X-bit labs

Microsoft Xbox 2 Software Development Kit is Out?

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 02/29/2004 | 07:11 AM ]

Microsoft Corporation has just released its Software Development Kit for the Xbox 2 console, a report over The Inquirer suggests. Apparently, Microsoft supplies Apple POWER Mac G5 systems running “a custom Windows NT Kernel” operating system – something one may hard to believe without becoming familiar with preliminary Xbox 2 specifications

The current version of the Microsoft Xbox 2 SDK is an Apple POWER Macintosh G5 computer based on two IBM POWER PC 64-bit microprocessors. Just like the latest Macs, the Xbox 2 SDK is equipped with ATI RADEON 9800 PRO graphics card. Microsoft decided not to wait for ATI Technologies to supply the next-generation R420 VPUs that resemble Xbox 2 graphics fairly more than the R350 chips.

It is not clear whether “a custom Windows NT Kernel” operating system runs in 32-bit or 64-bit mode. According to Apple, POWER PC architecture was designed from the beginning to run both 32-bit and 64-bit application code. 64-bit mode would require ATI Technologies, SiS and other technology partners of the Redmond, Washington-based software giant to develop drivers specifically for SDK, which may not be possible.

IBM’s POWER chips at 65nm process technology were reportedly taped-out recently and are now evaluated by engineers at Microsoft and IBM, though, the architecture of those microprocessors still remains to be investigated.

There is a lot going on with multi-core, multi-threaded designs at IBM. Apparently, Microsoft also wants to jump on that bandwagon by incorporating IBM’s POWER 976 architecture into the CPUs for Xbox 2 console to allow truly high-performance processing. POWER 976 is expected to be a dual-core processor able to handle two threads at once. What may seem a pretty hard to believe is that Microsoft wants more than 1 such chip to power its forthcoming console, according to some sources.

To get the maximum computing power out of IBM’s 64-bit central processing units, Microsoft may need to develop 64-bit operating system for POWER chips and ensure there are 64-bit drivers for Xbox 2 hardware.

Microsoft or IBM’s spokespersons do not comment on unannounced products.