Xbox One (Durango) Technical hardware investigation

[Davros]

but to me it sounds like the only thing these systems are doing is the actual mixing of different audio sources. Is this correct?

I believe so, it's also codecs in hardware
It does a few other things of course like eq and resampling

 

[Starx]

Sharing the same proven technology as found in Xbox One™, AMD-based PCs include built-in support for the industry’s most advanced video acceleration technologies like H.264 and our 6th Generation A-Series Processors support H.265 (HEVC) – enabling AMD APU-powered PCs to handle demanding videos, movies, and TV content at the highest resolutions – HD, and beyond

https://community.amd.com/community...empowering-exciting-new-computing-experiences

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I take that to mean XB1 doesn't support HEVC. It's Carrizo, released this year, that supports HEVC decode. If AMD had it in 2013, why wait two years to release it?

 

[mrcorbo]

I take that to mean XB1 doesn't support HEVC. It's Carrizo, released this year, that supports HEVC decode. If AMD had it in 2013, why wait two years to release it?

XBOne got 10 bit HEVC decode back in June

OS version: 6.2.12998.0 (xb_rel_1506.150601-2200) fre

Release date

6/5/2015

New or updated features

Multiplayer & Party Chat updates

Fix to address multiplayer issues across a few titles.
Made some small updates to the Party app to help team better understand issues reported by the community.
Game Bundles update

Fixed an issue where certain type of disc-based bundled games would not properly install
10-bit HD High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) platform support added

10-bit HD HEVC enables video streaming apps, like NetFlix, to use lower bandwidth to deliver HD quality video streams. 10-bit Ultra color increases the video color precision from 8-bits to 10-bits - with 8-bits you only get 16 million colors, but with 10-bit Ultra color precision you get 1 billion life-like colors that makes your video more vibrant.

I probably wasn't implemented via fixed-function hardware like Carrizo and therefore may not be very power-efficient, but it does support it.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I meant hardware block.

 

[dobwal]

I meant hardware block.

Seems MS has been at the very least researching a solution for this problem.

http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/179627/DCC13 Wu_et_al Hi-Res Color.pdf

However, for many video applications, such as mobile entertainment and video conferencing, a specialized hardware module supporting a general-purpose standard codec is available in the system, such as the Baseline or High profile of the popular H.264/MPEG-4 AVC standard [5][6]...However, such hardware modules typically support only the 4:2:0 format profiles of the standard, and thus cannot be directly used for 4:4:4 applications...We present an approach for leveraging codecs designed for YUV 4:2:0 content to compress and represent 4:4:4 content with good fidelity, through the use of content splitting and frame packing. This method has some similarity to the frame packing of stereo (3D) content into 2D images, and builds on that framework by extending the semantics of the frame packing arrangement (FPA) supplemental enhancement information (SEI) message as specified in [6]. Unlike frame packing of stereo content, for which there is a “left” and “right” view, we introduce frame packing of 4:4:4 content via a “main view” and an “auxiliary view”, both represented in 4:2:0 format. This allows for full compatibility with conventional 4:2:0 encoding, as decoding the main view leads to a 4:2:0 representation of the original video. When full 4:4:4 resolution is desired, data from the main view can be combined with data of the auxiliary view to form a full resolution 4:4:4 color format representation.

 

[powdercore]

I take that to mean XB1 doesn't support HEVC. It's Carrizo, released this year, that supports HEVC decode. If AMD had it in 2013, why wait two years to release it?

There was an update to support 10-bit HEVC. Given HEVC makes software-based decoding on an Intel i7 crawl to its knee, I can't imagine doing real-time encoding without some form of hardware acceleration. Plus, AMD has been using the XB1 as an example for supporting HEVC.

I find it extremely hard to believe the XB1 can encode a game and then stream it to the PC all while rendering a game at the same time. It sounds impossible. Is AMD wrong? Or maybe there's actually some form of hardware acceleration?

XB1 supports
- HEVC H.265
- DirectX 12 (GCN-based GPU)
- AMD Platform Security Processor via ARM & communicate via AXI

Using ARM PSP & AXI seems overkill for a console APU.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Who's talking about encode? Hardware encode isn't featuring anywhere AFAIK. Item 2 in slide 2 of yours - "ability to stream content thanks to hardware HEVC decode." GPUs are featuring hardware decode. Encoding is still the domain of software. Any slide hinting at HEVC encoding is either confused or projecting the future. So, eg, Skype can support HEVC streaming in Windows 10 long before any hardware exists to enable it. HEVC streaming of XB1 games is a mistake. AMD did not have a hardware HEVC encoder two years before anyone else even had a hardware decoder and are not sitting on that hardware refusing to put it into their current GPUs for another year or two...

 

[Deleted member 11852]

There was an update to support 10-bit HEVC. Given HEVC makes software-based decoding on an Intel i7 crawl to its knee

What HEVC profile and what i7?

 

[Starx]

A great example of this was the old PS2: you had effectively 2MB of VRAM left after you stored your frame buffer. The Dreamcast had 8MB total and the Xbox had 64MB shared RAM. I remember at the time everybody going crazy about this trying to demonstrate the inferiority of the PS2 in comparisons. What was hard to explain at the time was the PS2’s DMA system was so fast that you if you were clever enough, you could swap this out 16 times a frame and get an effective 32MB of VRAM

http://gamingbolt.com/ps4-xbox-one-...bers-only-make-sense-for-building-random-data

 

[Rikimaru]

This is not PS2 vs Xbox situation where both had advantages. PS4 is just better.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

This is not PS2 vs Xbox situation where both had advantages. PS4 is just better.

*cough* CPU *cough*.

 

[AlNom]

Well uh... I wonder if the thread shouldn't be closed at this point.

Revisions should probably use a new thread if there is anything worthwhile to discuss.

Similarly, wrt how devs use the machine - wait for the games & presentations.