So does NEC producing the R500 mean TSMC is providing a PPU?

[Brimstone]

Microsoft and TSMC made signed an agreement April 6, 2004. What was this agreement for? A second GPU? SIS chipset? A PPU?


TSMC to Supply Products and Services for Future Microsoft Game Consoles


If NEC is manufacturing the R500 and there is no other special ATI chip linked to it, I have to conclude TSMC is going to manufacture a PPU for the X-Box 360. Of course that a big assumption at this point. Does the 360 contain two GPU style chips or not?

The production of the eDRAM graphics chip has started at NEC Electronics' 300-mm wafer fabrication facility, which is equipped with 90-nm process technologies named UX6.

NEC Electronics to deploy its DRAM in Microsoft's next XBox

 

[Love_In_Rio]

but what has been said is Nec could fab the EDRAM module with some logic inside, nothing about the R500, hasn´t it?. In this case TSCM´s agreement would be to fab the R500. If so, what was suppossed to be before the GPU (R500 with embebed memory) is now a GPU built by two chips ( R500 + EDRAM module ). Well, everything is a mess!!

 

[j^aws]

The R500 and the eDRAM module are two different chips. There is no PPU. Just search this forum for all the hints left by developers with Dev Kits that say there is no PPU...

 

[jvd]

tmsc can be doing the io chips

 

[Quaz51]

TSMC manufacture Xbox360 GPU and NEC manufacture the EDRAM module (Enchanced DRAM contain eDRAM + logic)

 

[Love_In_Rio]

jejeje, have you realized that in 4 posts nobody has writen TSMC in an unique way ? Even the name of the companies are a mess!!

 

[gurgi]

The R500 and the eDRAM module are two different chips. There is no PPU. Just search this forum for all the hints left by developers with Dev Kits that say there is no PPU...

Devkits are final hardware now, or are they still using G5 towers?

 

[Iron Tiger]

I think the confusion lies in it being called eDRAM when it's not embedded.

 

[Love_In_Rio]

If the pseudo-embebed DRAM module is a different chip, wouldn´t this involve that the R500 would have at least 24 or 32 unified pipes instead of the romoured 16 ? In this way the "stand-alone" ATI-R500 chip would have about 240-280 million transistors that is still a reasonable weight for a 90 nm chip, isn´t it ?

 

[j^aws]

The R500 and the eDRAM module are two different chips. There is no PPU. Just search this forum for all the hints left by developers with Dev Kits that say there is no PPU...

Devkits are final hardware now, or are they still using G5 towers?

AFAIK, they are still Alpha kits...

 

[j^aws]

I think the confusion lies in it being called eDRAM when it's not embedded.

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=505608#505608

If the pseudo-embebed DRAM module is a different chip, wouldn´t this involve that the R500 would have at least 24 or 32 unified pipes instead of the romoured 16 ? In this way the "stand-alone" ATI-R500 chip would have about 240-280 million transistors that is still a reasonable weight for a 90 nm chip, isn´t it ?

Just ignore how the US units are arranged or how many there are. Simply think of them as 48 ALUs in the R500...

 

[Brimstone]

Could we be seeing also 1t-SRAM as main system ram again like in the Gamecube? When I was reading about the new Rambus microthreading technology I came across this.

The obvious solution is to break up the DRAM array into a bunch of little independent arrays with separate row and column decoders. Then you could send a stream of independent row and column addresses to the chip and get back a stream of bytes from uncorrelated locations in the array, with of course some restrictions. In effect, that is the approach that MoSys Inc. takes in simulating SRAM with its DRAM architecture.

But such an approach requires a wholesale reorganization of the memory array. Alternatively, Rambus has suggested using the four relatively independent quadrants that already exist in most DRAM designs to achieve the same purpose, with little additional circuitry and no large changes to the underlying architecture.

DRAM tuning looks to speed graphics work

Basicly what the MoSys system ram in the Gamecube already achieves, is what Rambus would like to do with their proposed Microthreading Dram architechture.

Now NEC recently signed an agreement with Rambus so they can produce XDR memory controllers. So in theory NEC could manufacture MoSys DRAM again, but this time add Rambus XDR differential signaling.

Rambus Signs Patent License Agreement With NEC Electronics



Could this be the new xddr RAM ATI and VIA were rumored to be creating?Just some speculation thats all.

 

[Love_In_Rio]

At last everything leads to...ARTX is the main designer of X360!!!

 

[Brimstone]

Gamespot is reporting that chip will work with the ATI GPU.

According to NEC, its next-gen Xbox chip will be a large-scale integration chip that will function in tandem with the ATI GPU. The chip will include dynamic RAM and is to be manufactured in Yamagata, Japan.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/04/26/news_6122967.html

 

[Carl B]

Gamespot is reporting that chip will work with the ATI GPU.

According to NEC, its next-gen Xbox chip will be a large-scale integration chip that will function in tandem with the ATI GPU. The chip will include dynamic RAM and is to be manufactured in Yamagata, Japan.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/04/26/news_6122967.html

Was there ever any doubt what it was going to work with though?

 

[gurgi]

The chip will include dynamic RAM and is to be manufactured in Yamagata, Japan.

Do the PPU specs call for dynamic RAM? =P


Go physics go!!!

 

[Deadly Towers]

The R500 and the eDRAM module are two different chips.

Where do you get that? (the leaked docs say otherwise)

 

[Ooh-videogames]

To remove bottlenecks, I read that somewhere before. I think it was like 4 years ago.

 

[j^aws]

The R500 and the eDRAM module are two different chips.

Where do you get that? (the leaked docs say otherwise)

http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=505608#505608

 

[Ooh-videogames]

At last everything leads to...ARTX is the main designer of X360!!!

No.