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The Truth About Last Year's Xbox 360 Recall

Posted by kdawson on from the value-for-the-money dept.

chrplace forwards an article in which Gartner's Brian Lewis offers his perspective on what led to last year's Xbox 360 recall. Lewis says it happened because Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor. "Microsoft designed the graphic chip on its own, cut a traditional ASIC vendor out of the process, and went straight to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., he explained. But in the end, by going cheap — hoping to save tens of millions of dollars in ASIC design costs, Microsoft ended up paying more than $1 billion for its Xbox 360 recall. To fix the problem, Microsoft went back to an unnamed ASIC vendor based in the United States and redesigned the chip, Lewis added. (Based on a previous report, the ASIC vendor is most likely the former ATI Technologies, now part of AMD.)"

5 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Re:yes, go cheap, that's the way by boner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    well, it's the difference between an MBA making a business call based on cost/profit analysis and an experienced chip designer looking at the actual risks involved....

    MBAs are good in cutting corners in traditional businesses, but generally have no understanding of technology risks....

  2. Re:Another Talisman CF by Dhar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Never, and I say NEVER let a bunch of software engineers try to design a hardware chip. I've worked with software written by a hardware company, and I can say the same thing from my side of the fence...never let a bunch of hardware guys write software!

    I suppose if we can all agree to stay out of the other guy's yard, we can get along. You do hardware, I'll do software. :)

    -g.
  3. Vote parent up by imsabbel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The article is COMPLETE, UTTER bullshit.

    Years before the xbox360 has been released ATI was already announced as the system parter for the GPU. No "secret unnamed ASIC vendor" anywhere.
    The recall, again, was thermal problems.

    Do you really think a completely different GPU by a completely different company could have been designed in a year _and_ totally compatible with the original one?

    --
    HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
  4. Re:yes, go cheap, that's the way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So if you have business savvy you can't possibly understand technology risks? Oh please. Strawman. The problem is that MBA degrees are churned out as "one size fits all" managers, suitable (pun intended) for any industry by virtue of having no specific training for any of them.

    You can have business savvy and technological expertise, but it's a roundabout path through today's educational system if you're not teaching yourself at least one. And I think we all know the proportion of people who are capable of serious self-education.

  5. Re:yes, go cheap, that's the way by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All profit-seeking companies do this. This is not an inherently bad thing - you wouldn't have a job otherwise.

    I don't think you're getting it. Cutting costs is one thing. Cutting corners is another. Cutting costs is fine, but cutting corners implies the product is worse off because of it. Few engineers would say "It'd be cheaper to roll our own graphics chip," because they realize the immense technical challenges involved. Few MBAs are likely to understand that, however.

    So if you have business savvy you can't possibly understand technology risks? Oh please.

    There's a big difference between what you just said and what the OP said. Nobody said MBAs can't be tech savvy. However, the fact of the matter is, most of them aren't.

    Also, just to be pedantic, having an MBA has little to do with having business savvy.