The hardware of the Xbox 360 includes many parts, both internally in the console itself and as separate pieces of kit, or accessories. The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS.

Central processing unit

Main article: Xenon (processor)

The Xbox 360 takes a new approach to hardware compared to its predecessor. Xenon is a CPU that is used in the Xbox 360 game console The processor internally codenamed "Waternoose" by IBM and "XCPU" The CPU, named Xenon at Microsoft and "Waternoose" at IBM, is a custom triple-core PowerPC-based design by IBM. PowerPC is a RISC Instruction set architecture created by the 1991 Apple – IBM – Motorola alliance known as AIM International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology The CPU emphasizes high floating point performance through multiple FPU and SIMD vector processing units in each core. In Computing, floating point describes a system for numerical representation in which a string of digits (or Bits represents a Real number. A floating point unit (FPU is a part of a Computer system specially designed to carry out operations on Floating point numbers In Computing, SIMD ( S ingle I nstruction M ultiple D ata is a technique employed to achieve data level parallelism as in a Vector A vector processor, or array processor, is a CPU design where the instruction set includes operations that can perform mathematical operations on multiple data It has a theoretical peak performance of 115. 2 gigaflops and is capable of 9. 6 billion dot products per second. In Mathematics, the dot product, also known as the scalar product, is an operation which takes two vectors over the Real numbers R Each core of the CPU is simultaneous multithreading capable and clocked at 3. Simultaneous multithreading, often abbreviated as SMT, is a technique for improving the overall efficiency of Superscalar CPUs with Hardware The clock rate is the fundamental rate in cycles per second (measured in Hertz) at which a Computer performs its most basic operations such as adding two 2 gigahertz. The hertz (symbol Hz) is a measure of Frequency, informally defined as the number of events occurring per Second. However, to reduce CPU die size, complexity, cost, and power demands, the processor uses in-order execution in contrast to the Intel Coppermine128-based Pentium III used in Xbox which used more advanced out-of-order execution. In Computer engineering, out-of-order execution, OoOE, is a paradigm used in most high-performance Microprocessors to make use of cycles that Pentium III variants Katmai The first Pentium III variant was the Katmai (Intel product code 80525 In Computer engineering, out-of-order execution, OoOE, is a paradigm used in most high-performance Microprocessors to make use of cycles that The original chip uses a 90 nanometer process, although a newer 65 nanometer process SOI revision is currently in the market. The 90 nanometer (90 nm process refers to the level of CMOS process technology that was reached in the 2002-2003 timeframe by most leading semiconductor companies The 65 nanometer (65 nm process is an advanced lithographic node used in volume CMOS Semiconductor fabrication. Silicon on insulator technology ( SOI) refers to the use of a layered silicon-insulator-silicon Substrate in place of conventional silicon substrates in semiconductor A 21. 6 GB/s front side bus, aggregated 10. In Personal computers the Front Side Bus ( FSB) is the bus that carries data between the CPU and the northbridge. 8 GB/s upstream and downstream, connects Xenon with the graphics processor/northbridge. The northbridge, also known as the memory controller hub ( MCH) in Intel systems (AMD VIA SiS and others usually use 'northbridge' is traditionally one Xenon is equipped with a 1 MB Level 2 cache on-die running at half CPU clock speed. A megabyte is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 106 (1000000 Bytes or 220 (1048576 bytes depending on This cache is shared amongst the three CPU cores. ^[1] The CPU also contains ROM storing Microsoft private encrypted keys, used to decrypt game data. The heat sink implemented to cool the CPU is composed of aluminum fins with copper base heat pipes. WikipediaNaming Copper (ˈkɒpɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol Cu (cuprum and Atomic number 29 A heat pipe is a heat transfer mechanism that can transport large quantities of heat with a very small difference in Temperature between the hotter and colder interfaces The heat sink is cooled by two 60 millimeter fans at the back of the console. The Millimetre ( American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm) is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to There are several types of fan used in the 360 from manufacturers Nidec, Sunon and Delta Electronics. Nidec are considered quietest.

