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[bloke]

Did they removed that thread from TXB?
Anyway, now only the game ss's and prehaps videos are left to be leaked.

 

[OG_Original Gamer]

By the time we get to May 12th, there won't be anything left to speculate. I've never seen so much leaked about any console, ever.

Next up: Game screens.

Thats what I'm waiting for, videos will be the iceing on the cake.

 

[kaching]

Kudos to MS for taking a step in the right direction and not locking all of Live behind a subscription.

 

[Blimblim]

so the thing about the dashboard was free xbox live? just guessing

Not at all. Stop trying to guess, honestly you simply can't guess it, it's definitely not something major.

 

[jedimike]

 

[Prine]

Edge subscribers get their magazines tomorow i think

 

[McFly]

I'm really more interested in seeing a shot of the backside of this thing at this point. PEACE.

Fredi

WTF? Do I have a clone or something? A stalker? Copycat? :lol

Fredi

 

[PS2 KID]

I hope this thread doesn't disappear suddenly.

 

[Shogmaster]

Specs are good.. 3.2 Ghz * 8 * 3 = 76.8 GFlop/s
I hope PS3 doubles this figure at least..

Cell will easily double that figure I'm sure, but I keep thinking that nGPU doesn't do any vertex calcs, so I think it'll even out quite a bit in the end.

 

[Speevy]

Awesome news!

 

[Elios83]

Cell will easily double that figure I'm sure, but I keep thinking that nGPU doesn't do any vertex calcs, so I think it'll even out quite a bit in the end.

If it doesn't do vertex transformation that power will be used for pixel calculations.BUt the GPU power will be roughly the same IMO,albeit it could be used in a different way.

 

[Kifimbo]

Did they removed that thread from TXB?

Yes they removed it. Not because it's fake (or real), but because the poster didn't give the link where he found the details.

 

[PhatSaqs]

Show me the games!

 

[GashPrex]

Yes they removed it. Not because it's fake (or real), but because the poster didn't give the link where he found the details.

yeah ok :lol

 

[Koshiro]

:lol :lol :lol

Poor MS, leakier than a sieve.

 

[sprsk]

Show me the games!

if we can manage to get all xbox360 info(including pics and vids) leaked before thursday ill give xbots a free 1 day troll pass

 

[Musashi Wins!]

:lol :lol :lol

Poor MS, leakier than a sieve.

but since the news is good and everyone is talking about the xbox all over the net, do they really care?

 

[puck1337]

Sounds like enough of a monster to get me to consider buying it at launch.

Sigh.

 

[Akia]

Sounds like enough of a monster to get me to consider buying it at launch.

Sigh.

Face it. All of the 3 next-gen consoles are going to be enough of a monster.

 

[PhatSaqs]

but since the news is good and everyone is talking about the xbox all over the net, do they really care?

Yeah really. Everything will be out in a about 72 hours anyway. I hear NDAs are being lifted on the 12th so fit will hit the shan Thursday regardless. I'm guessing more & more will get leaked before then tho. I expect screens of PD0 any moment now

 

[sorryaboutdresden]

I'm glad that they aren't making the jump to a next-gen format right now. It would have added to the cost too much. Looking good so far. I'll get a preorder in when there is a release date announced.

 

[gofreak]

Edge subscribers get their magazines tomorow i think

Really? I do hope this is true. Sure it's not that subscribers will get it from the 17th? Or is that the street day?

 

[FiRez]

I'm glad that they aren't making the jump to a next-gen format right now. It would have added to the cost too much. Looking good so far. I'll get a preorder in when there is a release date announced.

This's my main grip with the next xbox, I expected a new media format not just because is something new, mostly because the game content

 

[neo2046]

COOL!

 

[midnightguy]

That thread on TXB is gone now :lol If you want to know if a X360 rumour is true, just go to TXB and see what's getting locked/deleted

lmao, too true. :lol

 

[B E N K E]

It could happen I guess, but few people have access to screens yet (I sure don't). So unless it's someone from one of the OXMs or Edge (Famitsu also, but I really can't see someone from Enterbrain leaking stuff) it's quite unlikely.

I have some. NDA runs out after MTV presentation so I suppose we'll put them online.

 

[Spectral Glider]

So, this is the Xbox 361.5. Interesting.

 

[Prine]

Really? I do hope this is true. Sure it's not that subscribers will get it from the 17th? Or is that the street day?

