I want to put this collection of data/information forth with the following understood about my mind set: 1) IMHO Wavx will be successful regardless of MSFT intentions as I believe MSFT needs wavx and not the other way around. 2) IMHO MSFT could very well be looking to license its patents to anyone looking to add devices into their boxes (eventually msft PC’s but starting with Xbox-2). Are we certain intc legrande wasn’t given a jump start simply because msft had already begun work on their own co-produced ibm cpu? More on this in a bit.
Until MSFT puts it on the table.. dinner aint served.
MSFT as far back as 1996 let the makers of GPU's (graphics) and CPU's know that with its BILLIONS there isn't anything beyond their reach (see Talisman example).
MSFT informs the world "Palladium" will enable closed spheres of trust. A closed sphere of trust binds data or a service to both a set of users (logon) and to a set of acceptable applications. The nexus (formerly referred to as the Trusted Operating Root, or TOR) does not simply open the vault; the nexus will open only a particular vault, and only for a small list of applications.
Microsoft buys Silicon Graphics patent portfolio. This means it can introduce features into DirectX that require certain patents. All the graphics chip companies that want to keep up will have to buy patent licenses from Microsoft. ATI and Nvidia will have to pay if they want to stay in the game.
Robbie Bach - Microsoft's "chief Xbox officer". He told the paper that Microsoft was putting billions of dollars of investment into the Xbox, and the firm already has 2,000 people working on it and future projects.
Fast Forward 2004 Low and behold MSFT and ATI co-developed the GPU to be used in XBOX-2. The L2 cache also has the very unusual feature of being directly readable from the GPU, which allows the GPU to consume geometry and texture data from L2 and main memory simultaneously.
The Xenon graphics architecture is a unique design that implements a superset of Direct3D version 9.0. It includes a number of important extensions, including additional compressed texture formats and a flexible tessellation engine. Xenon not only supports high-level shading language (HLSL) model 3.0 for vertex and pixel shaders but also includes advanced shader features well beyond model 3.0. For instance, shaders use 32-bit IEEE floating-point math throughout. Vertex shaders can fetch from textures, and pixel shaders can fetch from vertex streams. Xenon shaders also have the unique ability to directly access main memory, allowing techniques that have never before been possible.
Xenon has 256+ MB of unified memory, equally accessible to both the GPU and CPU. The main memory controller resides on the GPU (the same as in the Xbox architecture). It has 22.4+ GB/sec aggregate bandwidth to RAM, distributed between reads and writes. Aggregate means that the bandwidth may be used for all reading or all writing or any combination of the two. Translated into game performance, the GPU can consume a 512×512×32-bpp texture in only 47 microseconds.
The front side bus (FSB) bandwidth peak is 10.8 GB/sec for reads and 10.8 GB/sec for writes, over 20 times faster than for Xbox. Note that the 22.4+ GB/sec main memory bandwidth is shared between the CPU and GPU. If, for example, the CPU is using 2 GB/sec for reading and 1 GB/sec for writing on the FSB, the GPU has 19.4+ GB/sec available for accessing RAM.
What about the CPU? Surely it would be far more difficult to produce an entirely new CPU for the Xbox 2? The answer here is that much of Microsoft's plans revolve around the Microsoft Intermediate Language* (MSIL). And Microsoft wants to make Xbox 2 as much of an MSIL machine as possible. It wants a processor that will run MSIL as fast as possible. The processor will also have to retain compatibility with Xbox 1, so the chip will also have to be capable of running x86 instructions at a respectable speed. So it needs a processor that can run MSIL like it is native code but can still run x86 code.
IBM and MSFT co-develop the Xenon CPU. Designed by IBM in close consultation with the Xbox team, leading to a number of revolutionary additions, including a dot product instruction for extremely fast vector math and custom security features built directly into the silicon to prevent piracy and hacking.
If Microsoft owns or controls a processor, it can compile Windows to have best compatibility with its own CPUs. It can start introducing patented technology to their processors which Windows "requires." Then it can start licensing the patents to Intel, AMD, et al. Before you know it, MS will be the OS monopoly, graphics monopoly and the processor monopoly.
Xenon is powered by a 3.5+ GHz IBM PowerPC processor and a 500+ MHz ATI graphics processor. Xenon has 256+ MB of unified memory. Xenon runs a custom operating system based on MS® Windows NT®, similar to the Xbox operating system. The graphics interface is a superset of MS® Direct3D® version 9.0. CPU
*MSIL is Microsoft’s equivalent to Java's Bytecode. It can be run on any processor provided you have an MSIL Virtual Machine, just like you need a Java Virtual Machine to run Java. All of Microsoft's .NET strategy revolves around MSIL with Visual Studio (C++, C#, Visual Basic, etc.) capable of producing MSIL packages.
The Xenon compiler is based on a custom PowerPC back end and the latest MS® Visual C++® front end. The back end uses technology developed at MS for Windows NT on PowerPC. The Xenon software group includes a dedicated team of compiler engineers updating the compiler to support Xenon-specific CPU extensions. This team is also heavily focused on optimization work. The Xenon development kit will include accurate DVD emulation technology to allow developers to very precisely gauge the effects of the retail console disc drive.
Microsoft launching three versions of the Xbox 2, one of which is a fully functioning PC. Xbox Next and Xbox Next HD are planned for Autumn 2005, whereas the Xbox Next PC is penciled in for Autumn 2006.
The standard Xbox Next will not include a hard drive, which will allow Microsoft to cut costs on this basic unit. Xbox Next HD, as you might imagine, does include a hard drive and will offer increased functionality based on this. Xbox Next PC is, according to the presentation, an entry-level PC that runs Windows and all standard PC software. It also includes CD Burner, Wireless keyboard, mouse and controller and will work best connected to a high-definition TV or PC monitor. Media Center functionality - like movies, music and photos - is also included. The device will also play most available PC games. System outline specifications note that internet browsing and instant messaging would be key applications, and that the entire unit will be smaller than the current Xbox, although it will not be possible to upgrade the shipping memory or processor. The year-long gap between the mooted introductions of the two standard Xboxes before the Xbox Next PC is an interesting decision, which suggests that Microsoft realizes the time that the market needs to acclimatize to TV media functionality. Since the Vole expects to ship Xbox Next before the Sony PlayStation 3, two versions of the console allow it to get the first wave out before PS3, but to also spoil the launch of Sony's flagship by concurrently announcing the PC version.
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