At Xboxyde they had mentioned that the Xbox 360 crashed a couple times (you can see this in the Madden and PGR3 videos). This could be software related, or as Xboxyde noted, heat. I am not sure what hardware they were using for the demos and what not, but it brings up an interesting point.
We know the Xbox 360 GPU, Xenos, was underclocked until Augest when final kits were sent. The first beta kits had underclocked GPUs and since E3 we have known MS was trying something unique with the CPU heat sink (whatever that may be). The CELL servers we have seen have been at 2.4GHz (a recent pic even showed liquid cooling!).
Looking at both consoles, MS was aiming for 3.5GHz+ and Sony had even mentioned 4GHz+ for possible CELL configurations (although this was never mentioned as what would be in the PS3). The fact both Sony and MS settled on 3.2GHz and will have consoles roughly the same size indicates that heat (and of course yields) is playing a significant factor in the new consoles.
Final production silicon should be a plus, but this does have me wondering how much of an issue this could be. Will we see MS/Sony make any last minute frequency changes (if MS will they would have already of course; Sony only has 2 months, give or take, before they have to set their frequencies in stone as well)? How does this relate to past consoles? Frequently gamers complain about the durability of launch hardware. Could heat be this gens "issue" ?
Obviously MS and Sony will ship working units. I just thought the heating issue was interesting due to the frequency wall chip makers have hit and the issues we have seen with the new console chips.
So what is everyone elses take on this? Nothing important or an issue we may see rear its ugly head over the next 6 months?
We know the Xbox 360 GPU, Xenos, was underclocked until Augest when final kits were sent. The first beta kits had underclocked GPUs and since E3 we have known MS was trying something unique with the CPU heat sink (whatever that may be). The CELL servers we have seen have been at 2.4GHz (a recent pic even showed liquid cooling!).
Looking at both consoles, MS was aiming for 3.5GHz+ and Sony had even mentioned 4GHz+ for possible CELL configurations (although this was never mentioned as what would be in the PS3). The fact both Sony and MS settled on 3.2GHz and will have consoles roughly the same size indicates that heat (and of course yields) is playing a significant factor in the new consoles.
Final production silicon should be a plus, but this does have me wondering how much of an issue this could be. Will we see MS/Sony make any last minute frequency changes (if MS will they would have already of course; Sony only has 2 months, give or take, before they have to set their frequencies in stone as well)? How does this relate to past consoles? Frequently gamers complain about the durability of launch hardware. Could heat be this gens "issue" ?
Obviously MS and Sony will ship working units. I just thought the heating issue was interesting due to the frequency wall chip makers have hit and the issues we have seen with the new console chips.
So what is everyone elses take on this? Nothing important or an issue we may see rear its ugly head over the next 6 months?