Xbox 360 GPU; note the smaller eDRAM die to the left of the main Xenos die

Graphics processing unit

Main article: Xenos

While the first Xbox's graphics processing unit was produced by NVIDIA, the Xbox 360 uses a chip designed by ATI called Xenos. Microchipsjpg|right|thumb|200px|Microchips ( EPROM memory with a transparent window showing the integrated circuit inside The multinational NVIDIA Corporation ( (ɪnˈvɪdiə specializes in the manufacture of graphics-processor technologies for Workstations The chip was developed under the name "C1" and "R500" was often used to refer to it. ^[2] The GPU package contains two separate silicon dies, each on a 90 nm chip with a clock speed of 500 MHz; the GPU proper, manufactured by TSMC and a 10 MB eDRAM daughter-die, manufactured by NEC. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited ( Traditional Chinese: 台灣積體電路製造股份有限公司 abbrev eDRAM stands for " embedded DRAM " a Capacitor -based Dynamic random access memory usually integrated on the same die is a Japanese multinational IT company headquartered in Minato Tokyo, Japan. Thanks to the daughter die, the Xenos can do 4x FSAA, z-buffering, and alpha blending with no appreciable performance penalty on the GPU. In Digital signal processing, anti-aliasing is the technique of minimizing the distortion artifacts known as Aliasing when representing a high-resolution signal In Computer graphics, z-buffering is the management of image depth coordinates in three-dimensional (3-D graphics usually done in Hardware, sometimes in In Computer graphics, alpha compositing is the process of combining an image with a background to create the appearance of partial transparency ^[3] The GPU also houses additional capabilities typically separated into a motherboard chipset in PC systems, effectively replacing the northbridge chip. A motherboard is the central or primary Printed circuit board (PCB making up a complex electronic system such as a modern Computer or Laptop A chipset is a group of Integrated circuits or chips that are designed to work together and are usually marketed as a single product The northbridge, also known as the memory controller hub ( MCH) in Intel systems (AMD VIA SiS and others usually use 'northbridge' is traditionally one An aluminum heat sink was implemented to cool the GPU in systems manufactured prior to the second half of 2007; after this time, the GPU heatsink was revised in order to better move heat away from the GPU die. A heat sink (or heatsink) is an environment or object that absorbs and dissipates heat from another object using Thermal contact (either direct or radiant The new heatsink is made from a different materials and is connected to a new secondary heatsink (located in front of the CPU heatsink, to the right of the DVD drive) via a copper heatpipe.

Memory and system bandwidth

Xbox 360 Bandwidth Diagram

The console features 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM clocked at 700 megahertz with an effective transmission rate of 1. GDDR3, Graphics Double Data Rate 3, is a graphics card-specific memory technology designed by ATI Technologies with the collaboration of JEDEC In Computing, a Computer bus operating with double data rate transfers data on both the rising and falling edges of the Clock signal. 4 GHz on a 128-bit bus. The memory is shared by the CPU and the GPU via the unified memory architecture. In Computing, shared memory is a memory that may be simultaneously accessed by multiple programs with an intent to provide communication among them or avoid redundant copies This memory is produced by either Samsung or Qimonda. The Samsung Group ( Korean:, Samsung Guerup) is South Korea 's largest company or Chaebol and the world's largest conglomerate Qimonda AG ( (pronounced "key-MON-duh" is a Memory company split out of Infineon Technologies AG on May 1 2006 to form the second

The Xbox 360 has an extensive amount of bandwidth in comparison to its competition;^[4] however this statistic includes the eDRAM logic to memory bandwidth, and not internal CPU bandwidths. eDRAM stands for " embedded DRAM " a Capacitor -based Dynamic random access memory usually integrated on the same die The eDRAM internal logic to its internal memory bandwidth is 256 GB/s. eDRAM stands for " embedded DRAM " a Capacitor -based Dynamic random access memory usually integrated on the same die Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, refers to Computer components devices and recording media that retain digital The high bandwidth is used primarily for z-buffering, alpha blending, and antialiasing; it saves time and space on the GPU die. In Computer graphics, z-buffering is the management of image depth coordinates in three-dimensional (3-D graphics usually done in Hardware, sometimes in In Computer graphics, alpha compositing is the process of combining an image with a background to create the appearance of partial transparency In Digital signal processing, anti-aliasing is the technique of minimizing the distortion artifacts known as Aliasing when representing a high-resolution signal Between the eDRAM die and the GPU, data is transferred at 32 GB/s. eDRAM stands for " embedded DRAM " a Capacitor -based Dynamic random access memory usually integrated on the same die ^[5] The memory interface bus has a bandwidth of 22. 40 GB/s and the southbridge a bandwidth of 500 MB/s. The Southbridge, also known as the I/O Controller Hub ( ICH) in Intel systems (AMD VIA SiS and others usually

