http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/mar05/03-09GDC05PR.asp

not a whole lot of info given other then their aim twords HD gaming (woot) and a few other things


A well-balanced system that will deliver more than a teraflop of targeted computing performance
A multicore processor architecture co-developed with IBM Corp. that provides developer "headroom" and flexibility for the HD Era
A custom-designed graphics processor co-developed with ATI Technologies Inc. designed for HD Era games and entertainment applications

if this delivers more then a teraflop, screw dualcore set ups, this thing will rule PC gaming for a while

this thing is going to cost more than a PC though!

one trillion dollars....


i think its aimed at around $500, so yea a little bit

and I just spent 300 bucks on a new monitor.. Damn it.

http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/microsoft-xbox/594331p1.html

The Guts of the Next Box


CPU - Xenon's CPU has three 3.0 GHz PowerPC cores. Each core is capable of two instructions per cycle and has an L1 cache with 32 KB for data and 32 KB for instructions. The three cores share 1 MB of L2 cache. Alpha 2 developer kits currently have two cores instead of three.

GPU - Xenon's GPU is a generation beyond the ATI X800. Its clock speed is 500 MHz and it supports Shader 3.0. Developers are currently working with an alpha 2 GPU. Beta GPU units are expected by May and the final GPU is slated for a summer release. The final GPU will be more powerful than anything on the market today; in game terms, it would handle a game like Half-Life 2 with ease.

System Memory - Xenon will have 256 MB of system RAM. Keep in mind that this number should not be equated to typical PC RAM. The Xbox (http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/microsoft-xbox/594331p1.html#) has 64 MB of system RAM and is a very capable machine.

Optical Drive - As many have speculated, Xenon will not use Blu-Ray or HD-DVD. Games will come on dual-layer DVD-9 discs. While the media is the same as that of the current Xbox, the usable space on each disc is up to 7 GB. The drive is slated to run at 12X.

Memory Units - Xenon will use 64 MB to 1,024 MB memory cards. 8 MB is reserved for system use, leaving a 56 MB to 1,016 MB for user data.

Hard Drive - As many have speculated, Xenon's hard drive is optional. 2 GB of the drive will be used as game cache. The final drive size is still being determined.

Camera - Xenon will have a USB 2.0 camera. It's capable of 1.2 megapixel still shots and VGA video. Photos can be used in-game and for gamer profiles. The camera can also be used for video chat. It's unknown if the Xenon camera will allow for EyeToy-like gameplay. Developers are currently using a simulated camera driver.

Sound Chip - Xenon does not have an audio chip in the traditional sense. Decompression is handled by hardware, while the rest of the chores are handled by software. DirectSound3D has been dropped in favor of X3DAudio. The former was deemed too inflexible.


Palimax here -- the article goes on to talk about target video production...

Developers are being instructed to plan their games for high-definition. The baseline is 720p at 1280x720 for gameplay and video clips, 16:9 aspect ratio, 5.1 Surround Sound, and anti-aliasing. These features are the current minimum requirement. Time to get a new television, kids.

This sounds like fun, but ooooh that price tag has got to come down some.

No matter how good a console is.. there still has got to be good games to make it worthwhile.

Pretty graphics alone can't save a title (at least after the infatuation settles down from new technology like this). On the current XBoX, I only find games like the Halo series tolerable.

Just a thought.

High Def is such a waste of money though, the XBox2 will be so overpriced when Computers have been high def for years now and cost half as much.

/agree Cados

They better get some more titles out there and not just those cross over titles. They are going to need to get more signature lines like Halo, Halo2, but I hope they aren't going to bank on H3 to carry this console. Otherwise it may take 2 or 3 times as long for Bill to get this part of Microsoft running in the black.

Doesnt Microsoft own Blizzard games now?

Scroo buying a thousand dollar tv for an xbox.

You could buy the good TV because you will want/need to at some point anyway and then buy the XBOX 360 (supposedly the name for the new system) because of whatever games they have that are good.

I bought a pretty nice sony 36 inch with 16.9 not long ago, not buying another new one for HD F that =p

Is HD really THAT good? My TV can do it but since I don't watch much regular TV and use it for games and movies I haven't found a compelling reason to pay the monthly fee for it.

