Xenon Developers Kit Spotted

[Paynie]

For Mac fans it’s a funny thing to see Microsoft using Apple hardware and that is why Macned, a Netherlands-based site devoted to Apple and the Mac world, has grabbed the very first pictures of a Xenon Development Kit.

We can’t understand a single sentence of Frisian, so the only things we were able to comprehend from the story is that the K is using the Power Mac dual 2.0GHz configuration with 512 MB of system memory and an ATI X800 graphics card.

We were able to confirm with our own sources that this is indeed the current K game developers are using to develop Xbox 360 games, which uses the Power Mac G5 chassis forged of anodized aluminum.

Haha. Mac...

 

[Freeman]

Haha? Mac er overlegent på en rekke områder. Allikevel er nok dette fake.

 

[Kilik]

Ikke så overraskende. Det har jo vært kjent i flere år at Xbox 360 vil bruke IBM's PowerPC-arkitektur kjent fra bl.a. Mac G5.

Merker forøvrig at specs'ene til dev.kit'et er en del dårligere enn hva som antas i den endelige versjonen (fra GDC):

CPU: 3 x 3.0 GHz PowerPC.
GPU: Next-generation. Kraftigere enn ATI X800.
RAM: 256 MB RAM, så faktisk dobbelt så mye på dev.kit'et.


Jeg tipper prosessoren er temmelig nøyaktig lik PPE-prosessoren (hovedprosessoren) i PlayStation 3. Eneste forskjell jeg ser er at Xbox 2 har 1 MB L2 cache, mens PS3 har 512 kB. Ettersom IBM lager prosessoren både til PS3 og Xbox 360, er det nok mest sannsynlig den samme. Dette er en custom prosessor, men den har mye til felles med Mac G5-prosessoren. Største forskjell er at den har in-order eksekvering av instruksjoner i stedet for out-of-order som er vanlig på desktop.

Cell-arkitekturen i PS3 har bare én slik prosessor, mens Xbox har altså tre. Til gjengjeld har Cell-arkitekturen 8 mer spesialiserte, uavhengige prosessorer.

Litt interessant er jo at IBM også skal levere prosessoren til Nintendo Revolution. Kan vi da ende opp med samme hovedprosessor i alle next-gen konsollene? Det hadde i alle fall forenklet portabiliteten mellom konsollene. En stor fordel for EA og UbiSoft som liker å gi ut spillene sine til alle konsollene...


Xenon er forresten et langt kulere navn enn Xbox 360...

 

[Aperatt]

Enn dette bildene ?

Ign

 

[DiRTY D]

Tatt fra CVG:

XBOX 360 BETA KITS SHIP

Should you care? Yes you should... here's why. CPU and GPU also in production

10:10 Word seeps out today from that leaky old barge known as the games development community that dev are finally getting their grubby paws on Xbox 360 beta development kits right about now.

"So what?" you might reasonably opine, "how does that affect the price of fish?", ah but care you should, as it's going to allow those devs to finally start upping the ante as Microsoft gears up for the crucial next six months before 360 launch.

Actually these kits may be about a week behind schedule as major 360 developers we talked to at E3 expected to have the kits within a week or so of show close.

At E3, Xbox 360 devs were having to show off their games running on Macs at what they were saying was only 30 percent of the 360's total power. In many cases it led to accusations and perceptions that 360 was not the generational leap forward it might have been. "Xbox 1.5" was a phrase which was cruelly bandied about amongst cheeky UK hacks way before the Sony execs got in on the act and adopted it as a line of attack. Maybe we should ask them for a royalty?


However with these kits now purportedly in place, developers should have all the ammo they need and it's also strategically important for that crucial 360 launch line-up. If there's no buzz about the actual games this Christmas and people aren't tearing down the walls to get their hands on Gotham 3, Gears of War and Perfect Dark Zero, then 360 will face a real uphill struggle at launch.

Word also comes our way that some key components like the 360's GPU and CPU have gone into production too, an equally crucial milestone for Microsoft, although apparently they will be holding off production of the unit itself until pricing has been finalised.

Blir nok ikke så altfor lenge til vi får se mer work in progress fra forskjellige spill. Og forhåpentligvis med høyere kvalitet sånn gjennomsnittsmessig.