Audio and video

All games made for the Xbox 360 are required to support at least 5.1-channel Dolby Digital surround sound. 51, Multichannel audio, Multichannel music Surround 3D Surround 5 Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies developed by Dolby The console works with over 256 audio channels and 320 independent decompression channels using 32-bit processing for audio, with support for 48 kHz 16-bit sound. The range of Integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4294967295 or −2147483648 through 2147483647 using Two's complement encoding Sound files for games are encoded using Microsoft's XMA audio format. XMA is the native Xbox 360 compressed audio format based on the WMA Pro architecture An MPEG-2 decoder is included for DVD video playback. MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information" VC-1 or WMV is used for streaming video and other video is compressed using VC-1 at non-HD NTSC and PAL resolutions or WMV HD. VC-1 is the informal name of the SMPTE 421M Video codec standard initially developed by Microsoft. Windows Media Video ( WMV) is a compressed Video file format for several proprietary Codecs developed by Microsoft. Streaming multimedia is Multimedia that is constantly received by and normally presented to an end-user while it is being delivered by a streaming provider (the High-definition television (HDTV is a Digital television Broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems (standard-definition NTSC ( National Television System Committee) is the Analog television system used in the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a colour -encoding system used in Broadcast television systems in large parts of the world Windows Media High Definition Video (WMV HD is the marketing name for high definition videos encoded using Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 The Xbox 360 also supports H.263 and H.264 MPEG-4 videos. H263 is a Video codec standard originally designed as a low-bitrate compressed format for Videoconferencing. H264 is a standard for Video compression. It is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding) MPEG-4 is a collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV digital data Unlike the original Xbox, voice communication is handled by the console, not by the game code, allowing for cross-game communication. There is no voice echo to game players on the same console; voice only goes to remote consoles.

There are no digital video outputs such as DVI or HDMI on Core packages or Premium packages manufactured before July 2007; instead, HD-quality output could only be produced over VGA or component video. The High-Definition Multimedia Interface ( HDMI) is a compact audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams An HDMI port and cables is included in the Elite SKU; the Pro and Arcade versions also have the port, but lack the HDMI cable. A Stock Keeping Unit, or SKU (pronounced either as an Acronym (ˈskjuː or as an Initialism (/ˌɛsˌkeɪˈjuː/ “S–K–U” is a The High-Definition Multimedia Interface ( HDMI) is a compact audio/video connector interface for transmitting uncompressed digital streams A wide array of SDTV and HDTV resolutions are supported by the console hardware;^[6] up to 1080p after the October 2006 software upgrade. High-definition television (HDTV is a Digital television Broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems (standard-definition ^[7] While most games are rendered natively at 720p, the video from all games can be scaled by the hardware to whatever resolution the user has set in the console's settings; from 480i NTSC and 576i PAL all the way to 1080p HDTV. In computer graphics image scaling is the process of resizing a Digital image. Up to 1080p, the resolution the console will output is only limited by the chosen display equipment's capability (TV, projector, etc. ) and the video cables used to connect the two.

DVD storage

Early production runs of the Xbox 360 are equipped with a 12x DVD drive, capable of a maximum read rate of 15. 85 MB/s. ^[8] The original production DVD drives were manufactured by both LG and Toshiba. Beginning in November 2006, a new model the BenQ VAD6038 was introduced, which is said to run faster than the previous models and, in addition, is much quieter. ^[8][9] Games are stored on standard dual-layer DVD-ROMs with 7 GB of usable space available for game content. DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is DVD (also known as " Digital Versatile Disc " or " Digital Video Disc " - see Etymology)is A gigabyte (derived from the SI prefix Giga-) is a unit of Information or Computer ^[10] The option to apply a regional lockout to games is available to publishers, although DVD region codes are always enforced for movies. Regional lockout is the programming practice code chip or physical barrier used to prevent the playing of media designed for a device from the country where it is marketed on the DVD video discs may be encoded with a region code restricting the area of the world in which they can be played Microsoft has implemented methods to prevent hacking through the drive. Later drive models have the external debug triggering removed and black hard glue added to cover all the chip and controller pins. ^[11] The drive is able to read both DVD±R and DVD±RW in addition to being able to play DVD-Video out of the box, unlike its predecessor, which required the purchase of an add-on remote. DVD±R (also DVD+/-R "DVD plus/dash R" or "DVD plus/minus R" is not a separate DVD Format, but rather is a Shorthand term for a Items functionalities or features provided out of the box are those that do not require any additional installations, Plug-ins Expansion packs or products The system is also capable of playing standard CDs along with CD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM XA, CD-Extra, WMA-CD, MP3-CD, and JPEG Photo CD. A CD-R ( C ompact D isc- R ecordable is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. Compact Disc ReWritable (CD-RW is a rewritable Optical disc format Red Book is the standard for audio CDs ( Compact Disc Digital Audio system or CDDA) CD-ROM (an initialism of "Compact Disc Read-Only Memory " is a pre-pressed Compact Disc that contains data accessible to but not writable Windows Media Audio ( WMA) is an Audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a Digital audio encoding format using a form of Lossy data compression Photo CD is a system designed by Kodak for digitizing and storing photos in a CD ^[12] Some users reported problems with the disc drive, as when a user changes the console's orientation, the inserted disc may brush against the drive's pickup assembly and incur scratches to it. ^[13] The users manual advises against changing the console's position while there is a disc in the drive. Other users report experiencing disc scratching during normal horizontal usage.

