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XBox, PowerMac G5, and NT?

rt_brained said:
Okay, but this is NOT going to fit in my entertainment center.
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Wow, thats a rather frightening picture. ;)

As long as IBM has plenty of customers, then that means they'll continue to provide faster and better chips to Apple, which is always good.
 
NT

Hey, I don't want to be killed for asking but...if this NT kernel or whatever is so old then is it on the internet for free? Can I download it? Where?
 
Two reasons for going ppc

I can think of two reasons why MS went with PPC for the new xbox:

* heat
* power

Heat is a major problem for consumer-level items, because they're usually stuffed into entertainment centers with little or no ventilation. The fans on the G5 notwithstanding, the G5 heat dissipation is really good. The version that MS will use probably has far better heat characteristics than the current G5s.

Looking forward, it's unclear how the x2 will handle backward compaibility with x1. It's a totally different hardware platform with a totally different ISA. Time will tell.
 
g men

would the best suited analogy for getting X-Box2 running on a mac be the process of getting OS 9 to run via classic mode (same hardware, completely different system)... and if so, classic take virtually no performance hit in OS X, couldn't the same be done with X-Box? Or at least maybe we could restart into XBox mode? I know it took a lot of effort for apple to get classic running as smoothly as it does now (not that I've used it in months).
 
Who ever said gaming is bad on macs?!?

Yeah, all of those kids saying, 'Mac's suck, why? because of gaming, you cant game on them..' First off they are wrong, and second look at your new xbox.....

Other kids go 'I'll never buy a mac, they suck.. period' Once again a mac basher who probably will be out very early to get their xbox 2, with what? dual g5's....
 
Xbox != Mac

mgardner said:
Once again a mac basher who probably will be out very early to get their xbox 2, with what? dual g5's....
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It's a huge leap from "Xbox2 to use custom IBM processor technology" (which is the official statement) to say "dual G5s".

Also, the Xbox2 performance with custom silicon and custom O/S means nothing to the Mac's performance. The Xbox2 could scream, and the Mac could still "suck".

Note that the current Xbox is a 733 MHz Celeron. Think about it....
 
usarioclave said:
Looking forward, it's unclear how the x2 will handle backward compaibility with x1. It's a totally different hardware platform with a totally different ISA. Time will tell.
Click to expand...

If it doesn't handle backward compatiblilty, it won't be the first.

The Nintendeo's consoles (not GameBoy's) haven't had backward as far as I know of.

Also, Sega (as I know of) didin't have backwards compatiblity for it's consoles.
 
usarioclave said:
Looking forward, it's unclear how the x2 will handle backward compaibility with x1. It's a totally different hardware platform with a totally different ISA. Time will tell.
Click to expand...

Maybe MS will get IBM to put pseudo-little-endian mode back into the new custom PPC chip, so that they can use the core logic of Virtual PC !!!

:rolleyes:
 
Gil Amelio and The Gypsey - Take II

(Scene: Mid 1990's.. The curtains part, and a stocky middle-aged man walks into a smokey room, filled with the intoxicating smell of incense. He walks over to a table at the centre of the room where the gypsey sits, expectantly stroking her crystal ball...)

Amelio: Hi! I'm Gi..
Gypsey: I've been expecting you. You want to know where your company will be in 10 years time, yes?

Amelio: Sure! Just need to know how many beige boxes we'll be cranking out then. Heheh.
Gypsey: Mmmm.... none, actually. But don't sweat it..

Amelio: But... Apple will still be in business, riiight?
Gypsey: Oh, sure! Even Microsoft is shipping Macs these days..

Amelio: Micro... Mac... ???
Gypsey: Well, you hardly think Microsoft invested all that money with you for no reason...

Amelio: Eh? You DO know I'm the A.P.P.L.E guy..
Gypsey: Shhhh! Workstations. 64bit RISC workstations. Using IBM processors. Running a Unix OS. That's where Apple's money's at.... Them and music players. Oh, and a music store.

Amelio: Music...store..? Wait a minute, is there a hidden camera? You guys!! Heheh.
Gypsey: No, it's all the truth. That's what Steve Jobs will announce.

