AMO looks into Microsofts' XBOX (UPDATED)
  03/26/2001 7:17:32 PM MT Albuquerque, Nm
  By Dustin D. Brand; Owner AMO

the XBOX is set to revolutionize game platforms
  American made Microsoft is entering a market previously dominated by the Japanese; Game Consoles. Today at the CES (Computer and Electronics Show), Microsoft unveiled the XBOX.

  The Microsoft XBOX is a computer system made for games and designed with the gamer in mind. It is basically a Game Platform or Console that uses the latest in Computer Technology to deliver the most stunning gaming capabilities that have ever existed. The XBOX does so with a custom grapihics chip designed by NVIDIA and Microsoft which is the most sophisticated GPU ever invented for a Computer. Aside from the GPU, the CPU will be either a Pentium III FC-PGA 733 MHZ or a faster 1.1 GHZ Pentium III FC-PGA (these are the fastest Pentium III's available and are generally found in Web-Servers). XBOX uses DVD-ROM format, is able to play DVD-Movies and comes with a 10 Gig Hard Drive, 4 Controller Ports, 256 Channels of Audio, HDTV Support for Plasma Displays or FPD's, and the XBOX is Broadband enabled with a fast 100 MBit per second ethernet port.

Below are a list of the specs straight from Microsoft.

 

Xbox

Sony Playstation 2

Nintendo GameCube

CPU

733 MHz Pentium III

294.912 MHz

405MHz Power PC

Graphics Processor

250Mhz custom-designed chip, developed by Microsoft and nVidia

147.456MHz

202.5 MHz Custom chip "Flipper"

Total Memory

64MB

32MB

43MB

Memory Bandwidth

6.4 GB/sec

3.2 GB/sec

3.2 GB/sec

Polygon Performance

125 M/sec

66 M/sec

6-12 M/sec

Simultaneous Textures

4

1

N/A

Pixel Fill Rate - No Texture

4.0 G/sec

2.4 G/sec

N/A

Pixel Fill Rate - 1 Textures

4.0 G/sec

1.2 G/sec

N/A

Pixel Fill Rate - 2 Textures

4.0 G/sec

0.6 G/sec

N/A

Compressed Textures

Yes (6:1)

No

ST3C compressed textures (6:1)

Storage Medium

2-5x DVD, Hard Disk 10 GB, 8MB Memory card

4x DVD, 8MB Memory card

Proprietary 1.5GB disc, Digicard - ½ Megabyte

Input/Output

Game controller x4 Ethernet (10/100)

Game controller x2 USB 1394 PCMCIA

Game controller x4 High-Speed serial port x2 High-Speed Parallel Port

Audio Channels

256

48

64

3D Audio Support in Hardware

Yes (64 3D channels)

No

N/A

Midi+DLS Support

Yes

Yes

N/A

Hardware audio filtering and EQ

Yes

No

N/A

BroadBand Enabled

Yes

Future Upgrade

Optional

DVD Movie Playback

with Remote Control

Yes

With Panasonic version

HDTV Movie Support

Yes

Yes

No

HDTV Game Support

Yes

No

N/A

Maximum Resolution

1920x1080

1280x1024

N/A

Maximum Resolution (2 x 32bpp frame buffers + Z)

1920x1080

640x480

N/A

US Launch Date

Fall 2001 US & Japan, Spring 2002 Europe

October 2000

October 2001
  Microsoft Xbox Web-Site

  Related AMO Articles:
   Trying to stop the XBOX...
   Disspelling XBOX Rumors
   Microsofts' XBOX Online Edge
   The XBOX GPU, an inside look.
   John Carmack talks about the XBOX GPU
   The XBOX has them drooling...
   XBOX GPU sent to fabrication
   Microsofts' XBOX vs Japan
   AMO Looks into the XBOX