 - The Surface team is terribly slow at adopting new hardware. Yesterday they presented the Surface Pro 6 with the 16-months-old Kaby Lake-R CPUs and the Surface Studio 2 with Pascal GPUs (original Surface Studio launched last year had Skylake CPUs and Maxwell GPUs).
 
Instead of lower tier why not just improve infrastructure and bring the streaming of the next gen xbox almost everywhere else?

License the next gen controller with a proper app for iOS, Android, Linux, etc.

If they need to make a new SKU at the lowest and still need specialized hardware, update the One S with the new fancy hardware secret sauce streaming chip with the next gen controller?
 
If Windows runs on that AMD APU with Zen+Vega+GDDR5, it would probably run on XBone and XBoneX. And a x86-based next-gen console too, of course.

Problem here is that the Surface team is:

1 - completely dissonant with the Xbox team. There's absolutely nothing that links Surface to Xbox (like Xperia devices that run remote play from PS4) even though both teams have been co-existing for over 6 years.

2 - The Surface team is terribly slow at adopting new hardware. Yesterday they presented the Surface Pro 6 with the 16-months-old Kaby Lake-R CPUs and the Surface Studio 2 with Pascal GPUs (original Surface Studio launched last year had Skylake CPUs and Maxwell GPUs).
I've said the very same thing as that in another thread about how slow they are at adopting new architectures.
This is a situation where they've developed it in house though.

In the past all sections was very segregated, but they have been trying to change that aspect, and especially where gaming is concerned, gaming/xbox is no longer a second class citizen.
 
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Instead of lower tier why not just improve infrastructure and bring the streaming of the next gen xbox almost everywhere else?

License the next gen controller with a proper app for iOS, Android, Linux, etc.

If they need to make a new SKU at the lowest and still need specialized hardware, update the One S with the new fancy hardware secret sauce streaming chip with the next gen controller?
I think you missed my point.
As I said the device would not be a gaming device, it would be about leveraging apu's that would either be worthless, or need to lower the spec of Xbox next to have better yields.
they wouldn't be making a lower spec'd Xbox, they would be bining the apu's to have a better spec'd console

The apu in the next Xbox should be an all round capable processor for a pc device.
 
I think you missed my point.
As I said the device would not be a gaming device, it would be about leveraging apu's that would either be worthless, or need to lower the spec of Xbox next to have better yields.
they wouldn't be making a lower spec'd Xbox, they would be bining the apu's to have a better spec'd console

The apu in the next Xbox should be an all round capable processor for a pc device.

I did.

Maybe the consoles have some custom aspect in them that's for security that might be a mess with Windows?

I've seen the chinese windows gddr5 only pc though but I'm not sure if that's the exact same silicon as the PS4 Pro.

Perhaps MS would be paranoid marrying real Windows 10 and an XB APU due to hacking concerns.

If the Surface line gets a slightly different silicon for windows maybe it'll be still be worth it.
 
I did.

Maybe the consoles have some custom aspect in them that's for security that might be a mess with Windows?

I've seen the chinese windows gddr5 only pc though but I'm not sure if that's the exact same silicon as the PS4 Pro.

Perhaps MS would be paranoid marrying real Windows 10 and an XB APU due to hacking concerns.

If the Surface line gets a slightly different silicon for windows maybe it'll be still be worth it.
I'd very surprised if there's anything in it that would cause problems with full windows. In fact the way their moving is to modular OS.

I've been giving this more thought, and in light of xcloud, the next gen version could run on lower spec'd apu's than physical console.
That way console gets fully enabled chips, running at top speed.
xcloud gets lower spec'd chips, and no one expects the streaming version to perform like the local console anyway.
cost savings all around, and a higher spec'd next console.
This is the ideal scenario really.
 
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