Amelio: STEVE JOBS?? What's going to happen to Gil Amelio???
Gypsey:... Sorry, who the hell is Gil Amelio...?

<fade to black>
 
SpaceMagic said:
Why would an xBox need something as powerful as a dual g5??? :D
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Maybe not Dual G5's but the PPC970 is an extrememly capable processor. Imagine all of the detail, textures, AA, AS, FPS, etc... you could push out of a 1.5GHz PPC970 based gaming consoul. The ultamate gaming experience.
 
Opteron said:
Maybe not Dual G5's but the PPC970 is an extrememly capable processor. Imagine all of the detail, textures, AA, AS, FPS, etc... you could push out of a 1.5GHz PPC970 based gaming consoul. The ultamate gaming experience.
Click to expand...

AA and AF is handled by the GPU not the CPU, AF and AA is prety much usless on a consol as the difference wouldnt be that great due to the low resolution. AA and AF usually brings high BW requirements hence very fast memory hence much higher cost, but who cares they can sell it at a loss!
 
AidenShaw said:
But a 32-bit CPU can read 128-bit data! Look at the following list:

  • 8-bit integers - 32-bit & 64-bit
  • 16-bit integers - 32-bit & 64-bit
  • 32-bit integers - 32-bit & 64-bit
  • 64-bit integers - 64-bit
  • 32-bit floating - 32-bit & 64-bit
  • 64-bit floating - 32-bit & 64-bit
  • 128-bit SIMD - 32-bit & 64-bit

The 32-bit CPU can process data in 64-bit chunks, even in 128-bit chunks. The "twice as much data" statement is a 64-bit myth.

The only difference is that the 64-bit CPU has native, single-instruction 64-bit integer operations. This is really the only advantage (other than 64-bit memory, which OS X does not support) of the 64-bit CPU, and for most programs it's not important.

So the "possibility" of reading 64-bits is not unique to a 64-bit CPU....
Click to expand...

As i understand it, the advantage of a 64bit processor is that it can handle 64 bit instructions in a single call whereas 32bit processors need at least 2 calls. What else would be the point of 128bit Altivec if a 32bit processor can do the same thing. 64bit processing has a speed advantage. Just look at AMD64 in 32- and 64-bit mode.

And why do you say that OSX does not support 64 bit memory? You can put 8Gb in the G5 which means it does support it. I recall that OSX has 48bit memory addressing.
 
Frobozz said:
I believe the processors have to be powers of 2 (1,2,4,8,16,32,64, etc...) I think the information you are quoting about 3 processors is misinterpreted because the article never mentioned 3 CPU's. I would suspect a northbridge chip or some other ISA and 2 CPU's-- resulting in 3 "processors". All would be developed by IBM of course.
Click to expand...

I don't believe the processors have to be powers of 2. I think it is perfectly feasible to buy a 4way (opteron for example) motherboard and just install 3 processors.

The power of 2 thing is just efficient for bits, but if you want you can make 9bit sytems, 73mb ramchips, 15bit video (which actually exists: 5bit color components and 1 bit empty or alpha)
 
mkjellman said:
well problem is that they are not going to have a hard drive in the new xbox so it would be hard to try and do it. Also if you really wanted to you would have to find a way to incorperate a hard drive which it may not have the drivers for....just a though
Click to expand...

Why would you need an hard disk to install OSX on an Xbox2? Just burn a bootable install DVD.

second point: kinda weird that if the drivers you need for the hard disk are on the hard disk itself. How can you use the hard disk ;)
 
isgoed said:
I don't believe the processors have to be powers of 2. I think it is perfectly feasible to buy a 4way (opteron for example) motherboard and just install 3 processors.

The power of 2 thing is just efficient for bits, but if you want you can make 9bit sytems, 73mb ramchips, 15bit video (which actually exists: 5bit color components and 1 bit empty or alpha)
Click to expand...
If I assume that this is true, then is no one making odd-size components because of the efficiency in keeping the byte count to a power of 2?
 
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