XBox-mini citing at Bioware's invite only area.

[Shogmaster]

Defintely like the idea of an unpdated Xbox
Rumors have mentioned before.

But what about this...

Bioware is a member of XNA and are working on Xbox2 Developments.

Is it possible that what your feind saw was a mock up of Xbox 2?

Well I was very skeptical myself, so I grilled him about it. What I got out of him that he's sure about:

1. It was playing Jade Empire.
2. It was being controlled by the standard XBox controller (non-S).
3. No keyboard or mouse in sight, meaning it wasn't an early PC verison of Jade empire running on a Black Shuttle PC case or something like it.
4. DVD tray was definitely in the middle.
5. About 1/3 the volume of the current XBox.
6. Definitely 4 ports on the face.
7. It was black or dark translucent green.

Now unless there's a XBox dev kit that fits the description, I think we have something here. I just wish I was there, so I could have taken a damn pic!

 

[PC-Engine]

Xbox devkits are green. Maybe these are new updated devkits.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Green (or were they transparent green) xboxes have been sold in shops for months already.

Wouldn't the xbox 1/3 be possible with just a smaller mobo, 3.5" HD, processors that are running cooler because of better die size, thus no need for active cooling (fans).

Or even, could the xbox 1/3 have scrapped the HD, making it a slightly stripped functionality xbox (no custom playlists...) and rely on the memcards.
This way they'd also get rid of their huge supply of unsold memcards too

 

[Farid]

Or even, could the xbox 1/3 have scrapped the HD, making it a slightly stripped functionality xbox (no custom playlists...) and rely on the memcards.
This way they'd also get rid of their huge supply of unsold memcards too

There's games that use the HD as a "buffer", the HD is swapping in games such as Halo and Wreckless for example iirc.
A HD (or a Flash ram use as a harddrive) is a must-have on a Xbox if you want a 100% compatibility with the whole library.

 

[Deepak]

Shogmaster, your friend should have clicked his camera....he could have earned few hundred thousand dollors...

 

[Qroach]

There certainly is not a new devkit. There wouldn't be a need to make the devkits smaller.

 

[zurich]

Agreed.. and as for the comment on making the Xbox Mini smaller due to process/die shrinks, etc., as far as I know even on the newest Xboxes, NV2A is still 150nm and XCPU is still 180nm.. since MS is just buying the chips, I don't think they have any control or sway in the fabrication of the ICs.

edit: although I suppose it could be possible with an external power brick, laptop HD, and condensed micro-ATX motherboard....

 

[Guden Oden]

If it's possible to fit an entire PC into a windows xp retail cardboard box complete with PSU, HD, DVDROM and 3 fans, it's certainly possible to easily fit a XBox into a box that is 1/3rd the volume of the standard box. That'd probably still be a little bigger than a GC.

 

[I.S.T.]

It's possible to fit a PC into an NES... I'll track down the link to it later today. I think it was on Ars, but I am not sure. Edit: I changed my mind, I went and looked for it. It wasn't on Ars after all, I was getting it confused with their revive your NES article. http://www.geocities.com/l0rd_demon/nespc/

 

[London Geezer]

If it's possible to fit an entire PC into a windows xp retail cardboard box complete with PSU, HD, DVDROM and 3 fans, it's certainly possible to easily fit a XBox into a box that is 1/3rd the volume of the standard box. That'd probably still be a little bigger than a GC.

I think a WinXP box IS about 1/3 the volume of the Xbox. Maybe slightly smaller... But yeah, it can definately be done. How much would it cost though to shrink it like that?

 

[zurich]

Any links to this WinXP box PC?

 

[marconelly!]

Zurich, here it is:
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/windowsxpbox/

This site contains whole bunch of crazy PC mods like that. PC inside a C64 case for example

 

[zurich]

Zurich, here it is:
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/windowsxpbox/

This site contains whole bunch of crazy PC mods like that. PC inside a C64 case for example

Yeah, I thought it would be a mini-ITX format. Currently, the Xbox is pretty much ATX-spec. Shrinking it to mini-ITX levels without drastically changing the hardware thermals isn't exactly easy!

