A deep dive into Microsoft’s XBox One’s architecture

The system, CPUs, and main memory under the microscope @hotchips

EDIT:Semi accurate will detail the GPU and other aspects of the system in th coming days.

[NextGen24Gamer]

Everything discussed in the article is in regards to the CPU and how massive & custom it is. What hasn't been talked about is the custom APU/DGPU. That is still under wraps, but just like the CPU has a TON of surprises, the same will be shown with the massively customized APU/DGPU. As stated in the article, more is to come!!!!!

"I see a heap of people trying to add the x1 memory bandwidth and not getting the right figure. They all seem to see that some thing is missing or not adding up. They think ms are fools.. But the real truth is right in front of them.

If they factored in why there is a quad memory design 4x 256bit. Because each gpu and cpu has two read and wright address lines rather then have one big 512bit address line. Ms designed two 256bit gfx cores. Which each can access cpus. That is also why the cpu's are not one big clusters the cpus are split into 4 core. It would have made the cpu recourse worse over a 512bit bus and it would have coursed stalling and fragmentation. This is also why there is two swizzle main accelators / data move engines with 30gbs r/w that are solely for cpu/gpu. Do the maths with a second gpu architecture. Then it will all add up.. the system will not see 5tf performance gains. But 2.4 -3.1 is what has been said at many discussion. Which is why I have said 680 level of performance :)"

http://misterxmedia.livejou...

[edgeofsins]

Oh, so each CPU core is split into 4 cores. So X1 has 24 cores? That's odd that Microsoft wouldn't announce that they have better specs. It's so odd that your "insiders" have the same grammar and choice of words as the author.

[NewMonday]

@Elite24Gamer

your stories are like a wired Terry Gilliam fantasy now.

[dazzrazz]

Where do you have 24 cores ? Did you even think what would be the thermal output and how much electricity this thing would eat if that was even possible at this size of a console ? Did you even have a slightest idea what would be the price of the whole console, not even a cpu itself ? Let me put it into perspective 8 core Xeon server cpu costs well over 3k dollars ! The 6 cores i7 3960x dsktop cpu is over $1000 The worst part is 4 idiots already agreed on what you wrote and that's where average console gamer education about hardware ends !

[Flutterby]

Mark elite as spam or trolling he has been using this same guys blog full of made up info in every article he can find , I have a feeling they are all the same person

[NextGen24Gamer]

MS just released info on the custom CPU. They still haven't released the info on the custom GPU...But, like the article states, more is to come about that from Microsoft. Common sense says the reason they didn't brag about actual specs early on is because they don't want Sony to counter their moves. They will wait till its too late for Sony to change anything. I've heard that at TGS, MS will tell about the custom GPU. What we know as of now is that the GPU is 1.3 TFLOPS. What we don't know is what else is on that die. What the CPU structure and insiders are alluding to is a DGPU along with the APU....That would be running at 1.3 to 1.8 TFLOPS. Which would put the xbox one at 2.6 to 3.1 TFLOPS. But, once again, more info will come soon from MS and I've said this before. Everyone thought MS was coo coo for saying that the xbox one can do 4k games....Well, I can say that, with the numbers we had previously...EVERYONE would be correct in assuming that, but obviously MS knows a lot more about their hardware than they are telling at this point. Let SONY brag and boast.

Developers have already said that they are shocked at how the xbox one is only 500 dollars with the amount of tech they put in there. We will soon see the entire picture. MS just has to wait for the point of no return for Sony.

[DoesUs]

@Elite, the point of no return was about 6 months ago.

Just drop it, the hole you are digging is getting bigger by the minute.

[TI_21]

Do you seriously believe the BS you are posting?

"Common sense says the reason they didn't brag about actual specs early on is because they don't want Sony to counter their moves."

Common sense says that Sony hasn't been in a position to change anything about their hardware for a long time.
Still no info on anything you keep on posting; It's wrong, simple as that.

[Gster]

@Elite
"Common sense says the reason they didn't brag about actual specs early on is because they don't want Sony to counter their moves. They will wait till its too late for Sony to change anything."
But in the meantime, in the many months running up to the release of the two consoles, they allow Sony to run away with pre-orders, and changing even the minds of xb1 most loyal, don't you think as profit making organisation they would have played probably their strongest hand months ago, I do. Just like they changed all their policy to follow suit with Sony days if not hours after Sony showed the World how to do business.

