Video Game Consoles - XBOX 360
XBOX 360
 At
an MTV televised unveiling of Xbox 360, Microsoft has
finally confirmed the rumors that game fanatics have been
talking about.
Available this holiday season in Europe, Japan, and North
America, the Xbox 360 is now smaller and smarter-looking
than its predecessor, and the front panel can be customized
by interchangeable faceplates.
Similar to the PS3, the Xbox 360 has an IBM PowerPC-based
CPU running at 3.2GHz and half a gigabyte of RAM. The
Xbox 360 also boasts of a customized ATI graphics processor
as Microsoft claims that every 360 game is optimized for
a minimum of 720p high definition output with anti-aliasing,
allowing gamers to experience smooth and cinematic-like
gaming.
With a free level of Xbox Live service (Silver and Gold
tiers), players can share their Gamer Profile, send and
receive text and voice messages to friends, as well as
engage in Xbox Live voice chat. Also a major upside is
the Xbox Live Marketplace, an online launch platform to
download demos and trailers, new game levels, maps, weapons,
vehicles, and skins. Additionally, with built in Windows
Media Center Extender functionality, Xbox 360 players
can access recorded TV and digital movies, music, video
and photos stored on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005-based
PCs.
Nevertheless, while Sony's Playstation 3 already boasts
of next-generation Blu-ray discs, the Xbox 360 still employs
DVD formatting. There is no clear confirmation as to bundling
details and pricing, so we have yet to find out if the
detachable 20GB hard drive will be included with all Xbox
360s or be available only as an upgrade.
| Xbox 360 System Performance
Specifications |
| Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU |
- Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz
each
- Two hardware threads per core; six hardware
threads total
- VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
- 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
- 1 MB L2 cache
|
| CPU Game Math Performance |
- 9 billion dot product operations per second
|
| Custom ATI Graphics Processor |
- 10 MB of embedded DRAM
- 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically
scheduled shader pipelines
- Unified shader architecture
|
| Polygon Performance |
- 500 million triangles per second
|
| Pixel Fill Rate |
- 16 gigasamples per second fill rate using
4x MSAA
|
| Shader Performance |
- 48 billion shader operations per second
|
| Memory |
- 512 MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM
- Unified memory architecture
|
| Memory Bandwidth |
- 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
- 21.6 GB/s front-side bus
|
| Overall System Floating-Point
Performance |
|
| Storage |
- Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive
- 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM
- Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB
|
| I/O |
- Support for up to four wireless game controllers
- Three USB 2.0 ports
- Two memory unit slots
|
| Optimized for Online |
- Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live
features with broadband service, including Xbox
Live Marketplace for downloadable content,
gamer profile for digital identity, and voice
chat to talk to friends while playing games,
watching movies, or listening to music
- Built-in Ethernet port
- Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g
- Video camera ready
|
| Digital Media Support |
- Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW,
DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD,
MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD
- Ability to stream media from portable music
devices, digital cameras and Windows XP-based
PCs
- Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard
drive
- Custom playlists in every game
- Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows
XP Media Center Edition 2005
- Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers
|
| High-Definition Game Support |
- All games supported at 16:9, 720p, and 1080i,
anti-aliasing
- Standard-definition and high-definition video
output supported
|
| Audio |
- Multi-channel surround sound output
- Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32-bit audio processing
- Over 256 audio channels
|
| Physical Specs |
- Height: 83 mm
- Width: 309 mm
- Depth: 258 mm
- Weight: 7.7 lbs.
|
| System Orientation |
- Stands vertically or horizontally
|
| Customizable Face Plates |
- Interchangeable to personalize the console
|
|
|
Max Shooter XBOX & PS2 Keyboard
& Mouse Adapter Review
by Jeromy
The third and latest XBOX/PS2 keyboard & mouse adapter
to hit the market is the Max Shooter. Before this adapter
was released there was a good chance that the guy destroying
you in Halo 2 was using a regular XBOX controller and
not one of the previously released keyboard & mouse
adapters. Enter Max Shooter stage right. Now you should
be afraid, very afraid, as the Max Shooter basically turns
the console FPS into a PC FPS with all the accuracy that
that entails. After spending a good few days playing Halo
2, Socom II, and Unreal Championship 2 there is little
doubt that FPS games were mostly made to be played with
a mouse and keyboard.
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