Street date. I used to get it a week before it hit the shelves.

Unfortunatly i forgot to renew my subscritption, i've been meaning to but never found the time to do so. Actually im pretty lazy when it comes to paperwork

 

[Shiggy]

I have some. NDA runs out after MTV presentation so I suppose we'll put them online.

Send them to me now

 

[Shogmaster]

I have some. NDA runs out after MTV presentation so I suppose we'll put them online.

Say goodbye to your PM inbox....

 

[jedimike]

specs from September 2004... almost dead-on!!!

http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?p=1010465

Basic Hardware Specifications - summary from below, changes highlighted

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
- 3 symmetrical cores at 3.5 GHz each
- 2 hardware threads per core
- 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core
- 1 MB L2 cache

Custom ATI Graphics Processor
- 500 MNz
- 10 MB embedded DRAM
- 48-way parallel floating-point shader pipelines
- unified shader architecture

Memory
-256 MB GDDR3 RAM
- 700 MNz DDR

Memory Bandwidth
- 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
- 21.6 GB/s frontside bus

Audio
- Mulitchannel surround sond output
- Supports 48khz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32 bit processing
- 256+ audio channels


Xenon is powered by a 3.5+ GHz IBM PowerPC processor and a 500+ MHz ATI graphics processor. Xenon has 256+ MB of unified memory. Xenon runs a custom operating system based on MS® Windows NT®, similar to the Xbox operating system. The graphics interface is a superset of MS® Direct3D® version 9.0.
CPU

The Xenon CPU is a custom processor based on PowerPC technology. The CPU includes three independent processors (cores) on a single die. Each core runs at 3.5+ GHz. The Xenon CPU can issue two instructions per clock cycle per core. At peak performance, Xenon can issue 21 billion instructions per second.

The Xenon CPU was designed by IBM in close consultation with the Xbox team, leading to a number of revolutionary additions, including a dot product instruction for extremely fast vector math and custom security features built directly into the silicon to prevent piracy and hacking.

Each core has two symmetric hardware threads (SMT), for a total of six hardware threads available to games. Not only does the Xenon CPU include the standard set of PowerPC integer and floating-point registers (one set per hardware thread), the Xenon CPU also includes 128 vector (VMX) registers per hardware thread. This astounding number of registers can drastically improve the speed of common mathematical operations.

Each of the three cores includes a 32-KB L1 instruction cache and a 32-KB L1 data cache. The three cores share a 1-MB L2 cache. The L2 cache can be locked down in segments to improve performance. The L2 cache also has the very unusual feature of being directly readable from the GPU, which allows the GPU to consume geometry and texture data from L2 and main memory simultaneously.
Xenon CPU instructions are exposed to games through compiler intrinsics, allowing developers to access the power of the chip using C language notation.
GPU


The Xenon GPU is a custom 500+ MHz graphics processor from ATI. The shader core has 48 Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) that can execute 64 simultaneous threads on groups of 64 vertices or pixels. ALUs are automatically and dynamically assigned to either pixel or vertex processing depending on load. The ALUs can each perform one vector and one scalar operation per clock cycle, for a total of 96 shader operations per clock cycle. Texture loads can be done in parallel to ALU operations. At peak performance, the GPU can issue 48 billion shader operations per second.

The GPU has a peak pixel fill rate of 4+ gigapixels/sec (16 gigasamples/sec with 4× antialiasing). The peak vertex rate is 500+ million vertices/sec. The peak triangle rate is 500+ million triangles/sec. The interesting point about all of these values is that they’re not just theoretical—they are attainable with nontrivial shaders.

Xenon is designed for high-definition output. Included directly on the GPU die is 10+ MB of fast embedded dynamic RAM (EDRAM). A 720p frame buffer fits very nicely here. Larger frame buffers are also possible because of hardware-accelerated partitioning and predicated rendering that has little cost other than additional vertex processing. Along with the extremely fast EDRAM, the GPU also includes hardware instructions for alpha blending, z-test, and antialiasing.

The Xenon graphics architecture is a unique design that implements a superset of Direct3D version 9.0. It includes a number of important extensions, including additional compressed texture formats and a flexible tessellation engine. Xenon not only supports high-level shading language (HLSL) model 3.0 for vertex and pixel shaders but also includes advanced shader features well beyond model 3.0. For instance, shaders use 32-bit IEEE floating-point math throughout. Vertex shaders can fetch from textures, and pixel shaders can fetch from vertex streams. Xenon shaders also have the unique ability to directly access main memory, allowing techniques that have never before been possible.

