Predict: The Next Generation Console Tech

Lherre was quoting what came from the PS4 target specs. The 10x comment came from that. So it's essentially Sony making that claim, not someone based on their personal experience with any hardware.

 

He said he already had early dev kits. Then said the system would be very balance like psvita.

I disagree, seems lherre is making that claim based on info he has access to.... highly doubt Sony told him x720 would even be more powerful.

 

All things considered, I think the it should be changed around.

It's a weird situation that's for sure. These set top features really only benefit the US. It would seem like there should be a sku that only had gaming capabilities for other markets and those who don't want the multimedia features. But that goes against MS' "AIO" plan.

I'm talking about the 10x part not the Xbox 3 part. Which I still disagree with right now.

 

When was it filed, and who is listed as the inventors? It could well be related to HDDVD, since the second and third gen hddvd boxes has two CPUs each, running different operating systems, with one providing the base system services and video playback, and the other providing the ihd interactivity layer (for menus and games and such)

 

"United States Patent Application 20120159090
Kind Code A1
Andrews; Jeffrey ; et al. June 21, 2012
SCALABLE MULTIMEDIA COMPUTER SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE WITH QOS GUARANTEES

Abstract
Versions of a multimedia computer system architecture are described which satisfy quality of service (QoS) guarantees for multimedia applications such as game applications while allowing platform resources, hardware resources in particular, to scale up or down over time. Computing resources of the computer system are partitioned into a platform partition and an application partition, each including its own central processing unit (CPU) and, optionally, graphics processing unit (GPU). To enhance scalability of resources up or down, the platform partition includes one or more hardware resources which are only accessible by the multimedia application via a software interface. Additionally, outside the partitions may be other resources shared by the partitions or which provide general purpose computing resources.



Inventors: Andrews; Jeffrey; (Sunnyvale, CA) ; Sell; John V.; (Los Altos, CA) ; Carrie; Susan; (Mountain View, CA) ; Grossman; Mark S.; (Palo Alto, CA) ; Tardif; John; (Sammamish, WA) ; Baker; Nicholas R.; (Cupertino, CA)
Assignee: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Redmond
WA

Serial No.: 970361
Series Code: 12
Filed: December 16, 2010 "


http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph...ND&d=PG01&s1=nintendo&OS=nintendo&RS=nintendo

 

I think it will be good to remind everyone what we read 8 months ago about the new consoles:

Back in November, a report from Xboxmag/computedandvideogames/a famous mag claimed the 720 was gonna have an 6-8 core processor, was gonna be SMALLER than 360, and CHEAPER than 360, and would probalby have Windows 8.

Then we started reading things like 2 GPUs and 16 core PPC. But in January, PlayStation Magazine claimed the early specs of the PS4 were more powerful than those on the 720, which also stated when in Febrary/March, there was a developer who posted in twitter the Durango summit in London. A few days later we first heard about the 16 core CPU, and that the devs spected the PS4 to be even more powerful.

 

I wonder why there's nothing about two GPU's, two different chipsets etc in BG's rumors? Could it be that the Durango dev kit only contains the gaming side of the hardware so to say, and the app chipset doesnt exist in Durango gaming dev kits? Or just that the whole two chipset idea isn't what they're doing?

Nothing we hear about Durango dev kits suggests an odd two-GPU architecture (well, not the dev kit rumors, there have been sporadic dual GPU rumors about both Durango and Orbis)

 

I wonder if the rumors suggesting Xbox 3 would be more powerful than PS4 were based on the entire hard of Durango, rather than just in the games part. In any case, if this new Xbox is going to be launched at a low price, and part of the price is Kinect, and part the hardware for the apps, how can the games part be powerful? It should be what lherre said about the 8 low speed cores with a Radeon 7000 (and the GPU should be a low-spec one).

Could it be?

