Predict: The Next Generation Console Tech

[upnorthsox]

NDA's are just contracts, you breach them, you risk having to pay the penalties.
In the case of larger companies, individual employees are usually covered by the companies confidentiality agreement, and the company signs an agreement with the platform provider.
My guess is that most deliberate leaks would probably result in a loss of employment for most people, and probably not a lot more. Though in most cases employees do open themselves to possible financial damages.

A lot of people talk to friends and family about work NDA or no NDA.

Most of the leaks I've seen over the years aren't from developers, but from people with secondary access to the information, as the set of disclosed people get larger, the leaks usually get more frequent.

Having said that usually leaks happen and then false leaks (people wanting attention) or misunderstanding of the data being reported as new information muddy the water to the point the information is lost.

Thanks, the extended version of my point.

I think it's safe to say that a lot of people today know a lot more than they did a week ago. Such is the nature of secrets and holidays, especially when its so close to an official reveal anyhow. Something will give very soon, then there'll be some unofficial confirmations and that'll be that til the formal reveal. This is a bit of a mixed blessing for Sony/MS as they don't have to officially confirm it but can still quietly act as if its common knowledge and so begin talking about the business and PR aspects of the new console

 

[Proelite]

The student on pastebin, the one who said the Orbis would ship without an HDD?

That's not going to happen is it.

Nope. His information is way way old, but he was still legit.

 

[JasonLD]

The technical diagram and specifications for 360 were leaked the day after it was disclosed to 3rd parties.
MS did briefings at a number of larger 3rd parties, to a lot of developers, I suspect that disclosure was more carefully controlled this time.

Or is there a possibility that the spec is not finalized yet?

 

[Ruskie]

Or is there a possibility that the spec is not finalized yet?

I don't think so. 360 specs where finalized by 2004 (except RAM that is).

 

[upnorthsox]

Or is there a possibility that the spec is not finalized yet?

And still launch in 2013? How much can it change? To launch in 2013, production runs will need to start in July at the latest. That's 6 months away!!

 

[ERP]

I don't think so. 360 specs where finalized by 2004 (except RAM that is).

You've gotta design the silicon, get it back from the fab, test it fix bugs, resubmit, rinse and repeat until satisfied long before you start production.
Each one of those iterations is of the order of 2 to 3 months.
You need working silicon in quantity for developers months before launch.
The only reason that MS could change the RAM footprint so late was because the retail units and devkits use the same motherboards and as a result were already capable of taking twice as much RAM.

Things like final clock speeds can change late, but they usually go down marginally not up.

 

[JasonLD]

And still launch in 2013? How much can it change? To launch in 2013, production runs will need to start in July at the latest. That's 6 months away!!

2013 launch is not confirmed yet. It is very likely that they will launch in 2013 but not confirmed. Lack of leaks might mean lack of official document lol.

 

[bkilian]

NDA's are just contracts, you breach them, you risk having to pay the penalties.
In the case of larger companies, individual employees are usually covered by the companies confidentiality agreement, and the company signs an agreement with the platform provider.
My guess is that most deliberate leaks would probably result in a loss of employment for most people, and probably not a lot more. Though in most cases employees do open themselves to possible financial damages.

A lot of people talk to friends and family about work NDA or no NDA.

My wife does not know anything about the product I was working on except that is was XBox and audio related.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

My guess is that most deliberate leaks would probably result in a loss of employment for most people, and probably not a lot more.

I presume future employment opportunities would be affected though. "Sacked because he broke NDA" isn't going to endear anyone to a potential employer. And that should be enough to prevent those involved being flippant.

 

[upnorthsox]

My wife does not know anything about the product I was working on except that is was XBox and audio related.

I've been married 20 years so I can empathize, and I'm not even under NDA!!!

 

[-tkf-]

Is there anything stopping ms or sony from using a cpu and gpu at launch and then replacing it with an apu later?

 

[ERP]

My wife does not know anything about the product I was working on except that is was XBox and audio related.

Sure not everyone discusses work at home, I'm not sure my wife could even tell you what I do outside of work on games.
But for those that do I doubt most consider the NDA before deciding on a topic of conversation.

 

[anexanhume]

Why does that bit figure mean an HD 8900 as a GPU?

Only enthusiast GPUs have memory buses greater than 256 bits.

 

[SKYSONY]

Only enthusiast GPUs have memory buses greater than 256 bits.

But that Chinese dude seems to point to a 8850 or a 8870 based GPU in the APU.

 

[MrFox]

I presume future employment opportunities would be affected though. "Sacked because he broke NDA" isn't going to endear anyone to a potential employer. And that should be enough to prevent those involved being flippant.

Could be worse, "lost job when company went bankrupt after they got sued because he broke NDA"

 

[anexanhume]

But that Chinese dude seems to point to a 8850 or a 8870 based GPU in the APU.

The person you quoted inferred HD 8900 from the 384 number. They could well use a custom width on a 8800 level GPU. It's likely to be underclocked from stock 8800 speeds anyway so all these comparisons are relative. CU's are roughly the best comparison we have.

 

[shiznit]

384 makes sense if you assume 64 x 2 (for each Jaguar quad) + 256 for a Pitcairn-ish GPU.

 

[Helmore]

384 makes sense if you assume 64 x 2 (for each Jaguar quad) + 256 for a Pitcairn-ish GPU.

If we're talking about a proper SoC/APU, then there will be one single memory pool. In other words, the CPU will have access to all available memory bandwidth, as will the GPU. Even better, the CPU and the GPU will probably be able to address the exact same memory addresses, which can be pretty useful when you're doing GPGPU instructions.

 

[shiznit]

If we're talking about a proper SoC/APU, then there will be one single memory pool. In other words, the CPU will have access to all available memory bandwidth, as will the GPU. Even better, the CPU and the GPU will probably be able to address the exact same memory addresses, which can be pretty useful when you're doing GPGPU instructions.

I wasn't implying split memory pools, just that if you were to use those building blocks without changing the memory controllers or going with something like WideIO, it would add up.

 

[N2O]

If you want to believe what hes saying it seems hes legit. Little hard to believe that he is not covered under the same nda as everyone else though or his information hasn't been removed like others.

My guess is it's not anyone who knows what's really going on

Not saying AMD china guy must be true but MS hard to stop them leak something
Remember when they leak Xbox 360S motherboard picture?