As with Xbox, Xenon will support precompiled push buffers (“command buffers” in Xenon terminology), but to a much greater extent than the Xbox console does. The Xbox team is exposing and documenting the command buffer format so that games are able to harness the GPU much more effectively.

In addition to an extremely powerful GPU, Xenon also includes a very high-quality resize filter. This filter allows consumers to choose whatever output mode they desire. Xenon automatically scales the game’s output buffer to the consumer-chosen resolution.

Memory and Bandwidth
Xenon has 256+ MB of unified memory, equally accessible to both the GPU and CPU. The main memory controller resides on the GPU (the same as in the Xbox architecture). It has 22.4+ GB/sec aggregate bandwidth to RAM, distributed between reads and writes. Aggregate means that the bandwidth may be used for all reading or all writing or any combination of the two. Translated into game performance, the GPU can consume a 512×512×32-bpp texture in only 47 microseconds.

The front side bus (FSB) bandwidth peak is 10.8 GB/sec for reads and 10.8 GB/sec for writes, over 20 times faster than for Xbox. Note that the 22.4+ GB/sec main memory bandwidth is shared between the CPU and GPU. If, for example, the CPU is using 2 GB/sec for reading and 1 GB/sec for writing on the FSB, the GPU has 19.4+ GB/sec available for accessing RAM.

Eight pixels (where each pixel is color plus z = 8 bytes) can be sent to the EDRAM every GPU clock cycle, for an EDRAM write bandwidth of 32 GB/sec. Each of these pixels can be expanded through multisampling to 4 samples, for up to 32 multisampled pixel samples per clock cycle. With alpha blending, z-test, and z-write enabled, this is equivalent to having 256 GB/sec of effective bandwidth! The important thing is that frame buffer bandwidth will never slow down the Xenon GPU.

Audio
The Xenon CPU is a superb processor for audio, particularly with its massive mathematical horsepower and vector register set. The Xenon CPU can process and encode hundreds of audio channels with sophisticated per-voice and global effects, all while using a fraction of the power of a single CPU core.

The Xenon system south bridge also contains a key hardware component for audio—XMA decompression. XMA is the native Xenon compressed audio format, based on the WMA Pro architecture. XMA provides sound quality higher than ADPCM at even better compression ratios, typically 6:1–12:1. The south bridge contains a full silicon implementation of the XMA decompression algorithm, including support for multichannel XMA sources. XMA is processed by the south bridge into standard PCM format in RAM. All other sound processing (sample rate conversion, filtering, effects, mixing, and multispeaker encoding) happens on the Xenon CPU.

The lowest-level Xenon audio software layer is XAudio, a new API designed for optimal digital signal processing. The Xbox Audio Creation Tool (XACT) API from Xbox is also supported, along with new features such as conditional events, improved parameter control, and a more flexible 3D audio model.
Input/Output

As with Xbox, Xenon is designed to be a multiplayer console. It has built-in networking support including an Ethernet 10/100-BaseT port. It supports up to four controllers. From an audio/video standpoint, Xenon will support all the same formats as Xbox, including multiple high-definition formats up through 1080i, plus VGA output.

In order to provide greater flexibility and support a wider variety of attached devices, the Xenon console includes standard USB 2.0 ports. This feature allows the console to potentially host storage devices, cameras, microphones, and other devices.

Storage
The Xenon console is designed around a larger world view of storage than Xbox was. Games will have access to a variety of storage devices, including connected devices (memory units, USB storage) and remote devices (networked PCs, Xbox Live™). At the time of this writing, the decision to include a built-in hard disk in every Xenon console has not been made. If a hard disk is not included in every console, it will certainly be available as an integrated add-on component.

Xenon supports up to two attached memory units (MUs). MUs are connected directly to the console, not to controllers as on Xbox. The initial size of the MUs is 64 MB, although larger MUs may be available in the future. MU throughput is expected to be around 8 MB/sec for reads and 1 MB/sec for writes.

The Xenon game disc drive is a 12× DVD, with an expected outer edge throughput of 16+ MB/sec. Latency is expected to be in the neighborhood of 100 ms. The media format will be similar to Xbox, with approximately 6 GB of usable space on the disk. As on Xbox, media will be stored on a single side in two 3 GB layers.

