Microsoft Xbox 360Kevin Mulligan, Maddison Hickson

Agenda● History● High Level Architecture● CPU-Processor Specifics● GPU● Memory● Single Chip● Impact

Game Console Considerations● Up front development● Slow release cycle● Support many years of games● Low console price● Consider simplicity of game creation● Gaming focus -> Entertainment Hub

History● Successor to the Xbox (2002)● Release Date: November 22, 2005

o 83.7 Million sold, 1.5 Million in first quarter

● Competition:o PS3o Nintendo Wii

Marketing/Business● Target Buyers:

o Initially: Gamerso Later: Gamers/General public

● Extremely competitive market● Microsoft pushed to release early

o Red ring of deatho $1 billion dollar loss

● $3 Billion loss on hardwareo $126 loss per Xbox 360 at launcho Makes money through licensing fees

High Level Architecture● Optimized for Gaming● Flexible● Simple

Processor Specifics - Overview● Microsoft XPU (Xenon)

○ Designed by IBM○ PowerPC ISA

● 90nm Processes● 165 Million Transistors

Processor Specifics● 3 Cores● 3.2 GHz● L1 each core● L2 Shared

Processor Specifics - Cache ● L1 Split Cache

○ Data■ 32 KB ■ 2-way set associative

○ Instruction■ 32 K■ 4-way set associative

● L2 Shared○ 1-Mbyte○ Memory Bandwidth:51.2 GB/s ○ 8-way set associative

Processor Specifics - Pipeline● Two issue● In-order execution● Execution Pipelines:

o Branch, Integer, Load/Storeo Unified VMX and Floating Point

GPU● ATI Xenos● 500 MHz● 10-Mbyte eDRAM

o 256 Gbyte/s● 754 floating point ALUs

o 32-bit● FSB

o L2 cache reads

Vector Processing● VMX SIMD vector instruction set

○ 128 Registers, 128bits each, per hardware thread

● CPU performs these calculations for the GPU○ 25GB/s of bandwidth

Memory● Unified Memory● 512Mbyte GDDR3● 1.4 Gbit/pin/s● Memory Bandwidth: 22.4 Gbytes/s

Input/Output● DVD drive● Hard drive● Controllers● USB ports● Ethernet● Audio

Input/Output● Video output

○ Direct from GPU○ Up to 1080p

● South Bridge Interface○ 1GB/sec bandwidth○ 500MB Read/500MB Write

Single Chip Slim Design● System-on-a-Chip(SoC)

o CPUo GPUo I/O

● Lower Cost● Reduction of Size● More Power Efficient● No Performance boost

Success?● Comparable sales to competition (~84 Million)● 9 year lifespan● Xbox 360 initially dominated sales

○ In the end PS4 and Xbox 360 sold close to the same amount

Impact● First mass-market, desktop-class processor, to include

SoC● Predecessor to Xbox One● Industry leading

○ Multimedia○ Programming simplicity○ Available titles○ Digital distribution of titles

Questions?

References● https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~milom/cis501-Fall08/papers/xbox-system.pdf● http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2010/08/23/microsoft-beats-intel-amd-to-market-with-cpugpu-

combo-chip/● http://www.anandtech.com/show/1719/7● http://www.cdrinfo.com/sections/news/Details.aspx?NewsId=14842● http://techreport.com/review/8342/details-of-ati-xbox-360-gpu-unveiled● http://www.geekwire.com/2013/xbox-360-wii-ps3-won-console-generation/● http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/07/xbox-360-and-ps3-losses-total-8-billion-ex-sony-employee-

paints-grim-future/● http://www.neowin.net/news/report-microsofts-xbox-division-has-lost-nearly-3-billion-in-10-years● http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-taking-126-hit-per-xbox-360/1100-6140383/