Inside Microsoft's Xbox 360
by Anand Lal Shimpi, Kristopher Kubicki & Tuan Nguyen on November 16, 2005 5:09 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Storage Devices
The Xbox 360 ships with a standard dual layer DVD-ROM drive, our unit had a drive manufactured by Hitachi-LG.
The drive features a standard SATA interface, but like the DVD-ROM drive in the original Xbox, the 360's DVD drive also features a proprietary power connector as you can see from the picture below:
Since we're still dealing with a dual layer DVD drive, disc capacity hasn't grown since the release of the original Xbox, which may serve as a limitation for future games (potentially forcing them to multi-disc releases). Generally speaking, original Xbox titles used less than half of the 9GB DL-DVD capacity, leaving some room for growth for Xbox 360 games.
Microsoft has also reduced the size of the data that is required to be on each disc by a few hundred megabytes, combine that with the fact that larger game data can be compressed further thanks to more powerful hardware and game developers shouldn't run into capacity limitations on Xbox 360 discs anytime soon.
The $399 Xbox 360 system ships with a removable hard drive by default, which can be used by game developers to enable disk caching to reduce subsequent load times, as well as for content to be downloaded onto from Xbox Live. If you wish to play any original Xbox games, you will need to have a hard drive present, as that is where the emulation data is stored since original Xbox games are not directly compatible with the Xbox 360's hardware.
Final Words
And there you have it, four years since the original Xbox launch, Microsoft is back with part 2 (or 360 if you prefer). While many doubted that they would last beyond the first installment, Microsoft has proven its worth and credibility in the console gaming industry.
While we do have tons of long term questions about the architecture and platform of the Xbox 360, only time will answer them. Until then, the Xbox 360 launch is less than a week away so if you're eagerly awaiting one to be delivered, at least now you don't have to worry about taking yours apart - happy gaming!
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yacoub - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
Considering they were corrected by someone else in a previous article about "dies/dice" and are still making the same mistake, it's important to make sure they fix it this time before it becomes a permanent fixture of this site.And yes, that's really all I thought was worthy of mentioning. The review is pretty cool.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
According to Microsoft and Intel, the plural of 'die' when referring to a CPU die, is 'dice'.Microsoft's internal documentation talking about the Xbox 360 also refers to the ATI Xenos GPU as having two dice.
I am waiting for responses on other chip makers to make sure that the correct form of the word is dice.
Take care,
Anand
gamigin - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
Anand,Do you have any evidence to back up the following quote in spite of game developers claiming otherwise?
"game developers shouldn't run into capacity limitations on Xbox 360 discs anytime soon"
BTW, the plural of a manufacturing die is dies. If Microsoft or Intel said dice, then they are just wrong.
Phantronius - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
Who are you, my fucking English teacher?yacoub - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
Very interesting! Thanks for taking the time to respond, Anand.I wouldn't be surprised if it simply slipped through marketing department editing, considering dictionary.com is saying it should be "dies". "Dice" is normally only ever for the six-sided tools of chance/gambling.
If they're creating a new use for the term, that in itself would be pretty noteworthy as well.
Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
Well the term dice is what the CPU architects use, so I don't think it's a marketing/PR mishap.Take care,
Anand
gamigin - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
Most CPU architects certainly do not use the term "dice" as the plural to a manufacturing die.It's probably the same Microsoft guys who standardized the non-word "canonicalize"
Kilim - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
Ah dude, are you saying that "normal" dice are only for six sided dice? Ohhhh, someone is trying to get the D&D guys to start flaming him, lol. =p.linuxOwnzIfUrLeet - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
I lost the link to the mod chip can someone post?LoneWolf15 - Thursday, November 17, 2005 - link
1) If I buy the cheaper XBox360, how easy is it to add my own notebook hard disk later if I want it? Would have been very useful to know, and wasn't made clear.2) Media playback compatibility info --I'm sure the unit can play DVD's, and probably MP3's, but can it play DivX content? Xvid? MPEG-4 or HD WMV? These would be good things to know. A video game console has moderate usefulness to me; a video game console with broad media playback capabilities far more so.
Finally, a comment to Microsoft: If the Xbox360 had Media Center compatibility (read: PVR), I'd have bought it in a heartbeat without having to think about it. It would be the perfect home theater convergence device. It's really too bad this wasn't an option.