Cool site though, I like the PS2 PC!

 

[I.S.T.]

The NES PC is the best one out there.

 

[Guden Oden]

Shrinking it to mini-ITX levels without drastically changing the hardware thermals isn't exactly easy!

Why? XBox power dissipation is negligible with today's standards. It could all be handled with one passive heatsink over the two main chips funneled to a fan in the power supply like with the PS2.

The cooling solution in the first-revision PS2 was specced for 50W thermal load and all it needed was 1 rather small 50 or 60mm fan at the back. I doubt the box dissipates that much.

 

[zurich]

Why? XBox power dissipation is negligible with today's standards. It could all be handled with one passive heatsink over the two main chips funneled to a fan in the power supply like with the PS2.

The cooling solution in the first-revision PS2 was specced for 50W thermal load and all it needed was 1 rather small 50 or 60mm fan at the back. I doubt the box dissipates that much.

We're not talking about the PS2, we're talking about a mini-ITX EPIA system in a Windows XP box and comparing it's thermals to an actively cooled NV2A/north bridge, 733mhz mobile Celeron, 400mhz DDR ram, and a 5400RPM hard drive in a box the size of a VCR. While I agree that with today's fabrication technologies that should be neglibile, the point is that the parts are still fabbed and manufactured just as they were in 2001. If they could put the Xbox in a Windows XP box in 2001, why didn't they?

 

[London Geezer]

Heh... Tell that to the people bitching about how bad it is for Sony to do their own fabbing in-house... :|

 

[Tim Murray]

I believe there are 8 and 10GB drives, but officialy 8GB.

They're 8GB for the most part. The one I purchased last week (to mod, of course) has an 8 gig WD drive in it.

Now, I'm not so sure about the updated Xbox rumors. A new revision of Regular Xbox (1.6, changed the board layout enough to prevent solderless mod chips from working for the moment, new BIOSes required, new video encoder, etc.) debuted at retail about two weeks ago (and entered production in late March). So... it seems a bit quick to me, unless it really will not debut at retail until this fall or later.

 

[Guden Oden]

We're not talking about the PS2

I *KNOW* that; it's called "making a comparison". Geddit?

While I agree that with today's fabrication technologies that should be neglibile, the point is that the parts are still fabbed and manufactured just as they were in 2001.

Not as they were in 2001, fabbing of these chips will have improved regardless of them still using the same process. When I bought my first N64 when it was released over here in 1997, it ran HOT. When I replaced it like 2-3 years later (my fault, not Nintendo's), I got a unit that ran much cooler. It barely gets warm even after prolonged periods of time.

If they could put the Xbox in a Windows XP box in 2001, why didn't they?

Either because they were stupid and thought "bigger is better", or because they were in a hurry and didn't have time to optimize the design, or because Nvidia wasn't used to designing system-size circuit boards, or a combination thereof, or something else.

I doubt though the thermal load of even the first boxes requires a case that big simply to handle heat dissipation. The mobile celeron CPU doesn't require much in the way of cooling (after all, it is a mobile chip), and the GPU isn't that hungry it can't be cooled using a larger heatsink with a forced airflow across it. Gamecube's rated at 43-ish watts and look at the puny fan cooling it!

The size of the casing isn't the problem, it's jsut how cooling is handled and how airflow moves inside the case.

 

[zurich]

Either because they were stupid and thought "bigger is better", or because they were in a hurry and didn't have time to optimize the design, or because Nvidia wasn't used to designing system-size circuit boards, or a combination thereof, or something else.

Well, Intel actually designed the board layout, not NVIDIA (the actual board is ATX sized). From what Takahashi has said about the Xbox design in his book, everything seems to point towards heat/airflow and quality (that is to say that perhaps they could have made it a smaller system but didn't want to run the risk of overheating Xboxes).

Back to the original point though, I expect if MS really wanted to make an Xbox Mini, they could. How much it'd cost them to do it though, is another issue.

My ideal Xbox Mini!