[Freedomland]

@Elite24Gamer

I think even Microsoft doesn't know what you know about their hardware.
I don't understand why are you lying and creating things out of your delusional fanboys mind. But still i want to explain something to you that people are not interested in the architecture and individual terms and parts, they are more interested in the total output of the parts when they are put together. When you go to buy speakers, you look for watts, more Watts equals more power, when you look at engine of a car you look for horsepower, the more it is, the faster that car will be, nobody cares how they achieve that power they just need the best for their money, same is the case with X1 and Ps4, actually the output of the Ps4 is better than X1 according to the specs and that's what we need, and NO COMPANY, i will repeat here again NO COMPANY in their right mind can release the lesser specs just to be destroyed by the competition first and gain momentum afterwards with higher specs.
People like to buy high end products within affordable price. The answer is PS4, Simple.

[4Sh0w]

"That means the XBox One’s 8 Jaguar cores are clocked at ~1.9GHz, something that wasn’t announced at Hot Chips. Now you know."

I thought it was 1.6????

[DoesUs]

I'm p!ssing myself laughing at all you findings and posts!

[NextGen24Gamer]

http://www.xboxlive.fr/news...

[DoesUs]

Yeah thanks for that. Appreciate your...vigour and enthusiasm. But it's still not happening. Jog on.

[iamnsuperman]

Stop posting that guy. Microsoft have already announced the specs at the conference. It doesn't change because that link says so. The blog is made up rubbish

[DonFreezer]

The funny thing is the link you have provided has some people who know obviously ten times all of the n4g fanboys together about engineering and you get disagrees because they are so butthurt(the sonyboys)that they thing the truth won't come out.

[grassyknoll]

Please stop.

[GarrusVakarian]

You are so boring. Do you know that?

If what you say is true (and that's a very big if), then good, because i plan to get both consoles anyway and the more power the better. But when this most likely explodes in your face, don't be surprised if everyone on this website laughs at you every time you post from then on.

[Kayant]

You know your arguement is a complete fail because MS themselves have already said they didn't target the most powerful GPU. ----> http://www.engadget.com/201...

At about 5:49.

So Xbox one having dual GPUs like you say it does makes no sense. And remember these are the guys responsible for designing the architecture of the Xbox one.

So continuing dreaming and when the time comes we will just laugh at you.

[toxiichollow]

please try to disprove this...
http://www.linkedin.com/in/...

[Kayant]

@ toxiichollow

I can't disprove that.... However all this says is that the Next-gen consoles could be using a discrete GPU instead of the onboard ones kabini apus use for their graphics solution (These chips are semi custom for a reason after all). Kaveri AMD most powerful apu to date is going to have 512 stream cores.

As far has we know the
XB1 has 768 stream cores
PS4 has 1152 stream cores

Since these chips are semi-custom that means could be using discrete GPU for their graphics solution because not even the soon to be out Kaveri will have the same amount of power.

http://www.extrahardware.co...

What you posted doesn't prove that XB1 is using a dual gpu solution or is more powerful than the PS4.

[joefrost00]

Let start by saying I dont believe the X1 has dual GPUs but that leaked document last year remember the one that was 52 pages long they had an diagram of what was inside the.X1 and in that diagram it had dual GPUs

[pyramidshead]

picardfacepalm.jpg

[Indo]

@Elite24Gamer

Just pre-order a PS4 and call it a day.

[Dakriz]

Why would Elite24Gamer go for what you say when all he is stating how fascinating Tech is, so as long as he work and pays his bills he can get anything he wants now if you love PS4 so much go and buy him one and call it a day.

[P0werVR]

That guy is a mad lunatic.

[GodGinrai]

I was the one that submitted the article. I cant make sense of most of what it says as I am not that tech savvy. hoping this gets approved so those on N4G that do can enlighten the rest of us.

[PeEsFour4-Four]

Im enlighting you: xbox one has worse specs than Ps4.

/jk.

I've no idea what this means.

[NewMonday]

@The realness

Its basically the same as what was leaked many months back, so the MS presentation just confirms what we already know.

you can find breakdowns on NeoGaf.

[Mike134nl]

@newmonday
It is the same as was leaked but with more details. After the hUMA rumours for the ps4 It was not clear if the xb1 could do the same trick. Now they also seem to be capable of using unified memory similar to hUMA (allowing for lower latency). Also interesting is the inclusion of 8gb flash (guess only usage for that is quickly saving of game status).

