![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Thursday , May 12, 2005
- Author:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Xbox 360 Sneak Peek
We all know that the Xbox 360 will be a gaming console, but did you know its abilities are going to reach far beyond playing games? The Xbox 360 has changed the Xbox from a gaming console into a lifestyle device.
Xbox 360 Hardware
Since we are a “hardware site,” we wanted to cover that fairly in-depth. Microsoft had committed to have pictures of the working hardware to us for this article but they did not fulfill that commitment. As of today, we still have not been allowed any photos of the PCB or components inside. So sadly we will not be showing you the internals.
I did have a chance to see the Xbox 360 hardware first hand though, and I must say I was impressed. Before we wax poetic, let’s share the specs exactly as they have been supplied to us.
Xbox 360 System Performance & Specifications | |
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 *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 |
Audio | *Multichannel surround sound output *Supports 48 KHz 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 |
We will discuss our thoughts about the hardware on the conclusion page.