XBox 360 Features

[Ob1]

just got my pcmag today, and it stated in there a forecast for the next generation game consoles. here are some of the highlights that the magazine listed for xbox 360 and the PS3
Xbox 360::
hi def graphics 1080i - i believe the xbox has it 1080i on it
wi fi
dvd-rom to play dvd movies
play music from an ipod
comes with built in IM to chat with gamers
media center extender for winxp
backward compatible "with the most popular games"
ability to stream media from portable devices and rip music to the hard drive
the processor builds on IBM's core architecture, with three processing cores that each run two threads simultaneously
has a new graphics processor developed with ATI.

PS3:
backward compatible to all PS1 and PS2 games
1080P - that is gonna make some sweet graphics
Ble ray optical drive that can store up to 54gb
has cell processor built by IBM, Sony, Toshiba. it has 8 synergistic processing units.
Nvidia graphics chip called the "RSX"
performs up to 2 teraflops (its a couple of times faster than the xbox 360)
also promoting the media and online features that 360 does

They are expecting the release of xbox 360 to be the holiday season of 2005. PS3 is expected to launch in the spring of 2006.

nothing like some competition in the game console world.

[Yuanji]

xbox360 has unified shaders and also onboard eDram. I don't see the reason to sport all these cores though as the majority of all games are single threaded and will continue to be single threaded

[Ob1]

maybe there getting ready to launch some new type of gaming to take advantage of the 3 processing cores.

[David M]

Seems like all those other features are a waste of money if all you want to do is play games.

[Ob1]

i hear ya, the only thing im gonna be buying it for is gaming.

[arthur666]

Does anyone know if one of them will support computer moniters?

[Yuanji]

yeah i think it comes with a VGA cable.

[Jaggannath]

VGA only?? Not DVI??

[Yuanji]

i think so. i suppose you could always get an adapter

[Ob1]

XBOX 360 TECH SPECS
Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
� Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
� Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total
� VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
� 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
� 1 MB L2 cache

CPU Game Math Performance
� 9 billion dot product operations per second

Custom ATI Graphics Processor
� 10 MB of 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 fill rate using 4x MSAA

Shader Performance
� 48 billion shader operations per second

Memory
� 512 MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM
� 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 teraflop

Storage
� Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive
� 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM
� Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB

I/O
� Support for up to four wireless game controllers
� Three USB 2.0 ports
� Two memory unit slots

Optimized for Online
� Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, 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: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g
� 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 � Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PCs
� Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive
� Custom playlists in every game
� Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
� Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers

High-Definition Game Support
� All games supported at 16:9, 720p, and 1080i, anti-aliasing
� Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported

Audio
� Multi-channel surround sound output
� Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio
� 320 independent decompression channels
� 32-bit audio processing
� Over 256 audio channels

System Orientation
� Stands vertically or horizontally

Customizable Face Plates
� Interchangeable to personalize the console

[Ob1]

it appears that no dvi or hdmi connector yet. they better stick one of those connectors on the 360. here's a good FAQ site about the xbox 360

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/608/608394p1.html

[David M]

Why would they NOT have a DVI connector? Thats soooo 2 years ago!

[Ob1]

i think they are planning on putting one in, just not a for sure thing yet, or nobody can confirm that feature yet. that would be a real boner move if they dont put a dvi connector on it......

this came from that link i posted above:

What sorts of video connections will be available?
Composite video, S-Video and component are all obvious. We're still unsure of DVI or HDMI connections as of yet. Both provide an even better signal than component, and being that Microsoft is being very, very aggressive with image quality at the moment, we expect some sort of DVI and/or HDMI connection to be available.

[Ob1]

found this comparison chart of the xbox 360 vs. the PS3, very detailed

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/xbox360_vs_ps3.asp

here is some more info on the xbox 360 from the site above. has a list of games that will be available for when the this console hits the market in holiday of 2005. it looks like a nice selection of games to choose from for this console. did i mention that the majority of the games have screen shots. damn. look at the graphics. SWEEEETTTTTTTT.... suggested price is around $300-$500.

http://www.winsupersite.com/faq/xbox360.asp