The only HD I have personally seen was from my friends HD projector that they use instead of a TV. And frankly the difference is "HUDGE" if the program was actually recorded in HD. I have actually spent hours watching things I would never have spent a second on if it had not been HD, just because of the amazing crispness and quality of the HD feed. I would deffinitely say that if you are in the market for a TV any time soon either splurge for the HD set or wait until you can splurge for it.

Watching TV in HD is only as good as the quality of the source. If you want some nice eye-candy, watch the HD PBS feed. 1080i broadcasts of good filmed-for-1080i source material.

Even watching ER, or CSI, or 24 in 1080i or 720p looks pretty nice on an "old" television. That said, however, you're always going to have TWO limits to factor in. (a) The limit of the broadcast. Most "HD" streams are compressed. (b) The limit of your television. Your "HD" television probably isn't 1920x1080i native - even if it supports it. Your DLP processor (or whatever you might have) is probably much less native and utilizes some sort of scaling technology to produce your final 1080i picture.

Nonetheless, watching 24 in 720p on my "old" tube TV still looks a hell of a lot better than watching the non-HD broadcast...it'd just look even better if my TV could support native 720p -- and CSI would look even better if my TV could support native 1080i instead of a scaled version from my Media Center 2005 machine.

When you go to Best Buy, and they're showing a DVD on their HD televisions, it's because they're MORONS. Why, in god's name you'd want to sell a multi-thousand-dollar TV by showing something at HALF of the TV's resolution is beyond me.

Have them give you the PBS feed from antenna.

I loathe baseball, would never ever watch it (well ok, unless the Twinkies were in the World Series).

I spent a good half hour staring at the world series playoff game broadcast in HD. I think I blinked once . . . maybe.

It is something you can't appreciate until you truly see it.

HD is incredible if the program is legitimately broadcasting in HD. The Discovery programs that broadcast in HD are absolutely incredible. Sport casts are great as well.

Movies eh, for the most part I'm indifferent as of yet.

Fandros

You have to pay for the HD service aswell right? Which requires buying additional stuff?

no they dont own Blizzard.. xbox 2 looks nice but im sticking with my playstation's

Comcast for example will give you HD for like $10 extra a month and throw in a DVR, whilst DirecTV makes you pay $350 or so for a 3-node satellite, even if you had an older one to begin with.

HD is worth it. Just got a 65" Mitsubishi HD-Ready RPTV recently. The reason movies (DVDs) don't look as good as broadcasts is because they are encoded in 480i. Many HDTVs will simple turn that interlace signal into 480p, or progressive (hence the feature listing on almost every DVD player these days), which only works on newer compatible TVs. Progressive looks excellent, but is not as eye-popping as like.. the Superbowl in 720p/1080i HD.

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray will transform DVDs into a more true HD experience.. at least we hope.

Yeah here you have to pay and it's like $20 extra a month, that is about the only thing holding me back. I mean $120 for cable, $13 for TiVo, and then another $20 for HD-TV when I hardly watch regular TV? naaaah I can't do that, I mean I could have another EQ2 account for that instead :)

Or, you could just plug in an antenna...and get all of your local programming in HD. Yes, you'll miss a lot of cable\sat based HD programming, but the antenna's *nearly* free.

But for people like me who are not in range for OTA HD broadcast, we have to depend on companies like DirecTV or Comcast to get local channels in HD (ABC, Fox, etc.), but since my local providers don't have it through their feed yet I have to wait for them.

If your drooling over the xbox2 specs..both the PS3 and N-Revolution are going to be much more powerful graphically and horsepower wise.

yeah but when is that coming out? didn't they just release another PS2 model recently?

Mid-/late 2006 is estimated dates for NR/PS3.

And I just don't mean "slightly" more powerful..we're talking by factors of 300% or so,

PS3/NR supposed to contain ATI chips a generation ahead of what PC users will receieve(lame).

And both using new IBM developed proccessors (Cell/Broadway respectively).

Xbox2 is nice, but the PS3/NR are shaping up to be more "powerful" then even the best gaming PCs.

Looking forward to how this will shape the industry, well as Nintendo's announcements/getting my hands on a SDK.

