Xbox 2 hardware overview leaked?

[London Geezer]

regarding fillrate, remember the original Xbox spec called for 4.8 gigapixels/sec ...although that may have been AA gigapixels... not sure.

4 GPixels was a PR stunt. Simple as that. If Xbox had AA on at all times, i'd be happy with that. Thing is, that's hardly the case.
And no one's gonna get Toy Story kind of IQ until we get 16x AA. At least.

 

[zurich]

I like the bit about the scaler, with 720p seeming to be the native res

 

[wazoo]

Yeah you can add a harddrive if you like but the fact you can jut use your PC is a really cool idea.

It is a cool idea from MS point of view. It is like Ms is trying to send the message that the PC is not useless. You will never get such PC usage from Sony, which tryes to build a media universe on its own.

It is not really Ms vs Sony, but more about what you want at the center of your living room.

 

[London Geezer]

I like the bit about the scaler, with 720p seeming to be the native res

Oh yes, definately sexy...

 

[function]

Rendering to one resolution but outputting to many others using a video scaler, using a networked PC in place of an optional console mounted HDD, and moving the black and white buttons to the underside of the pad were three things I was thought MS should definitely do for Xenon. This leads me to believe this this report is false.

 

[SlmDnk]

Probably contains the same info but, here goes:

http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=6994

 

[Guden Oden]

NEVER post links to Spong... Don't even GO there, the site is worse than the enquirer when it comes to blatant lying.

 

[AlNom]

regarding the HD addon...... they could market it as a way to have backwards compatibility... I sure wouldn't mind that

 

[Vince]

So IBM is using 65nm tech and assembly jointly founded by them and Sony to produce chips for MS?

IBM has several concurrent parties working on process technology at SRDC in Fishkill, NY. It is doubtful.

 

[AzBat]

NEVER post links to Spong... Don't even GO there, the site is worse than the enquirer when it comes to blatant lying.

But they are the originator of the leaked specs, not Xbox-Scene.com

Tommy McClain

 

[London Geezer]

^^ That magically makes this thread a very useless and wind-up-y waste of time.

 

[AzBat]

^^ That magically makes this thread a very useless and wind-up-y waste of time.

LOL. I find it funny that Xbox-Scene is given more credit for the leaked specs than Spong.com. Both seem to me from the bottom of the barrel. At least Spong.com at least credited it to a real person at Microsoft. Xbox-Scene didn't even post the whole thing or credit anybody.

Tommy McClain

 

[London Geezer]

I feel deflated.
/me wants the resolution changy thingy...

 

[Qroach]

if it's really from spong, then it simply can't be a valid thing to discuss. That site is one of the worst BS sites on the net.

 

[SlmDnk]

Oh... so Spong is a kind of an equivalent to The Inquirer? Crap

 

[London Geezer]

Oh... so Spong is a kind of an equivalent to The Inquirer? Crap

The Inquirer is to Spong as Batman is to Robin.

 

[Bowie]

Here's gamesindustry.biz's take on the article:

"Latest leak from Microsoft's ATG looks like the real deal, according to developers

A document purporting to be the currently planned specification for Microsoft's next-generation console has been leaked onto the Internet, and information in it tallies with what the company has told development partners, gi.biz has learned.

Although the document, which claims to have been authored by Pete Isensee at the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, admits that many of its figures are subject to change, developers working on Xenon technology have confirmed to us today that the details it contains are genuine."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=dev&aid=3668

 

[AzBat]

Evidently GamesIndustry.biz believes the specs are genuine after talking with some developers. They also claim Xbox-Scene's forums were the source instead of Spong. So I might be wrong about Spong being the source. Spong doesn't use a time stamp on it's article. So it's possible they posted it after Xbox-Scene.com. Sorry if I tainted the discussion. lol

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=dev&aid=3668

Tommy McClain

 

[Hellbinder]

First thing...

I tried to tell you guys Dave was wrong about Xbox2 being an R600 project. While this GPU does contain some of the features that the R600 will have. Like Completely Dynamic ALU assignment. and a large on Die Buffer.

Secondly..

The Fill rate of 4Gigapixels with 4x FSAA is going to be just fine at the resolutions being used. More importantly is the insane Shader capabilities. Pure FP32 throughout (and only FP32). Full SM3.0 and more. Pixel, Vertex, memory all haveing pretty much free access to each other at any given time. The Graphics are hardly going to be Fill rate bound on this system. They will be Shader bound. Especially all the Custom Xbox2 only games.

 

[Dave Baumann]

HB - there are two generational lines...

R300 -> R420 -> R520

R500 (Xenon, derived from R400) -> R600 -> R...

What is R500 for the XBox falls between DX9 and DX10 - there are elements of the shader architecture that allow it to be significantly more capable than SM3.0, to DX Next like functionality but other elements that are not necessarily even SM3.0. However, XBox's R500 will be the unified shader architecture that will form the basis of ATI's DirectX Next Generation of parts but probably not R520 (which will be their SM3.0 part for the PC, based on the R300 development).