In the end it is pretty clear that Microsoft has modified their standard chips, but there are still questions remaining on some specifics.

[iamnsuperman]

Neogaf is the best place to go to find out what is going on. People here have no clue here but NeoGaf people clearly have a greater understanding

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

It might have a lot of DBZ references or other random crap but if you look past that it will enlighten you

[theWB27]

That's funny, on your first link, the second post asks what the DBZ power level is. The best is I'll understand if they do translate it to DBZ terms.

[Cueil]

they should have used The Bible... where Sony finally excepted PC into it's heart and was saved from the hell of super custom cpus

[corvusmd]

@new monday...this is NOT the same thing that was leaked many months ago. It seems like everyone that was at the conference was shocked in a good way.

[No_Limit]

"That means the XBox One’s 8 Jaguar cores are clocked at ~1.9GHz, something that wasn’t announced at Hot Chips. Now you know."

That is something new. I always thought the CPU clock speed is at 1.6Ghz.

Seems everything got some nice speed bumped.

[Kayant]

@Elite24gamer

This is a fact coming directly from the guys responsible for creating the Xbox one architecture like Mark Cerny who is the lead architect for the PS4 architecture. So any of insider info is false.

Game. Set and Match.
http://n4g.com/comments/red...

So just stop spreading false info already it's sad but funny to see.

[FrigidDARKNESS]

He can only say things that MS will allow him to say.
Microsoft has an agreement with AMD that certain aspects of the xbox one can't be discussed until after AMD unveil their new line of GPU G cards (volcanic Island Hawaii).till September 29th However all NDAs end September 21 for all developers.

[Kayant]

Are you serious Frigid??? He just said they possibly don't target the highest end graphics but more on doing custom stuff with the IP they got from AMD. So why would need to use a GPU architecture that is going to be better than the last for their Graphics when they have what they're looking for???

Where is the evidence of there being NDAs for this.

[FrigidDARKNESS]

The gpu is fully custom based off AMD next gen cards. It has been rumored a 7970 but may have ellements of next gen tech. If it was an older G card like a standard off the shelf G card like a 7850 than MS can freely discuss.

[Kayant]

So you're saying MS is putting a GPU that retails for about £300+ in a £429 console??? Even with a batch buy deal they will still be making a massive loss. That's not happening.

[JunioRS101]

Sony has yet to delve as deep into PS4 architecture as Microsoft has into X1's, so we'll need a little more information about PS4's architecture to really compare the end specs/hardware capabilities.

Cerny scratched the surface, but now he needs to give another presentation about the nooks and crannies of PS4's architecture so we can actually know the difference between it and X1.

Cerny seems like he's definitely smarter than Whitten, so I'm sure X1 isn't the only console with considerable tricks up its sleeves.

After all, Cerny was going to a prestigious university for physics at age 16, and later was even a game developer himself, so we know that he's at least an intelligent dude, and also since he was a dev himself he knows exactly what developers use, how they use it, and what they want.

I'm excited to pop the rest of the lid off of PS4!

[obelix01]

I just care about the games. That's why I'm getting a Xbox one. I have zero understanding of any of this technical stuff but it's not important too me. The games look amazing regardless.

[1983bailey]

There is something way off with the xbox one look at the wiki page for a jaguar as per hyperlink, APU 4 core CPU with GPU around about 25W power there is a previous xbox one article which states the SOC at around 100W couple that with a 200w power brick for the xbox one and there you have it its an APU + dGPU

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[XabiDaChosenOne]

I really liked to know how MS came up with 204gb/s for their esram, the Esram would have to be able to Dual read/write and I'm pretty sure it's not able to unless I missed something.

[FrigidDARKNESS]

The gpu and drivers are fully customized that can be tweaked to increase bandwidth. Iit's not your standard off the shelf GPU. I wouldn't be surprised once all the specs are released in october that number could go higher.

[XabiDaChosenOne]

I don't see anything your talking about on the slides, besides you're a looney one, no way I'm taking anything your saying seriously.

[badkolo]

actualkly it is dual read, thats what they said, that at first it was one way and then they learned that it was dual.

[slugg]

All this talk of specs and what system is more powerful doesnt really matter....just like last Gen, most games will be multi-plat and will be developed on the "weaker" system and ported over....so it doesn't matter, the games will be the same on both systems. lol