Edited in:
Not saying xbox2 will suck, btw, since measure of any console will be its games, just since post was about specs, simply saying they arn't that impressive compared to whats comming down the pipe not long after

When I was in Hollywood in '04 with the Home Theater Forum, Sony gave us a demo of Blue Ray DVD using 1080P off a qualia 016. I'm holding off on any HD purchases until I can get that in an under 5k set, tho 720p and 1080i are nice, the difference was incredible. The demo material? The 40 year old 'Laurence of Arabia'. You could taste each grain of sand =)

Got 30k to blow? I seriously recommend the Qualia 016, it is one sick piece of engineering.

Kad

It's most likely that Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will be in 720p/1080i because that's what most consumers have these days, and the fact that those formats are the current standard for HDTV. 1080p is juicy though =). When 1080p TVs are mass market, they will upconvert until DVDs are made for it, much like today's situation of 480i DVDs being upconverted to 480p.

As for the Cell chip, etc., it won't take long for PCs to catch up. You can bet ATI and NVIDIA will have a new generation card family out by 2006 for PC also. There is a concern now that some game developers won't know exactly how to program for the Cell chip, as it's complicated to say the least. I give them 2 years after release to introduce a decent game.

There is a concern now that some game developers won't know exactly how to program for the Cell chip, as it's complicated to say the least. I give them 2 years after release to introduce a decent game.


It isn't so much a "don't know how", its just..more complicated sadly, unneccessarily so even(PSP is the same way..ugggg).
But then again PS2 was the same way, Sony has never been known to cater to developers, and just tries to make thier system "more powerful" knowing that it'll get supported anyways.

I should clarify though, that the complexities arn't really because of the cell processor, its more due to the completly illogical way all the hardware pieces interact with each other.

Hopefully when Nintendo sends out SDKs to smaller developers they'll have the same ease of use that they've always had despite being based on similar technology.

Far as the Xbox2 goes...the crippling factor is the damn ram, they really needed to add more, it limits it alot.

As for HDTV Brighthouse has great deals on it for Central Florida Subcribers...


There are no additional incremental costs associated with our HD service. You pay regular package prices, and the SmartBox deposit of $25 is the same as the deposit for Digital SmartBoxes


and they offer 24 channels...

Cados, Sony was emphatic that they would support 1080p FROM THE START and that the players will downconvert and scale to either 1080i or 720p (or 480i/480p if you want). As movies are being scanned at 4kp these days a 1080p encoding is trivial.

1080p projectors ARE on the market, and when you are talking PJ prices 30k for the Qualia is peanuts. Totally chicken and the egg right now, but with Blue Ray support for 1080p out of the box, thats one damn fertile chicken.

From that visit's wrap up:
* Instead of simply equaling the broadcast HDTV
data rate of 19 Megabits per second, Blu-Ray
far exceeds it. At supporting data rates of 36
Megabits per second, it's the highest data rate
of any consumer medium, delivering the ultimate
picture quality: full 1920 H x 1080 V High Definition
video.

* Thanks to the blue-violet laser and other advanced
technologies, the single layer BD exceeds the capacity
of five DVDs, while dual layer BD holds even more.

* Blue-Ray already has the support of 13 major
manufacturers including Dell, HP, Hitachi, LG,
Matsushita, Mitsubishi. Pioneer, Royal Philips,
Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson.

If I remember correctly, the opposing HD DVD group
is backed only by Toshiba and NEC.

Though the two consortiums are fighting to become
the most widely accepted format, it is my early
opinion that based on the manufacturer backing,
upcoming Playstation support and Sony's recent
acquisition of the MGM library that Blu-Ray will
probably be the dominant format.

So how good does Blu-Ray DVD look? It looks incredible!

Nearly 60 members of Home Theater Forum were ushered
into one of Sony studio's private screening rooms
last week to get a first-hand look at this new format.

We were treated to scenes from Lawrence of Arabia
that were split-screen so that we could see side-by-side
the difference between the DVD and Blu-Ray. As the
split screen moved from right to left you could see
the smaller detailed blurry images of the DVD suddenly
come to a razor-sharp realization that became so
incredibly defined.

...and mind you, these are images projected on a
20' screen. Imagine how they will look on consumer
televisions.


Kad