Announced at CES 2006 and first publicly shown at E3 2006, an external HD DVD drive was released in North America on November 7, 2006, for US$199. The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES is a Trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is sponsored The Xbox 360 Game console, developed by Microsoft, features a number of first-party and third-party accessories Events 1492 - The Ensisheim Meteorite the oldest Meteorite with a known date of impact strikes the Earth around noon in a Wheat Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. 99, and in Japan on November 17, 2006, for ¥19,800. Events 284 - Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by his soldiers Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. In Europe, the HD DVD drive was released for €199. not insert the publicly disclosed HD DVD key into this article for the time being 99/£129. 99 in the UK, France, and Germany. ^[14] The HD DVD drive was bundled for a limited time with an Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote, as well as an HD DVD copy of Peter Jackson’s King Kong. King Kong is a 2005 Remake of the 1933 film of the same name about a fictional giant ape called Kong. ^[14] The drive plays HD DVD movies, although all Xbox 360 games will remain on the DVD format. ^[15] Microsoft has no plans to include an internal HD DVD player in future Xbox 360 designs. ^[16] The external drive connects to the Xbox 360 via USB and contains two integrated USB ports on the rear. An external hard disk drive is a type of Hard disk drive which is externally connected to a computer Games can not be played on the HD-DVD drive.

Microsoft has since discontinued the HD-DVD add-on since the format was officially dropped by Toshiba. All remaining drives on store shelves have been drastically reduced in price by an average of US$50. 00 to US$129. 00 Some retailers have lowered it to as low as US$50. 00 to clear it from their inventory. ^[17]

Hard drive storage

The Premium configuration of the system comes with a detachable 20 GB hard drive and it is optional to separately purchase one for the Core and the Arcade versions of the Xbox 360. A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device The total capacity of the Xbox 360 Hard Drive is 20 GB. Of this amount, approximately 7 GB is reserved for system use; approximately 4 GB of that portion is reserved for game title caching and other hard drive specific elements in games that support the hard drive, and an additional 2 GB is reserved for use by the Xbox 360 backwards-compatibility software. This leaves almost 14 GB of free space, rounded down to 13 GB in the Dashboard, for saving game files, downloadable content, such as music and media.

Depending on the market, the hard drive comes preloaded with content, such as videos and Live Arcade games. Therefore, actual free space on a new hard drive may be 11 to 12 GB. ) . It is not required for standard games, with the exception of Football Manager 2006. Football Manager 2006 is a game in the Football Manager series of football management simulation games The custom 2. 5" hard drive is connected through a SATA interface and spins at 5400 rpm. The Xbox 360 Elite has a 120 GB HDD. The Xbox 360 is the second Video game console produced by Microsoft, and was developed in cooperation with IBM, ATI, and SiS. A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device It is packaged in a black case to match the Elite, unlike 20 GB drives which are grey, matching the top of the Core and Premium units. The 120 GB HDD retail price was GB£129. 99 and US$179. 99.

Networking

All versions of the Xbox 360 come with a built in Ethernet 10/100 adapter. No version includes a WiFi card, although a separate adapter can be purchased for wireless networking.

New motherboards

It had been reported that there are three motherboards for the Xbox 360 in development: Jasper, Opus and Valhalla ^{[18][19][20][21]}.

The "Jasper" Xbox 360 motherboard will include both a 65nm CPU and GPU, as opposed to the Falcon motherboard (currently in the market), which has a 65nm CPU but not a 65nm GPU. This revision will further reduce heat generated from the processors.

The "Opus" Xbox 360 motherboard is a revision of the Falcon motherboard designed for the older models of the Xbox 360 - the ones which lack the HDMI port. It will implement a 65nm CPU into consoles which are sent to Microsoft for repair.

The "Valhalla" Xbox 360 motherboard is reported to include a CPU and GPU unified into one chip, which will be manufactured at the 65nm process. This revision will reduce production costs, as only one chip will be manufactured rather than two individual chips, and a simpler cooling system will be utilized.

