Krusty Notes:> 1. White? Who wants to have a grungy white/dirt controller after about a > week?> 2. Wireless? Fucking finally! Try putting together a wireless solution for > Xbox now and having headset capability w/XBL...good luck.> 3. Wireless networking, multimedia capabilities (music/video)> 4. Let me just say, "Universal HD support" = *drool*> 5. "..two tiers of the Xbox Live online gaming service, one free and one > with a subscription." Hello, now you cheap fuckers have no excuse> 6. Kiss Sony goodbye, you won't see a PS3 until sometime in 2006

I wish they would announce for certain if it is backwards compatible with > the original Xbox games. All signs seem to point that it will be, but MS > hasn't said anything officially yet. My Xbox is pretty well hosed right > now and I really don't want the games I have going to waste.

Krusty wrote:>> "GM Collins" <gcollins@*SPAM*hfc­c.net**> wrote>>

But with *three* PowerPC chips running at 3.2Ghz, surely they can manage> to emulate x86 at 733Mhz...>

-Vin

I have to think so too. It's based on the same architecture. I mean, > there's> nothing radically different about the underlying architecture. It's not > like what Sony is doing with the PS3, going from one chip design to > another. I just see it as a "second generation" Xbox with features that > the first one couldn't do at the time (wireless, bigger HD, mm features, > HD, etc).>

What, technically, has anyone seen out there that would even *hint* at it > being a departure in architecture?

I didn't know that.>

Okay, that's a huge difference, and I'd be hard pressed to see that being > backwards compatible. Seriously. PowerPC is a true risc based processor, and > the G4/G5s coming out of IBM now are operating on a 128 bit data bus, > there's nothing at Intel that comes close to that. They're a combination of > CISC with a little "pseudo RISC" thrown in.>

Those games have been compiled to the intel architecture, and now they're on > a whole new chip.>

This is *exactly* like trying to play a PC game on a Macintosh. Going from > "Battlefield 1942" which was compiled to run on Intel and putting it in your > Mac and wondering why it won't play.

So would the older games run under emulation then? Is that the word?

That was where the debate you're having right now left off last time I saw > it anywhere. First I read they wouldn't, then they would, then "I dunno".

"Pope GregoryD" <hagar@hotmail.com>­ wrote>> Probably not. Not saying it can't be done, but it's pretty unlikely.>> The>> problem you get when you try to emulate a single threaded app on multiple>> CPUs is one of timing. There's no deterministic way to split up the>> instructions so that one CPU isn't waiting for the results of an>> instruction that another CPU is processing. That's one of the reasons>> that>> the MAME team doesn't support multiple CPUs and doesn't see multi-core>> processors as being that much of an advantage.>>

Waitaminute...is the new Xbox advertising that it has *3* PPCs?>

Where are links to the hardcore specs? Are there any yet? I'm with you,> there's no way they're putting 3 PPCs on there. It *has* to be 3 cores on> one PPC. Right? I mean, it's gotta cost *under* $300 $350...doesn't it?>

I'll go as high as $300 - $350 on the first day of launch, otherwise I'll> just wait until the first price drop. There's no way I could justify> spending upwards of $400 on an xbox 360 when I've got three perfectly good> systems working right now.>

What was the launch price of Xbox originally? The only systems I got on> launch day were the GameCube and the PS2. It was a while before I wound up> getting an Xbox, so they had already done the first or second round of> price drops.>

I'm planning on getting the 360 on launch day, but if they're pricing this> one out of range of a good, first day purchase price, I'll wait a while.

Interesting.

I guess the interesting thing would be whether it's truly 3 PPCs, or a PPC> with 3 cores on it. I'm thinking the latter, which might make the> emulation of the original a bit more feasible. AFAIK, multi-core CPUs> share a level 4 cache that acts as an internal bus on the chip.

So far one of the biggest unanswered questions about the Xbox 360 is > whether or not it’s going to be backwards compatible with games for the > original Xbox. Other the past year or so we’ve gotten plenty of > conflicting reports about backwards compatibility—it’s no secret that > there are some emulation “issues” involved—but the Inq seems to think that > Microsoft might have figured this one out. Their evidence? It’s not > exactly much to go on, so don’t come crying to us when the Xbox 360 comes > out and you can’t play your copy of Halo 2 on it, but they’re pointing to > an online questionaire about Xbox Live which mentions that:>

Xbox Live is an online gaming service that works across both the > current Xbox system and the future Xbox 2. You will be able to play online > and compete against others across both consoles. If you are playing an > Xbox game on Live you will be able to compete against people playing that > same game on Xbox 2.>

The catch is that this doesn’t necessarily imply backwards compatiblity. > It’s possible that this could mean that they’re simply going to rerelease > Xbox 360 versions of current Xbox titles, sort of like how everyone bought > Led Zeppelin IV all over again when it came out on CD. But to be honest, > we won’t know for sure until the reveal all the gory details for the new > console next month.>

Article dated 27 April this year.

Waitaminute...is the new Xbox advertising that it has *3* PPCs?>

Where are links to the hardcore specs? Are there any yet? I'm with you, > there's no way they're putting 3 PPCs on there. It *has* to be 3 cores on > one PPC. Right? I mean, it's gotta cost *under* $300 $350...doesn't it?>

I'll go as high as $300 - $350 on the first day of launch, otherwise I'll > just wait until the first price drop. There's no way I could justify > spending upwards of $400 on an xbox 360 when I've got three perfectly good > systems working right now.>

What was the launch price of Xbox originally? The only systems I got on > launch day were the GameCube and the PS2. It was a while before I wound up > getting an Xbox, so they had already done the first or second round of price > drops.>

I'm planning on getting the 360 on launch day, but if they're pricing this > one out of range of a good, first day purchase price, I'll wait a while.

The *console* is white, not the controller, genius.

The controller was white in some of the pictures I saw, though it also > looks vaguely silver in some others.

6. Kiss Sony goodbye, you won't see a PS3 until sometime in 2006

The console's power button has "skins," customizable appearances> that can apparently be added by the user.

So far one of the biggest unanswered questions about the Xbox 360> is whether or not it’s going to be backwards compatible with games> for the original Xbox. Other the past year or so we’ve gotten> plenty of conflicting reports about backwards compatibility—it’s>­ no secret that there are some emulation “issues” involved—but the> Inq seems to think that Microsoft might have figured this one out.