xBox2's Power* CPU information

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
This may have been mentioned already, but I recently read some details on the Xbox2's Power* CPU.



"POWERx unifies both the POWER and PowerPC architectures in one BMF chip built using the most advanced chip-making technologies. It has POWER, because it has three 64-bit 3 GHz+ cores, making it the first videogame system processor with a multi-core design on a single die (also known as "SMP on a chip," or "system on a chip"). That is why we say the Xbox 2 will be a supercomputer in a box."





http://editorials.teamxbox.com/xbox/...-Out-Part-I/p1



Interesting... 3 cores running at 3Ghz each? That seems like a potent gaming system. Later in the article, it appears to be Power5 based, with SMT, (including velocity engine) etc.



I'd imagine the rumored multi-core PPC we keep hearing about would be very similar. Maybe only 2 cores, etc... Any thoughts?



Steve
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 53
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    Yes it pisses me off. Those are my thoughts.



    Microsloth is stealing all our stuff that we should have been getting.
  • Reply 2 of 53
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    Yes it pisses me off. Those are my thoughts.



    Microsloth is stealing all our stuff that we should have been getting.




    OMG this is the most ridiculous response from a senior member I have read out of all my lurking. First off the product will be available to Apple Users, secondly I believe there is reason to rejoice because new technology is upon us. Lastly I don't understand the personal vendettas some of you end users and consumers ensue upon Microsoft or Apple when none of you guys make one cent from the sale of either corporations product. Competition is the way of the world but coexistance is necessary. I say quit aligning yourself with these false coalitions and upholding idiotic oathes to Companies who could careless if you buy their products because someone else will. Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates cares nothing about your little plight to bash Microsloft as you put on public forums over the internet. Grow up and get a life and quit wasting my time replying to awesome post with childlike comments like these... Geez
  • Reply 3 of 53
    tchwojkotchwojko Posts: 139member
    OT Pet peeve: The phrase is "couldn't care less."



    It is NOT "could care less."
  • Reply 4 of 53
    Quote:

    Originally posted by tchwojko

    OT Pet peeve: The phrase is "couldn't care less."



    It is NOT "could care less."




    I see idiotism is pestilence here ...
  • Reply 5 of 53
    dfryerdfryer Posts: 140member
    Indeed, and so is criticism
  • Reply 6 of 53
    Quote:

    Originally posted by tchwojko

    OT Pet peeve: The phrase is "couldn't care less."



    It is NOT "could care less."




    I disagree. I think the phrase in the sense of the colloquialism is "could care less" even though the literal meaning is the opposite of the actual meaning. One might imagine it began as a sarcastic comment "like I could care less" which then entered the vernacular in an abbreviated form, but maintaining the original meaning.



    Of course, this is just speculation and you're entitled to your pet peeves (I still hate "irregardless" even though the dictionary says it's ok and means "regardless")
  • Reply 7 of 53
    ~ufo~~ufo~ Posts: 245member
    isn't it great that we're all apt to thinking we're better than the next guy?







    which, in a sense, is exactly why we favour apples over pears.
  • Reply 8 of 53
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by cedsim

    OMG this is the most ridiculous response from a senior member I have read out of all my lurking. First off the product will be available to Apple Users, secondly I believe there is reason to rejoice because new technology is upon us. Lastly I don't understand the personal vendettas some of you end users and consumers ensue upon Microsoft or Apple when none of you guys make one cent from the sale of either corporations product. Competition is the way of the world but coexistance is necessary. I say quit aligning yourself with these false coalitions and upholding idiotic oathes to Companies who could careless if you buy their products because someone else will. Steve Jobs nor Bill Gates cares nothing about your little plight to bash Microsloft as you put on public forums over the internet. Grow up and get a life and quit wasting my time replying to awesome post with childlike comments like these... Geez



    OK! It was quick, and I was going to bed. I'm up now.