Connectivity to accessories

An Xbox 360 Wireless Controller

See also: Xbox 360 accessories

Xbox 360 also has a built-in 100BASE-TX Ethernet port, suitable for connecting to Xbox Live, and three USB ports. The Xbox 360 Game console, developed by Microsoft, features a number of first-party and third-party accessories There are a few standards for Ethernet over twisted pair or Copper -based computer networking physical connectivity methods Ethernet is a family of frame -based Computer networking technologies for Local area networks (LANs ^[12]

The Xbox 360 supports up to four wireless controllers and three wired controllers (four with the use of a USB hub). A USB hub is a device that allows many USB devices to be connected to a single USB port on the host computer or another hub The wireless protocol is also used for other devices like the wireless force feedback racing wheel and wireless headsets. Many Board games can be said to be racing games such as Snakes and Ladders, Cribbage, or Formula Dé.

The Xbox 360 can connect to Xbox Live through an optional wireless network adapter on a home network through a wireless router. IEEE 80211 is a set of standards for wireless local area network (WLAN computer communication developed by the IEEE LAN/MAN Standards Committee ( IEEE 802 A home network is a residential Local area network, and is used to connect multiple devices within the home A router ('rautər in the USA 'rutər in the UK and Ireland, or either pronunciation in Australia and Canada is a Computer whose software and hardware are usually The Universal Media Remote can be used to control several functions of the console, including the Windows Media Center functions if connected to the network. Windows Media Center is an application designed to serve as a home-entertainment hub. Various other components for the console exist, such as decorative faceplates to change the physical appearance of the console, wired or wireless headsets for communication over Xbox Live, and an Xbox 360 branded webcam called Xbox Live Vision. Features Buttons on outer side of headset to control volume power and mute functions Sync Button to connect to an Xbox 360 console when the console's Webcams ( web cameras) are small cameras (usually though not always Video cameras, whose images can be accessed using the World Wide Web, instant Overview The camera can be used for Video chat, personalized gamer pictures in-game video chat and still pictures

The console also has two front-mounted memory card slots for the system's proprietary Memory Unit. A memory card or flash memory card is a solid-state electronic Flash memory Data storage device used with Digital These can be used to transfer personal game data from one Xbox 360 to another. The current "Arcade" model comes with a 256 MB Memory Unit. Memory Unit up to 512 MB are available from Microsoft.

Physical appearance

The Xbox 360 physical outline is 309 mm (wide) × 83 mm (high) × 258 mm (deep) and is similar in form factor to its predecessor. The Millimetre ( American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm) is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to It is slightly slimmer in every dimension, and the Xbox 360 is white, black or green with a slightly concave, whereas the original Xbox was black and noticeably convex. It was designed by Astro Studios in cooperation with Hers Experimental Design Laboratory. ^[22] The front of the console features a "ring of light", which displays 4 illuminated quadrants either in red or green. When the lights turn red, the console has encountered a fault condition, the number of sectors illuminated informs a user what category the error falls into. The Xbox 360 Video game console is subject to a number of technical problems that can render it unusable The Xbox 360 has a weight of 3. 5 kg (7. 7 lb), about 350 grams lighter than the original Xbox. The pound or pound-mass (abbreviation lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States #) is a unit of Mass For other uses of the words gram or gramme see Gram (disambiguation. The console uses an external power supply with a 5A / 100–120V AC input and DC output of 203/175 (depending on revision) W. Power supply is a reference to a source of Electrical power. A device or system that supplies Electrical or other types of Energy to an output load The ampere, in practice often shortened to amp, (symbol A is a unit of Electric current, or amount of Electric charge per second The volt (symbol V) is the SI derived unit of electric Potential difference or Electromotive force. An alternating current ( AC) is an Electric current whose direction reverses cyclically as opposed to Direct current, whose direction remains constant Direct current ( DC) is the unidirectional flow of Electric charge. The watt (symbol W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one Joule of energy per Second. An estimated 2 W of power are used while the console is in standby mode, a yearly usage of 20 kWh. See also Standby power Sleep mode refers to a low power mode for electronic devices such as computers televisions and remote controlled devices ^[23] Saving the console size and weight, the power supply displaces 1300 cm³. CM3 redirects here If you were looking for the 3rd game in the Cooking Mama series abbreviated as CM3 see here. ^[24]

References

External links

• Official Xbox/Xbox 360 Website
• Gamerscore Blog—Official PR and Marketing Team Blog
• Xbox Development Team Blog