R500 core to be new XBOX 2 GPU

[IceDigger]

Full story here.

 

[Des-ROW]

Embedded DRAM to deal with bandwidth issues? That is so creative.

Let's see if anyone recalls this:

TOKYO, March 2, 1999 -- Sony Computer Entertainment has developed the Graphics Synthesizer for the next generation PlayStation® incorporating a massively parallel rendering engine that contains a 2,560 bit wide data bus that is 20 times the size of leading PC-based graphics accelerators. Very high pixel fill rates and drawing performance is achieved only through the use of embedded DRAM process technology pioneered by SCE for use in advanced graphics technology

 

[AntiPasta]

hey, nobody ever said Microsoft is here to be creative 😛

As referred to by the article, Bitboys has been playing with the idea for years, and apparently Infineon used to have an eDRAM manufacturing line (which has been closed down now).

 

[Tagrineth]

"Blahblahblah"

This has already been discussed a bit at Beyond3D, basically we've decided it's a beautiful pile of rampant speculation - I mean, c'mon, MS wouldn't be so stupid as to call it a "Revolutionary idea" when both of their current competitors are using that exact method.

And besides that, they say it's to "enable HDTV graphics" etc. and yet it'd take almost 32MB on-die memory for 720p... and amusingly, only 480* resolution is mentioned in the article.

 

[Alexvrb]

I wonder if it'll be using HyperTransport 2.0.

 

[muffinman943]

so thi is equal to.... what??

 

[Tagrineth]

Originally posted by muffinman943@Feb 4, 2004 @ 07:20 PM

so thi is equal to.... what??

Rampant speculation.

 

[mal]

Well put.

I'm more interested in the rumor that it's going to use 3 PowerPC 976 CPUs. Didn't Sega try something like that once or twice? 😉

 

[Des-ROW]

Microsoft going for this kind of architecture? Really interesting.

I heard they were giving away Dual G5s for developers to use as "preliminar" development kits.

And, regarding Sega using PowerPC, the Sega MODEL3 generation hardware used PowerPC 603 and 603ev processors running at 66Mhz, 100Mhz and 166Mhz.

 

[mal]

I was actually talking about the 32x and Saturn/Titan (multi CPU systems). 🙂

 

[MasterAkumaMatata]

Originally posted by mal@Feb 4, 2004 @ 10:26 PM

Well put.

I'm more interested in the rumor that it's going to use 3 PowerPC 976 CPUs. Didn't Sega try something like that once or twice? 😉

I like this rumor. :agree

 

[ExCyber]

MS wouldn't be so stupid as to call it a "Revolutionary idea" when both of their current competitors are using that exact method

You're kidding, right? MS has been blabbing about "innovation" for years as though MacOS, Mosaic/Navigator, VMS, OpenGL, WordPerfect, Quicken, et. al. never existed. They're veterans at pretending that borrowed ideas are brand new.

 

[Alexvrb]

Didn't IBM say that the 976s produced with 65nm would be dual-core? Imagine a pair of those.

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

well, when I am older....I am gunna be the first to have quad-GPU's MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Tagrineth]

Originally posted by Pearl Jammzz@Feb 6, 2004 @ 06:25 PM

well, when I am older....I am gunna be the first to have quad-GPU's MUWHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The first what?

I've SEEN Quad-Opteron boards myself... not like quad processing is a brand new thing. It's been around.

Hell, the Atari Jaguar had five processors, which could technically all be used as general purpose.

 

[gamefoo21]

ummm I think its hooey. They are far more likely to just use the r420 core which is currently almost being produced. Why would microsoft want to want another year just to have a peek at the r500 which is supposed to be dx 10 I've heard. Nah they are going to use a dx 9.1 chip. For one reason it will be a helluva lot cheaper. Anyways this is what I get from hanging around ati messageboards. You get gossip directly from the company. :bow

 

[Tagrineth]

Originally posted by gamefoo21@Feb 7, 2004 @ 03:50 AM

ummm I think its hooey. They are far more likely to just use the r420 core which is currently almost being produced. Why would microsoft want to want another year just to have a peek at the r500 which is supposed to be dx 10 I've heard. Nah they are going to use a dx 9.1 chip. For one reason it will be a helluva lot cheaper. Anyways this is what I get from hanging around ati messageboards. You get gossip directly from the company. :bow

www.beyond3d.com

First off, there is no such thing as DirectX 9.1. There never will be such thing as DirectX 9.1.

Second, Xbox2 won't be coming out for another year AT THE VERY LEAST anyway! Or do you really think XB2 will come out in 2004? Giving the original a three year life cycle?

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

Nah, I see all 3 next-gen consoles out in 2005. Hopefully this E3 will be better than the last couple and we'll getta see sum cool shit. I am exspecting Nintedo to be the ones w/ the coolest stuff. Although if Sony or MS release a lot of stuff on their next console, then they might take the show? who knows? still another couple of months.

 

[Tagrineth]

Originally posted by Pearl Jammzz@Feb 7, 2004 @ 07:33 PM

Nah, I see all 3 next-gen consoles out in 2005..

That's pretty much what I said.

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

haha k, glad we got a clarification 🙂