Xbox One (Durango) Technical hardware investigation

[(((interference)))]

because one of Microsoft's designs was a multi-soc design?

They could of rolled over stuff from the Yukon design.

I thought people laughed at misterxmedia because the dude was saying 5tflop console.

Misterxmedia/cteam etc has beeing going on about this Mars + Venus SoCs that give it 3+TF for ages.

The Yukon design was probably one of a few competing silicon designs back in 2010 but it wasn't carried through, hence why the codename is Durango and not Yukon.

The 2010 roadmap is more useful for evaulating MS's overall strategy rather than for specific hardware details - which we know have changed.

And a key goal for their 720 architecture was to hit 6-8x the perf of 360.
The single APU Durango which we all know, is exactly that, why do they need to tape two together?

As Shifty said, fanboy handwringing in turn leads to them eagerly lapping up any wild conjecture that could mean 'MOAR POWERRR"!

I saw it on GAF at least a week ago, it was the same schedule that was picked up a day or two on some websites. Edit: 2/23/13 -http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=48116222&postcount=781

I think a few pages later there is more detail, but the troll post could have seen that do get to the March 6th date.

Thank you

As you can now tell, there's nothing to see here - you guys have just been trolled.

 

[Reiko]

I think he chose B3D because for some reason, some people choose to believe anything written on here wether it has truth or not in it, also I think its a bit rich to call it a information dump, he didn't really say much.

Would it have been more credible if he posted it on pastebin? lol

 

[keenism]

Not sure why I'm even entertaining this, but wouldn't a 4 cluster jaguar chip and 24CU GPU be a better way to go about the whole thing? Of course that is one more chip to worry about...but 2 APU's surely isn't going the "simple" route.

As well...the issues mentioned here http://siliconmadness.blogspot.de/2011/09/multi-gpu-thoughts-micro-stuttering.html
would send me running from the thought of 2 gpu's. I know things can be done differently inside a closed system, but unless both of those gpu's are working on the same frame I don't see it working. I don't see good efficiency coming from such a setup either...

 

[Reiko]

Misterxmedia/cteam etc has beeing going on about this Mars + Venus SoCs that give it 3+TF for ages.

The Yukon design was probably one of a few competing silicon designs back in 2010 but it wasn't carried through, hence why the codename is Durango and not Yukon.

The 2010 roadmap is more useful for evaulating MS's overall strategy rather than for specific hardware details - which we know have changed.

And a key goal for their 720 architecture was to hit 6-8x the perf of 360.
The single APU Durango which we all know, is exactly that, why do they need to tape two together?

As Shifty said, fanboy handwringing in turn leads to them eagerly lapping up any wild conjecture that could mean 'MOAR POWERRR"!



Thank you

As you can now tell, there's nothing to see here - you guys have just been trolled.

And if he's right?

 

[Betanumerical]

And if he's right?

Then microsoft will be releasing a console that is A. more expensive that the PS4, and B. If they only decided to change it recently then they will be releasing in 2014. So 1 year after the competition and costing more.

 

[(((interference)))]

And if he's right?

I say the world ends tomorrow, what if i'm right

It's all a question of likelihood.

 

[Nisaaru]

Then microsoft will be releasing a console that is A. more expensive that the PS4

Why should 1 APU with probably less yield and 8GB GDDR5 be cheaper than 2 APUs and 8GB DDR3?

 

[expletive]

Then microsoft will be releasing a console that is A. more expensive that the PS4, and B. If they only decided to change it recently then they will be releasing in 2014. So 1 year after the competition and costing more.

I think we can all agree MS won't launch a year later or with a relevant price disadvantage, two things that served them very well last gen.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

Misterxmedia/cteam etc has beeing going on about this Mars + Venus SoCs that give it 3+TF for ages.

The Yukon design was probably one of a few competing silicon designs back in 2010 but it wasn't carried through, hence why the codename is Durango and not Yukon.

The 2010 roadmap is more useful for evaulating MS's overall strategy rather than for specific hardware details - which we know have changed.

And a key goal for their 720 architecture was to hit 6-8x the perf of 360.
The single APU Durango which we all know, is exactly that, why do they need to tape two together?

As Shifty said, fanboy handwringing in turn leads to them eagerly lapping up any wild conjecture that could mean 'MOAR POWERRR"!

Thing is that Yukon design wasn't dropped until last year(according to Paul Thurrot) which I would put money on then there was physical hardware somewhere...

That roadmap was more then just a strategy simply because we actually saw a product from that roadmap be shown off as an actual future product.

I'm just saying, it's kind of dumb to completely be dismissive of possible hardware configurations that was obviously worked on by somebody at Microsoft. I'm not saying it's actually going to be dual apu, or apu and a discreet gpu, nor am I saying that it's going to be this uber powerful 5tf console. I simply am saying, that there is a remote possibility that Microsoft could have such hardware configuration simply because they already worked on it, so saying impossible or ya right and what not and completely dismissing any rumor is kind premature. Is it improbable? sure, but it's not out of the realm of reality that one of their competing projects had a similar hardware configuration.

 

[Betanumerical]

Why should 1 APU with probably less yield and 8GB GDDR5 be cheaper than 2 APUs and 8GB DDR3?

eh. Its going to be at least double the memory unless you believe the APU's can deal with 34GB/s each.

Your going to at least double the cost of the APU, and then the interconnect costs, you know two motherboards in a single box will be tricky (how will they talk) and expensive.

 

[(((interference)))]

Thing is that Yukon design wasn't dropped until last year(according to Paul Thurrot) which I would put money on then there was physical hardware somewhere...
.

