|
The Xbox 360 GPU - Interview with B. Feldstein ATI VP EngineeringPublished by forahobby on Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Microsoft revealed that the Xbox 360 will feature a custom ATI graphics processor that clocks in at a blistering 500 MHz, with 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines and 10 MB of embedded RAM. Do all those numbers mean nothing to you?
Don't worry, We had the chance to interview Bob Feldstein, Vice President of Engineering, ATI Technologies, Inc., to learn more about the development and power of the Xenos GPU.
* TeamXbox: Before we continue, we never had the chance to clarify the correct name of the Xbox 360 GPU. Some call it Xenos, others C1. Sometimes it was known as R500. But the rumor was that ATI wanted to avoid that codename because it could make the Xbox 360 GPU look less powerful than ATI's R520 PC part. So, what is the Xbox 360 GPU codename?
* Bob Feldstein: The Xbox GPU had nothing whatsoever to do with the PC products. R500 was never an internal name for the Xbox. Internally we called the GPU, interchangeably, C1 and Xenos. C1 was a code name defined before we had the contract, Xenos was the project name after the contract was won - but C1 stuck in everyone's minds. Once we started calling it C1, it was hard to change.
* TeamXbox: The interface to the system's memory is 128-bit. Isn't this a bottleneck considering the bandwidth-intensive tasks performed in the GPU? Why was a 128-bit bus selected when PC parts already implement 256-bit buses in their high-end editions?
* Bob Feldstein: Excellent question because it gets to the heart of what is right in the system design. We have a great deal of internal memory in the daughter die referred to above. We actually use this memory as our back buffer. In addition, all anti-aliasing resolves, Z-Buffering and Alpha Blending occur within this internal memory. This means our highest bandwidth clients (Z, Alpha and FSAA) occur internally to the chip and don't need to access main memory. This makes the 128 bit interface to system memory, and the ensuing bandwidth, more than enough for our needs because we are offloading the bandwidth hogs to internal memory.
* TeamXbox: When the Xbox 360 GPU features were unveiled, Nvidia expressed doubts about unified shader architecture, particularly about its performance. Do you think Nvidia's comments are due to no Nvidia part, not even the RSX, having a unified shader architecture yet?
* Bob Feldstein: Oh yes. Very much so.
News-Source: http://www.teamxbox.com
( Subscribe via
)
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| Friday, May 10 | | THE SMURFS - Village Party launches in June o |
Thursday, May 09 | | 'Paper Trail' Sets Course for Consoles, PC an |
Wednesday, May 08 | | ESDigital Games and Storm in a Teacup team up |
Tuesday, May 07 | | 'Realm of Ink' Reveils New Map Trailer, Invit |
Monday, May 06 | | Puppet House creeps onto Xbox Series, PS5, an |
Friday, May 03 | | Toopan Games Unveils 2025 Release for 'Multiv |
Thursday, May 02 | | F1 Manager 2024 coming to Xbox X|S, XB1, PS4| |
| System Shock remake arives May 21st on Xbox S |
Wednesday, May 01 | | AAA Multi-IP Battle Royale “OPEN” confirmed f |
| Chrysolite announced for to Xbox Series, Play |
Tuesday, April 30 | | INDIE Live Expo Reveals First 2024 Showcase, |
Monday, April 29 | | Demolish & Build 3 is coming to Xbox, PlaySta |
Friday, April 26 | | Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game laun |
Thursday, April 25 | | Sleight of Hand launches Day One on Xbox Game |
| Space Invaders Deck Commander - The Board Gam |
Wednesday, April 24 | | devcom announces new venue, call for speakers |
Tuesday, April 23 | | Dune: Awakening Shows Off Stunning Unreal Eng |
Monday, April 22 | | Metro Simulator 2 is coming soon for Xbox and |
Thursday, April 18 | | Terminator: Survivors confirmed for Xbox Seri |
Wednesday, April 17 | | Build Your Empire: 'Rise of Industry 2' Comin |
Tuesday, April 16 | | Epic Fantasy RPG 'Dungeons of Hinterberg' is |
Monday, April 15 | | Delta Force: Hawk Ops gets a brand new traile |
| Perennial Order is set to bloom on Xbox Serie |
Friday, April 12 | | Umbraclaw hits Xbox, PlayStation, Switch & PC |
Thursday, April 11 | | TMNT: Wrath of the Mutants Hits XBOX, PlaySta |
| GIC’24 Early Bird Tickets Now Available |
Wednesday, April 10 | | Mars 2120 launches out of Early Access onto a |
Tuesday, April 09 | | Die by the Blade Slashes Its Way onto PC in M |
Monday, April 08 | | Strike Gold with the Call of Duty Gold & Silv |
| Neptunia: Sisters VS Sisters Arrives May 21st |
See All Xbox 360 News | Xbox 360 News Archive
|
| |