    I was thinking in reference that this particular description is almost exactly a processor that used to be in the AI rumor database written by the AI staff a long time ago - back when the G4 came out.

    The old AI was talking about multiple cores back before your days. I think it was back when IBM first mentioned putting them into their power processors. Whoever was writing the AI front page and rumor database pages back then obviously assumed it only to be a natural progression for technology from the Power line to make it into the PowerPC. The description you quoted is almost identical to how I remember it here.

    I just hope Apple has a 4, 5, or 6 core 4GHz processor in rout by the time Microsoft gets their XBOX2 rolling down the production line.



    Although from the sound of that XBOXs processors architecture (I've said this before, and been practically raped for it) I would think it would be easier for XBOX games to be ported to the Mac platform. Some people completely disagree with that.
  • Reply 9 of 53
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    "Could Care less" vs "Couldn't care less"



    Both are valid but "Couldn't care less" represents the most apathetic stance. You are basically saying your "interest" in said subject couldn't be any lower.



    "Could care less" means you haven't quite hit rock bottom in the apathy dept. Neither is right or wrong as both represent identifiable English with just a slight variance in absolute meaning. IMO or course



    Back on Topic. Sadly MS put the kibosh<sp> on the Xbox shipping in 2005 potentially



    So with that in mind when it does ship dual core Macs will be a reality for a bit of time. Plus we're likely to be talking about scaled back CPU's here.
  • Reply 10 of 53
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    Although from the sound of that XBOXs processors architecture (I've said this before, and been practically raped for it) I would think it would be easier for XBOX games to be ported to the Mac platform. Some people completely disagree with that.



    I used to post in this forum sometime back. It's been a while. After seeing how this thread was hijacked with such petty bickering, I seem to recall why I've been away.



    Anyway, to your point, there are hardware and software issues with regards to porting an application. As a developer, I've been in the position to port a few applications over the years. Unless there is a bunch of hand-coded assembly involved, the hardware isn't going to be much of an issue. (big endian/little endian issues aside) The bigger issue is the set of APIs that are available. Porting from Microsoft's DirectX crap to Open (whatever), etc. would be a bigger issue for example. It's nothing that can't be done, but the APIs available are a bigger issue. In fact, I believe MS tried to sue when they reverse engineered the DirectX networking for Aliens vs. Predator, etc.



    The silver lining here is that game developers may start writing games with multiple processors in mind. In that way, people with multiple processors will have more code that takes advantage of their hardware, etc.



    Steve
  • Reply 11 of 53
    amorphamorph Posts: 7,112member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    The old AI was talking about multiple cores back before your days. I think it was back when IBM first mentioned putting them into their power processors. Whoever was writing the AI front page and rumor database pages back then obviously assumed it only to be a natural progression for technology from the Power line to make it into the PowerPC. The description you quoted is almost identical to how I remember it here.



    There was indeed a lot of talk about dual-core designs in those days. I remember speculation about dual-core G4s back before Apple had even introduced a machine that used the original G4.



    It's been on the menu for a very long time.



    Quote:

    Although from the sound of that XBOXs processors architecture (I've said this before, and been practically raped for it) I would think it would be easier for XBOX games to be ported to the Mac platform. Some people completely disagree with that.



    The thing is that there's much more to application porting than the CPU instruction set, or it would be a trifling matter to port Windows applications to x86 Linux.



    This difficulty can be compounded by political reasons. The console vendors like consoles in no small part because they're closed and tightly controlled. Even if there were no major technical obstacle to a port &mdash; such as, say, Sony's Emotion Engine chip &mdash; the companies might still try to keep the games as exclusive to their platform as possible. This is obviously more true of companies like Nintendo that develop a lot of their own games, but nevertheless it's something to remember as every major console vendor shifts to PowerPC.
  • Reply 12 of 53
    d3ctd3ct Posts: 56member
    theres talk that apple itself is providing the chips because microsoft couldnt get decent yields or something of that nature.
  • Reply 13 of 53
    mmmpiemmmpie Posts: 628member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    "Could Care less" vs "Couldn't care less"



    Both are valid but "Couldn't care less" represents the most apathetic stance. You are basically saying your "interest" in said subject couldn't be any lower.



