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Microsoft divorces Intel for XBox - Meets IBM at the cafe for lunch

Unknown
edited November 2003 in Science & Tech
In what could be quite a monumental decision, it has been revealed that Microsoft will be using IBM to create the "core" processor technology in the XBox 2 console. The architecture has yet to be announced, but of course speculation about the architecture being PPC970 (64bit G5) abound. Regardless, this brings into question backwards compatibility with XBox 1 games and also means that Microsoft may be porting DirectX to the new architecture. Can you imagine Direct X 10 on OS 10 for Mac? How fitting.....
[link=http://arstechnica.com/archive/news/1067892500.html]Thanks to ArsTechnica for the heads up.[/link]

Comments

  • ThraxThrax
    shrivels up and dies
     🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    shrivels up and dies
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    There goes all the hopes of having AMD64 on the XBox.


    BTW: Spinner posted this same bit yesterday... I am dumb.

    But to differentiate the posts, I can say this: Yesterday it was that IBM will be offering "semiconductor technology" - today it's been confirmed that they will indeed be providing the core processor.
  • CreepCreep Hell Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    IBM Insider Information:

    1.) Current Gen and Next Gen GameCube (exclusive contract already signed)
    2.) Next Gen Playstation3 chips (signed, I think Sony will make some of the chips as well)
    3.) Next Gen XBox chip (signed, exclusive contract)
    4.) NVidia FX chip series (we've been making them all along! go figure!)
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    IBM is "merely" doing some of the I/O for the PS3 - the Cell processors are Sony designed and built. Still...... Talk about lucrative.....
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited November 2003
    Would you really want a lower-powered P4 chip powering the next XBox? I can see it now...

    XBox 2 - Proudly powered by the Willamette P4 1.5 GHz, technically inferior to the original XBox CPU, but at double the price! :D

    I didn't think so...
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum
    is disgusted at the thought of Mac technology in the XBox.

    Whew! Good thing I play all my games on a REAL PC!
     Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    is disgusted at the thought of Mac technology in the XBox.

    Whew! Good thing I play all my games on a REAL PC!
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited November 2003
    So wait; The XBox2 will be a Microsoft product, running Apple's OS, on a G5-based chip?....

    There goes the whole idea of backwards compadibility. :shrug:
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Uh nobody said anything about the thing running Mac OS - Apple has absolutely nothing to do with the XBox 2.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Anyone see any correlation between Microsoft's announcement that Xbox will be PowerPC based and their purchase of Connectix's VirtualPC PowerPC->x86 emulation software? VirtualPC _is_ the best x86 emulator for MacOS, but I'm not sure that even a PowerPC970 has enough horsepower to emulate x86 good enough to game.

    Additionally, it isn't "Mac" technology. It's IBM technology that Apple uses to produce Macs, Nintendo uses to make GameCubes, and Pegasos uses to make their weird little systems. Specifically, the PowerPC 970 is only a "G5" when it's attached to a Mac, since G5 actually refers to generations of Power Macintosh bus architecture, not the processor. In other words, you aren't going to find IBM RS/6000 G5 workstations and servers, since G5 is inapplicable to machines that have never had Nubus architectures (among others).

    -drasnor
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