 

what about xenos + xenon + edram all in one soc to run the os and the bc?
with the rest of the system running only netflix gear5 ecc

for sure is not the most efficient way of doing things, but can reduce r&d and add free bc for all the purchased xbla titles

 

And...
In this hypothetical soc, can ati swap old 5D with new 4D?
this architecture is more compact and can allow for some more complex kinect, but can easily emulate the old one?

 

Aah, nope, not HDDVD. Most of those folks are located in California, which is where one of our hardware design divisions are. Clever idea though.

(I never click on patent links, since it can open the company to triple damage claims if we are found to be infringing on a patent, and they can prove we knew it. This is one of ours, but better safe than sorry)

 

I wouldn't pay much attention to "Playstation Magazine" in regards to which console is 'more powerful' - as if that's a simple metric. Truth is, there will be some ways in which Durango has the upper edge, and there will be some ways Orbis has the upper edge.

 

Its also possible that MS had couple of next gen patents and designs. This one could be as it said, codenamed Yukon, and it may not be the same as Project Durango after MS talk with 3rd party developers and listening to their input.

 

That line of thought follows something in the leaked 56 page power point document. Something like it will be 8x power, 4-6x games. I.E. a large chunk of it computing power will be reserved for non-gaming functions.

 

You made into the news worldwide!

I really like the concept.

I'd also love to have a detachable console, like a Lego.

So you can get rid of the physical media -a heavy DVD, for isntance- and so on, if you move it. (i.e. to a friend's house)

A light console is certainly a better console. Consoles are amazing.

 

Well, how much power it loses for games to the "platform" computing resources depends on what kind of hardware it carries. The platform resources might be mobile style CPU/GPU. What you gain is responsiveness. If you have the application running on segmented resources, and they can run exclusively, devs no longer have to worry about all of those other services running on the resources they're trying to use. That hopefully means no delay when you press the guide button to check check which friends you have online, join a party, send or receive voice/text/video messages, check the status of downloads etc. That could also be a big win for notifications, if there is a unified notification center for any social media apps the platform might support, or other apps that push notifications. You could have a sports scores app that pops up updates to a game you're tracking, where you could instantly open the guide and check out the full details and then switch back to your game, all with little to no pausing or delay. There would be no lost resources to high-quality group voice or video chat. Maybe I could have a 1-to-1 video or Skype chat, picture-in-picture, while playing a game without any impact to performance. Maybe even picture-in-picture television. I don't think I'd want to do that, but someone might. Kinect processing, or some of it, may count as a "platform" service, which would mean any game that utilizes Kinect would be making use of those "platform" resources. We'll see what the memory split ends up being, if this is actually the design of the new Xbox, but I have a feeling the platform CPU/GPU something along the lines of a phone/tablet, rather than a significant chunk of the overall computing power of the system. Overall, it's an interesting design concept for quality of service guarantees while running intensive multimedia applications like games. It's kind of a hard multi-tasking system, rather than a soft system like you'd have on a PC OS. The "platform" side could run with some kind of scheduler for multitasking within its own resources, but those "application" resources are always fully dedicated (non-multitasking) to whatever game you're playing. Hell, this console could run a virus scanner on the platform side without impacting game performance. How 'bout that?

I would like to point out, this is all entirely speculation and not "insider" info of any kind. I'm just hypothesizing about why this might be the direction they've chosen for the new Xbox.

 

Intresting that Microsoft bought Perceptive Pixel. Maybe the XB720 gamepad will get some touch sensitive areas like the Sony Vita has?

 

Along these same lines, I wonder if it would ever be possible for there to be a certification process for Win 8 PCs where it could be determined whether they had the performance to provide the necessary QoS guarantees to make them capable of running XBOX games.

 

That's as dependant on the quality of the port and the state of driver support as it is on hardware capability though. In theory a high end G71 and modest AthlonX2 should be plenty to run console ports but I doubt current games on current drivers would come close. Had the pc never evolved beyond that hardware though, then I bet it would still be running all console ports today.