Under the Hood of the Xbox 360

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Under the Hood of the Xbox 360

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday December 12, 2005 @08:09AM from the love-the-smell-of-solder-in-the-morning dept.

An anonymous reader writes "IBM DeveloperWorks is running a behind the design story for the making of the Xbox 360. The 360 has but a single chip with 165 million transistors for it's CPU " From the article: "This chip is in fact a three-way symmetric multiprocessor design. The three PowerPC cores are identical, except that they are physically reflected through the X and Y axis. Each of the CPU cores is a specialized PowerPC chip with a VMX128 extension related to (and partially compatible with) the VMX instructions in the G4 and G5 CPUs. The three CPU cores share a 1MB Level2 cache. Each processor has 32KB each of data and instruction Level1 cache. The chip's front-side bus/physical interface has a 21.6GB/second bandwidth, and runs at 5.4GHz."

11 of 374 comments (clear)

Re:Just a quick question... by Anonymous Coward · 2005-12-12 08:13 · Score: 5, Funny

Yes, I'd prefer this be filtered through at least a couple of blogs.
Re:Why buy an Xbox 360? by generic-man · 2005-12-12 08:26 · Score: 5, Funny

The PlayStation 3 will be made by Sony, a company which distributes software that renders a personal computer quite unstable and open to attack by malfeasant users from across the Internet.

The Xbox 360, on the other hand, is made by Microsoft.

The choice is yours.

--
For more information, click here.
Imagine... by Spy+der+Mann · 2005-12-12 08:28 · Score: 4, Funny

A beowulf Heater of these... :)
Re:PowerPCs? by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · 2005-12-12 08:32 · Score: 3, Funny

so wait... we've got a Microsoft operating system (whatever the Xbox 360 OS is) running on what is commonly considered Apple-type processors *and* we'll soon have an Apple OS running on top of what is commonly considered Microsoft-type processors?

What's next, dogs and cats living together?

--
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
With a bit of a mind flip... by mkcmkc · 2005-12-12 08:33 · Score: 3, Funny

The three PowerPC cores are identical, except that they are physically reflected through the X and Y axis.
Must be this "reversible computing" I keep hearing about...

--
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
The most important question. by Kaenneth · 2005-12-12 08:38 · Score: 3, Funny

Little endian, or Big endian?
1. Re:The most important question. by cmburns69 · 2005-12-12 08:50 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  One core uses little endian, one core uses big endian, and the third core exists only to map between the little and big.
  
  --
  Online Starcraft RPG? At
  Dietary fiber is like asynchronous IO-- Non-blocking!
Re:obligatory... by youngerpants · 2005-12-12 08:39 · Score: 3, Funny

Short answer; no with a but

Long answer; yes with an if...
Re:Why buy an Xbox 360? by sedyn · 2005-12-12 09:23 · Score: 3, Funny

"The choice is yours."

Nintendo, I choose you!

</pokemon reference>

--
Am I open minded towards open source, or closed minded towards closed source?
Re:Flaimbait by dascandy · 2005-12-12 09:44 · Score: 3, Funny

We are sorry to report that your XBox 360 crashed during the final race online of the world online championship of World Rally Cup 2006 V3. Would you like to play Patience, Minesweeper or Reboot?
Re:Tiny cache... by emarkp · 2005-12-12 11:00 · Score: 3, Funny

Wouldn't you like a 100mb cache?
100 millibit? I'd really prefer more than that.