    "Could care less" means you haven't quite hit rock bottom in the apathy dept. Neither is right or wrong as both represent identifiable English with just a slight variance in absolute meaning. IMO or course





    That certainly is the literal meaning of the two sayings. However, "I could care less" is sarcastic, and its meaning is actually the opposite ( sort of ). I believe that the alternative saying, "I couldnt care less" is a derivitive. Created by people who fail to interpret the sarcasm, and take it at face value. As a result they modified the saying to fit their own literal needs.



    Saying "I couldnt care less" is perhaps, less sophisticated use of language, depending on how you view sarcasm.



    EMOT - can someone explain the origin of "lucked out". It sounds absolutely terrible to me, "lucked in" making much more sense. But Im in the land of the Americanism now, and everyone uses it.
  • Reply 14 of 53
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    "Could Care less" vs "Couldn't care less"



    Both are valid but "Couldn't care less" represents the most apathetic stance. You are basically saying your "interest" in said subject couldn't be any lower.



    "Could care less" means you haven't quite hit rock bottom in the apathy dept. Neither is right or wrong as both represent identifiable English with just a slight variance in absolute meaning. IMO or course




    Are you a teacher? You can really explain things clearly and simply. I like that.
  • Reply 15 of 53
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by monkeyastronaut

    Are you a teacher? You can really explain things clearly and simply. I like that.



    And you really are a monkey astronaut aren't you?
  • Reply 16 of 53
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    And you really are a monkey astronaut aren't you?



    I wish. Wouldn't you like to be a monkey astronaut too?
  • Reply 17 of 53
    snoopysnoopy Posts: 1,901member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by mmmpie

    . . . "I could care less" is sarcastic . . . "I couldnt care less" is a derivitive. Created by people who fail to interpret the sarcasm, and take it at face value. . .



    I agree. It happens all the time.



    Quote:





    . . . can someone explain the origin of "lucked out".




    I don't know its origin, but it may have started as one way to "get out of" a troublesome situation. You can "luck out," drop out, cop out or find still another way out. I believe its use was extended by those who didn't understand it to mean any good fortune, like you might use "got lucky."
  • Reply 18 of 53
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hmurchison

    "Could Care less" vs "Couldn't care less"



    Both are valid but "Couldn't care less" represents the most apathetic stance. You are basically saying your "interest" in said subject couldn't be any lower.



    "Could care less" means you haven't quite hit rock bottom in the apathy dept. Neither is right or wrong as both represent identifiable English with just a slight variance in absolute meaning. IMO or course





    It's a cultural differene. As a New Zealander arriving in the US, I learned that while most of the rest of the world says "I couldn't care less", Americans say "I could care less" to mean the same thing.



    I put it in the same category as the invention of the unword "irregardless"...
  • Reply 19 of 53
    snoopysnoopy Posts: 1,901member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kiwi-in-dc

    It's a cultural differene. As a New Zealander arriving in the US, I learned that while most of the rest of the world says "I couldn't care less", Americans say "I could care less" to mean the same thing. . .





    Nothing kills opinion faster than a few facts. So we put a different twist on it in the US? Interesting. I stand corrected.
  • Reply 20 of 53
    formatc2formatc2 Posts: 176member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    Microsloth is stealing all our stuff that we should have been getting.



    I agree 110%.



    Microsoft came to IBM and said "We want to woop the Playstation 3's ass".



    The interesting part of the story, is IBM also has the Playstation 3 contract!



    IBM's thinking "No problem. Let Microsoft and Sony fight. It's a win win situation for us!"



    Rock on IBM. It's about time you made up for letting Microsoft kick your ass in the desktop OS game.



    Guffaws to /dev/null
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