Next Spring is promising to be
an exciting time for gamers, with the release of the new Xbox 360.
Officially announced on MTV, Microsoft unveiled their all new console.
With a sleek design, an impressive CPU, and a slew of many other new
features, the Xbox will continue to prove Microsoft’s dominance at the
top of the video game console market.
What We Know
Following the path of the new Nintendo Revolution and the Playstion 3,
Xbox had decided to go the route of a new compact design. Continuing
with the ascetics, the new Xbox 360 will come with interchangeable
faceplates allowing owners to give their console a custom look.
Furthermore the Xbox 360 will have the ability to be mounted both
horizontally and vertically.
The look of the new console is fine and dandy, but what is under all
that cool looking plastic? Microsoft has developed an impressive system
capable of amazing processing power never seen before in a home video
game console. As well as new IBM PowerPC-based CPU running at 3.2GHz,
and over a half a gigabyte of RAM, the Xbox 360 will showcase a new ATI
video card capable of advanced antialiasing and shader effects. What
this means to gamers is 720p and 1080i wide-screen HDTV, almost double
the resolution of the original Xbox which maxed out at 480p The system
will also support up to four wireless controls..
Arguably Microsoft can attribute a great deal of its success to the
hugely successful online capabilities. The new Xbox 360 will continue
with the online feature and develop it even further. Xbox 360 will offer
two tiers of online function, silver and gold. With silver being a basic
package for users to connect and play online, and gold offering other
services such as additional downloads and content.
Microsoft has also provided additional resources for their new gaming
console. The Xbox 360 will have the ability to operate as a general
media centre, with the ability to stream media directory from a PC
running Windows Media Player, as well as other portable devices which
are supported by Microsoft.
Below is a full Spec Breakdown of the New Xbox 360
Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU:
· 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
· 2 hardware threads per core 6 hardware threads total
· 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core 3 total
· 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
· 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
· 1 MB L2 cache
CPU Game Math Performance:
· 9 billion dot product operations per second
Custom ATI Graphics Processor:
· 500 MHz
· 10 MB embedded DRAM
· 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines
· Unified shader architecture
Polygon Performance:
· 500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate:
· 16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X MSAA
Shader Performance:
· 48 billion shader operations per second
Memory:
· 512 MB GDDR3 RAM
· 700 MHz DDR
· Unified memory architecture
Memory Bandwidth:
· 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
· 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
· 21.6 GB/s front-side bus
Overall System Floating-Point Performance:
· 1 TFLOP
Storage:
· Detachable and upgradeable 20 GB hard drive
· 12X dual-layer DVD-ROM
· Memory unit support starting at 64 MB
I/O:
· Support for up to 4 wireless game controllers
· 3 USB 2.0 ports
· 2 memory unit slots
Optimized for Online:
· Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features, including Xbox
Live Marketplace for downloadable content, Gamer Profile for digital
identity and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching
movies or listening to music
· Built in Ethernet Port
· Wi-Fi Ready: 802.11 A, B and G
· Video Camera Ready
Digital Media Support:
· Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM,
CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD
· Stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras, Windows XP
PCs
· Rip music to Xbox 360 hard drive
· Custom playlists in every game
· Windows Media Center Extender built in
· Interactive, full screen 3D visualizers
HD Game Support:
· All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing
· Standard definition and high definition video output supported
System Orientation:
· Stands vertically or horizontally
Customizable Face Plates:
· Interchangeable to personalize the console
Like the new Nintendo Revolution and the Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft
has spared no expense in developing a system which will launch gamers in
to the “next generation” of home video game consoles. With an incredible
CPU and Video card, combined with a focus on online multiplayer, the 360
will no doubt be a huge hit for Xbox fans around the world. However
Microsoft has decided to develop their system as an all round media
centre, capable of much more than gaming. Is this a wise move? Will the
new system be a huge success like its predecessor, or just an expensive
media centre? I guess we’ll find out in 2006.
Like the new Nintendo Revolution and the Sony Playstation 3, Microsoft
has spared no expense in developing a system which will launch gamers in
to the “next generation” of home video game consoles. With an incredible
CPU and Video card, combined with a focus on online multiplayer, the 360
will no doubt be a huge hit for Xbox fans around the world. However
Microsoft has decided to develop their system as an all round media
centre, capable of much more than gaming. Is this a wise move? Will the
new system be a huge success like its predecessor, or just an expensive
media centre? I guess we’ll find out in 2006.
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