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Xbox 360 Motherboard In-Depth
jshaped writes "As a follow-up to their previously popular article,
Anandtech has posted an in-depth look at the Xbox 360 motherboard. The IBM cpu core looks massive, and check out the ATI gpu with 2 dice on the package." From the article: "The original Xbox featured a 4-layer Intel motherboard, but given the incredible power requirements of the CPU and GPU on the Xbox 360's motherboard we would be astonished if the same were true today. Luckily with any console, especially early on in their life, you are getting a true bargain when it comes to the cost of hardware - so the number of layers on this PCB doesn't matter much to the end user, as Microsoft will absorb all costs above and beyond the core system's $299 price tag."
Microsoft has to be eating a ton of the cost for every console sold.
The interesting thing about console videogame systems is that (like most electronics) the cost of manufacturing is really low, the 'Cost' of the system that (usually) is considered as a loss is the cost of the technology and development. The fact is that, when you discount the cost of licencing (which Microsoft got raped on), the most expensive part of the original XBox was the Hard-Drive; Hard-Drives are (reasonably) unique in Manufacturing because they're an expensive component to produce and you have to buy them from a third party vender (you can't just licence the technology and produce your own Hard-Drive).
Microsoft seems to have gotten around these hurdles because:
(1)They apear to own a lot more of the IP of the XBox 360's design (Nvidia and Intel owned the IP on their processors for the XBox)
(2)The Hard-Drive is (essentially) and external cost, so the XBox 360 costs $299.99 and its Hard-Drive costs $100
Now, if you discount the R+D costs (and only consider the per-unit cost of the XBox 360) I would be willing to bet that Microsoft is at least breaking even on the Base Unit and Hard-Drive, and could potentially be 'turning a profit' on the Base Unit.