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Microsoft Developing Console Chips
The Cheesecake writes "The New York Times is running an article that says that Microsoft is looking into designing and developing microchips. These will primarily be for the next generation of the Xbox. They also mention it could be used for things like voice recognition. They look to be doing this through a process designed by UC Berkley which makes it possible to reconfigure computer designs without the cost of making finished chips."
First it's software, then it's computer chips, then it's robots, then it's...well we all saw Terminator...
Oh shit! They're gonna start making politicians?!?
This guy's the limit!
Call me crazy, but didn't Microsoft sign some sort of deal that they wouldn't enter the chip market a decade or so ago? Or am I remembering incorrectly?
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Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
I wonder if Uncle Bill and Uncle Steve are looking to enforce DRM through hardware or remove (or severely restrict) the ability to mod-chip the next-gen Xbox.
... you will get a new chip delivered every first Tuesday in 'snail mail' with instructions for removing the old chip and soldering and what not on how to install the new chip update due to 'important "critical" security updates".
Oh Yea?
"First it's software, then it's computer chips, then it's robots, then it's...well we all saw Terminator..."
But for a while, we will have to put up with Microsoft Robot, whose face goes entirely blue for no reason at all, which crashes into the wall several times a day, which has trouble obeying you since it is constantly bombarded with commands from all over the world, and which considers the Asimov Laws of Robots as mere recommendations.
Where were you when the voynix came?
They will now be called Microhard.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
None of these enterprises were considered great commercial successes.
.com boom. How many do they have to sell to be a 'great commercial success'?
If you don't call DEC's Alpha chip a 'great commercial success', than what is? Does it still have to be on the market? What chip from the Alpha era is still on the market? They've all been redesigned since.
The only reason the Alpha 'failed' is because DEC's support business was so much more profitable than it's CPU business.
The big guys can come up with new versions each year or so and catch up to the "boutique" designs.
Intel only managed to catch up with the Alpha for two reasons: They stopped coming out with new versions of the Alpha, and Intel implemented patented Alpha designs without a license. It's not really a fair argument to you though, since Alpha wasn't 'boutique', and DEC *was* one of the 'big guys'.
Similarly, SPARC was *the* CPU of the
All the magic is out of CPU design. Lots of people know how to do it, and do it well. The hard part these days is in the manufacturing process, and you can buy that. There is no good reason not to design your own CPU if you can reasonably expect to sell enough of them,
August 9, 2010: Microsoft announced today he first patch for their first microchip, the MSME VID2009 videogame engine core.
The VID2009 chip was recently taped out by the newly formed MS Micro-electronics division. It was widely acclaimed as a new era for MS, altohugh the two analysts still not paid by MS voiced concerns about how the usual Microsoft quality control would not fly with electronic microchips.
MS issued the patch in response to reports about VID2009-equipped videogame consoles spontaneously bursting into flames and cutting users' fingers by snapping the DVD reader door too quickly. The reports have been piling up since 2007. "Since MS bought every other game console maker, it's not like we consumers have a choice", says Gaban Tycho, a self-appointed gaming affair watchdog. "Face it, today's dedicated gamer has either burnt skin patches or missing fingers. Sometimes both. Hey, since you've got fingers, could you open that bottle of burn lotion for me?"
Today's patch is expected to solve these issues, although initial reports show it might introduce other problems: when the voice recognition headset is used and the user pronounces the word "Linux", the patched unit sends 110V AC through the headphones.
The patch is replacing 53 logic gates, changing two nano-instructions and rerouting 12 clock signals inside the VID2009 chip. A small issue might delay the application of the patch, though: It requires replacing the chip itself. An MS spokeperson said that the replacement was covered by the standard MS two-week warranty, but that older units would have to be discarded.
As usual, the MS Patch Police, a team of electronics expert affectionately known as the Blue Squad of Death, will patrol neighborhoods and listen to howls of pain to determine where faulty consoles might be located. Unpatchable units will be shredded at customers' premices. "I hate those guys", Tycho said. "Last time, I stepped on my cat's tail and here came the Blue Squad, ramming through the door. They couldn't find the console so they destroyed the toaster instead."
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Mad science! Robots! Underwear! Cute girls! Full comic online! http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
A problem has been detected and Bush has been shut down to prevent damage to your politician.
WAR_COUNT_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
When ideas fail, words become very handy.
IBM's PowerPC design is in all the next-gen consoles, PPC was in Tivo too. IBM has a lot of PPC systems in the Top 500 supercomputer list. I wouldn't call PPC a commercial failure. A lot of embedded designs still use ARM variants (Intel's XScale was derived from DEC StrongARM), among others. I think MIPS is used in a lot of embedded systems, take a look at Linksys's WRT54G. When you get away from what you'd call a conventional computer, there are a lot of viable CPU architectures.