Huh? The Dec 11 pastebin describes basically what we now know as Durango, so I don't know what Thurrot is talking about.

That roadmap was more then just a strategy simply because we actually saw a product from that roadmap be shown off as an actual future product.

Well, it described the future product strategy for the Xbox division

I'm just saying, it's kind of dumb to completely be dismissive of possible hardware configurations that was obviously worked on by somebody at Microsoft. I'm not saying it's actually going to be dual apu, or apu and a discreet gpu, nor am I saying that it's going to be this uber powerful 5tf console. I simply am saying, that there is a remote possibility that Microsoft could have such hardware configuration simply because they already worked on it, so saying impossible or ya right and what not and completely dismissing any rumor is kind premature. Is it improbable? sure, but it's not out of the realm of reality that one of their competing projects had a similar hardware configuration.

I agree that it's possible, but then so is the hardware ray tracing unit, or a high end GCN2 88** GPU on a 384 bit bus (as AMD China guy was saying).

This multi APU rumour has the same plausibility as all these other rumours and share one key difference from the Durango specs from vgleaks - they are not corroborated by a wide range of other sources.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

Huh? The Dec 11 pastebin describes basically what we now know as Durango, so I don't know what Thurrot is talking about.


Well, it described the future product strategy for the Xbox division

You are going to take a pastebin over Paul Thurrot? I mean that's fine, but it's worth considering the different view points.

 

[dagamer]

I'd like an honest answer to this question: Why is designing two different retail SKUs a better option than selling a soon-to-be massively produced $399 SKU for $199 with 2 year contract and monthly fee? You eliminate having to deal with yields, or undesirable products on store shelves, plus every system Microsoft sells can play those $60 games of which you get a good licensing fee from. You don't have to bother your developers with multiple SKUs, or need to fab multiple chips, and you get to say "starting at $199!!*" If they really want to play for all the marbles, they'd do another die shrink of the current 360, give it some more RAM (which absolutely has to be stupid cheap now), and let this "new 360" piggy back on the inevitable DVR functions of Durango so that there's still reason to keep the 360 around in another bedroom while making Durango more attractive, and at the same time showing how the PS3 becomes a "paperweight" if you buy a PS4.

I dunno, I randomly came up with this idea, I would hope people paid at Microsoft can do better instead of just spinning more silicon. Seems wasteful.

 

[eastmen]

Dagamer -

A lot of people simply don't want subscriptions. So it can limit the audience of the device.

Also if they add in BC to Durango as the rumors suggest a $200 sku would kill all xbox 360 sales. Unless it was priced at like $50 bucks.

 

[(((interference)))]

You are going to take a pastebin over Paul Thurrot? I mean that's fine, but it's worth considering the different view points.

The Dec 11 pastebin was the first accurate leak we got of Durango and we only realised it in hindsight.

It had the exact codenames for Orbis and Durango, the 1.2 TF number for the GPU (and the 8 core CPU) ages before bgassassin and the other insiders started posting hints. It even mentioned the always online requirement for Durango.

What exactly did Paul say? He could just be like Charlie from Semiaccurate.

 

[dagamer]

Dagamer -

A lot of people simply don't want subscriptions. So it can limit the audience of the device.

Also if they add in BC to Durango as the rumors suggest a $200 sku would kill all xbox 360 sales. Unless it was priced at like $50 bucks.

Thus, the $399 SKU exists for the core gamer who wouldn't really what the system costs. But my guess is that more people would rather pay an extra $50 over 2 years compared to $399 up front just so that they wouldn't need a bunch of money in the beginning.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

The Dec 11 pastebin was the first accurate leak we got of Durango and we only realised it in hindsight.

It had the exact codenames for Orbis and Durango, the 1.2 TF number for the GPU (and the 8 core CPU) ages before bgassassin and the other insiders started posting hints. It even mentioned the always online requirement for Durango.

What exactly did Paul say? He could just be like Charlie from Semiaccurate.

Paul Thurrot said on windows weekly I believe, possibly what the tech that the split architecture design was dropped last year around feb or so which would coincide with the Durango Summit in the UK.

he also mentioned multiple times that there is more than one xbox coming this year which he stated both on what the tech and windows weekly.

And Paul is nothing like Charlie from Semiaccurate. If any mainstream journalist has the inside scoop on Microsoft, it's Paul. All he does is research/write/speak with people from Microsoft. He has a lot of insiders.

 

[Betanumerical]

Paul Thurrot said on windows weekly I believe, possibly what the tech that the split architecture design was dropped last year around feb or so which would coincide with the Durango Summit in the UK.

he also mentioned multiple times that there is more than one xbox coming this year which he stated both on what the tech and windows weekly.

And Paul is nothing like Charlie from Semiaccurate. If any mainstream journalist has the inside scoop on Microsoft, it's Paul. All he does is research/write/speak with people from Microsoft. He has a lot of insiders.

I would probably say that the two Xbox's coming this year would be Durango (as we have seen it) and also a new 360 with maybe added DVR stuff or something a long those lines, it would also make sense as to why they hired the IBM guys to help them make the 360 cheaper.

 

[SlickShoesRUCrazy]

I would probably say that the two Xbox's coming this year would be Durango (as we have seen it) and also a new 360 with maybe added DVR stuff or something a long those lines, it would also make sense as to why they hired the IBM guys to help them make the 360 cheaper.

not a farfetched theory at all.

 

[Reiko]

I would probably say that the two Xbox's coming this year would be Durango (as we have seen it) and also a new 360 with maybe added DVR stuff or something a long those lines, it would also make sense as to why they hired the IBM guys to help them make the 360 cheaper.

Very possible.