Xbox 360 Officially Revealed

Well, MTV’s show sure did put all of the Xbox 360 commotion to rest. Like it was mentioned in the previous article regarding the alleged specs of the system, there was a good chance that the entire list was legit. As we found out today, indeed the list was absolutely correct (though missing a few minor things). Microsoft remains mum regarding a specific price for the 360, but has confirmed that a worldwide launch is slated for 2005. Whether or not the worldwide launch means all regions will be selling 360s before 2005 is up, or that a simultaneous launch is planned, is still up in the air. But, seeing as how Billy Gates slipped up and mentioned that the US launch would be in 2005, your best bet is to expect the console around then. In the meantime, take a look again at the slightly updated spec sheet: Also, please note that the DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW does not imply software burning; it implies that you can use the media on the Xbox 360.

  2 types of Xbox Live:

  Xbox Live Silver (no subscription required)

  Xbox Live Gold (subscription benefits)

  Features for Gold service

  * Also for Silver

  # Also for Offline

  – Seamless transition to Xbox Live account from Xbox to Xbox 360

  – Access to MMOs (additional fees may apply) *

  – Free Xbox Live weekends *

  – Multiplayer online gameplay

  – Avatar for gamer profile * #

  – Motto for gamer profile * #

  – Personalized look for Xbox System Guide * #

  – Offline achievements * #

  – Online achievements *

  – Access to other players’ Gamer cards via Live *

  – Cumulative gamer score * #

  – Location/language profile * #

  – Reputation *

  – Enhanced matchmaking using above

  – Skill level matchmaking

  – Gameplay style profile (casual, competitive, etc.)

  – Recent players list *

  – Free and premium download game content *

  – Free and premium downloadable movies, music, tv *

  – Downloadable demos/trailers *

  – Microtransactions *

  – Custom playlist in every game * #

  – Play music from portable devices * #

  – View images from digital camera * #

  – Stream media from Windows XP * #

  – Interactive screen savers * #

  – Track info for CDs * #

  – Communication with voice, video or text *

  Graphics Processor and Memory:

  System Memory: 512MB, 700MHz DDR

  Vector Units: 1 VMX-128 unit per core (3 total)

  CPU Math Performance: 9 Billion Dot Product Operations per Second

  System Memory Bandwidth: 22.4 GB/s, 256 GB/s to EDRAM

  Memory Architecture: Unified Memory Architecture

  Shaders: 48-way Parallel Floating Point Dynamically-Scheduled, 48 billion Operations/s

  Graphics Processor: Custom ATI Processor

  Video Memory: 10MB Embedded DRAM

  Fill Rate (pixels): 16 Gigasamples/s using 4X MSAA

  Fill Rate (triangles): 500 Million/s

  Expansion and Connectivity:

  Digital Media Formats: 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

  Game Media Format: Dual-Layer DVD-ROM

  I/O Connectors: 3 USB 2.0, 2 Memory Slots, Ethernet Port (RJ45)

  Controller Ports: Supports up to 4 Controllers

  Memory Card Ports: 2-Memory Slots, Support Starting at 64MB

  Integrated Communications: 802.11 A/B/G Wi-Fi

  Processor

  Processor: Customer IBM PowerPC CPU

  Processor Clock Speed: 3 Cores at 3.2 GHz, 2 hardware threads per core

  L2 Cache : 1MB

  Integrated Devices

  Built-in Features: Stands Vertically or Horizontally, Interchangeable Face Plates

  System Memory:

  Main Memory Bandwidth: 22.4GB/s

  Storage

  Media Drive: 12 x Dual-Layer DVD-ROM

  Hard Drive: 20GB Removable

  Audio

  Decompression Channels: 320 Independent Decompression Channels

  Surround Sound: Multichannel Output

  Audio Performance: 32-bit, 256 Channel

  Sampling Frequency: 48KHz 16-bit

Author: Arnold Katayev