IBM To Design Technology For XBox 2 CPU

An anonymous reader writes "According to Biz Ink, 'Microsoft has licensed leading-edge semiconductor processor technology from IBM for use in future Xbox products and services to be announced at a later date..' IBM are already working on the PlayStation 3 CPU alongside Toshiba, and have a relationship with Nintendo after making the GameCube CPU, though there's been no official announcement on GameCube 2's hardware. Is the next-gen hardware war heating up?"

Comments

Is it still going to be X86?

[Random832]

Is Microsoft abandoning its "Intel compatibility" policy? I remember the original reason was to make it easy to port between PC and X-box, to attract developers

Re:Is it still going to be X86?

[cloudless.net]

I think it is the API that matters. No matter which CPU the XBox uses, the OS will be Windows based (Windows CE). So it will be very similar to the WIN32 API and I believe it uses DirectX too. That provides portability between PC and XBox.

Re:Is it still going to be X86?

[AntiGenX]

It seems that perhaps the "ease of portability" came back and bit them because of the modder scene. Perhaps they are looking at a non x86 platform to try to stem the tide of xbox hackers and homebrew apps.

Maybe

[brejc8]

Microsoft want Xbox to be compatable and able to play the PS3 games?
I don't think IBM have an exclusivity contract with Sony over their chipset.
How far pushing the legal barriers would it be to make a console which is able to play competitors games?

Re:Maybe

[DrEldarion]

Yeah, that would never happen even if they used the EXACT SAME chip. Ignoring the fact that console games are written to run on the EXACT hardware that the console has (including I/O, sound, etc - a lot more than just the main processor), there's the fact that there's going to be protection on the CDs - if they won't let us play a Japanese game on an American PS2, what makes you think they'll have games that can be played on an entirely different console?

Sucks to be Nintendo

[Dancin_Santa]

I would much rather see the XBox whither away and die than see Nintendo go the way of Sega.

Uhh, so which is it?

[mcc]

So is IBM "Designing and building" the x-box 2 CPU, or is Microsoft "licensing technology" from them? That's a pretty big friggin difference. And it looks like it's the latter.

Seeing as IBM does so much research these days, it seems that "licensing technology" could possibly mean something really minor. Well, it could mean almost anything.

Personally, I predict that the GC2 will be the first Nintendo console to feature backward compatibility, and will also feature an IBM chip. Which would make it really wierd if IBM made the x-box chip as well. But what do I know..

RE: When

[swasson]

When are you going to stop being an idiot?

The majority of people who buy consoles don't give a crap about picking their own hardware and building an "l337" gaming rig. Most of them don't give a rat's ass about open source non profit emulators either. One of the big draws of having a console is that sometimes people just like to sit down and play a game without having to worry about getting the latest video drivers, or having 3 Gigs of RAM, or a Radeon 9800 just to play a frickin' game. When I turn on my PS2, I don't have to worry about any of that bullsh*t. I guaran-damn-tee that no matter what the latest and greatest hardware you stick in your "l337" gaming rig, it'll be old hat in less than 6 months because something better/faster has come out.

Re:um...i don't think so....

[PainKilleR-CE]

The word processor is mentioned exactly twice before you get to the 'About IBM' blurb, which is tacked onto the end of every press release that has anything to do with IBM.

The first time it's mentioned, it's in the context of processor technology, the blurb most-cited so far in this thread. The second time is as follows:

According to Bernie Meyerson, IBM Fellow and chief technologist for IBM's
Technology Group, the new Xbox technologies will be based on the latest in
IBM's family of state-of-the-art processors.

Regardless, it states nowhere in the release that MS will be using processors from IBM, simply that they licensed processor technology from them, which could mean anything in this day when IP is more valuable to most companies than actual property. They could simply license certain portions of IBM's technology and then have Intel or AMD manufacture the chips, or open their own chip manufacturing plant (or have any number of other manufacturers stamp out processors).

The best reason for designing their own chip with technology licensed from other companies is that they actually get the full benefit of increased yields and any optimizations that can be made to decrease the price of the chips. The current XBox can't take advantage of these types of things because they basically have to pay extra for Intel to keep spitting out chips that they would've stopped manufacturing months (or even 2 years) ago, because their current CPUs are running with different footprints at higher MHz (and bus speeds).

More focused competition - this sounds good

[MBraynard]

What this means is that the next PS, presumably the next GC (who currently uses IBM chips), and the Xbox2 will all be using IBM chips that will presumably be similar in capability - or at least no one will have a tremendous advantage over anyone else.

The result? The consoles will have to get an edge over each other in other areas - like having DVR capabilities, better 3d implementation and technologies, online play, and, of course, better games. We will be less likely to face a decision now of 'more good games/inferior technology' versus 'less good games/better technology.'