Industrial Design
The Xenon industrial design process is well under way, but the final look of the box has not been determined. The Xenon console will be smaller than the Xbox console.
The standard Xenon controller will have a look and feel similar to the Xbox controller. The primary changes are the removal of the Black and White buttons and the addition of shoulder buttons. The triggers, thumbsticks, D-pad, and primary buttons are essentially unchanged. The controller will support vibration.

 

[captmcblack]

So wait a sec...if I'm a current XBL subscriber, when I get my 360 I'll instantly be in as a Gold sub?

 

[FightyF]

The Three-Six-Dude sounds like it's gonna rock!

I wonder if "- Strem media from Windows XP * #" means that we don't necessarily need XP Media Center edition, but rather Home/Professional Edition. That would make it far more universal and practical. Most people with PCs have either Home or Pro, so it would make the 360's extra features more relevant to them.

I'm happy they've finally decided to go with unadulterated USB ports. Hopefully this means support for flight sticks, an actual racing wheel, and keyboard and mouse!

 

[Kuroyume]

I skipped over the PS2 and XBOX launches because of pricing (and because I thought the XBOX would fail miserably) but I'm definitely getting the HD package on the first day. I'll be happy with Silver Live until HALO 3 or the next Splinter Cell is released. What I’m also happy (if the specs are real) is that the thing can read other media now (so I can store videos from my PC on there now?) I wonder if it will take ages to rip CDs anymore… great stuff.

 

[B E N K E]

So wait a sec...if I'm a current XBL subscriber, when I get my 360 I'll instantly be in as a Gold sub?

That's the idea.

 

[tuco11]

Do these specs match up with with what that guy , what whas his name.. "Sittingonatrainbutt " or something like that posted a few months ago?

 

[John Harker]

So how does this compare exactly to the rumoured Revolution "specs"?

 

[midnightguy]

specs from September 2004... almost dead-on!!!

http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?p=1010465

Jedimike, that is actually older than Sept 2004.


it goes back at least as far as June 2004
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=231928

it's the Xenon Hardware Overview that came out a few months after the Xenon System Diagram,
(the Diagram came out in April 2004 iirc)

 

[siamesedreamer]

So wait a sec...if I'm a current XBL subscriber, when I get my 360 I'll instantly be in as a Gold sub? .

That'll only be cool if its backwards compatible and so you already have a ton of Live games you're able to play. If not, then XBL will suck again for the first two years.

 

[dem]

- Communication with voice, video or text *


Here the pedos come.

 

[Shogmaster]

specs from September 2004... almost dead-on!!!

http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?p=1010465

Don't forget the FSB bandwidth increase due to increased RAM amount (10.8GB/sec to 21.6GB/sec)

 

[Funky Papa]

Do these specs match up with with what that guy , what whas his name.. "Sittingonatrainbutt " or something like that posted a few months ago?

His name is crazy buttocks on a train. Respect the buttocks.

 

[Suikoguy]

Ok, so acording to this,

I'll have to keep my old xbox to play old xbox games - No Backwards Compatiblity
I'll have to buy all new controllers
I'll have to purchase the HDD seperatly

On the other hand

Kudos for
-Having some live features for free
-Actual USB ports finnaly


Other then power, I see this being a really tough sell to casual consumers. Keeping in mind power goes out the window once the other systems are shown. Then its just time.

One last thing,

Why Is This Being Taken As Fact?

 

[John Harker]

So lets get some serious system comparisons goin' on herrr.

 

[SantaC]

So how does this compare exactly to the rumoured Revolution "specs"?

The rumored Revolution specs was came from us (gaf)


I' think these specs look good, but yeah the leaks cannot be stopped it seems.

 

[midnightguy]

the old Xenon System Block Diagram, which appeared on the internet around April 2004

and who knows how old it was even then.

 

[Shogmaster]

Kudos for
-Having some live features for free
-Actual USB ports finnaly
-DVD-R Drive

NO NO NO NO! No DVD Burner you fool! It just reads DVD-R discs!

So many people needs to get hooked on phonics....

 

[SantaC]

as for no BC, is this because of the difficulty of going from a nvidia gpu structure to ati gpu structure?

 

[geogaddi]

what are the beyond3D folks saying about this?

peace

 

[Suikoguy]

NO NO NO NO! No DVD Burner you fool! It just reads DVD-R discs!

So many people needs to get hooked on phonics....

Hehehe, sorry,
I missed the word "Support"