Video Interview with Nick Baker: Xbox 360 Architecture Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Video Interview with Nick Baker: Xbox 360 Architecture Posted by XanTium | May 26 15:46 EST | News Category: Xbox360

Channel9's "Going Deep" show interviewed Nick Baker about the Xbox 360 Architecture: [QUOTE] What is the XBox 360, exactly? How do you go about designing and building a game console that meets the high standards of today's gamers and handles the computational pressures of today's highly realistic games (think real time physics computation, incredibly rich graphics, etc)? Did you know the XBox 360 team saw into the multi-core future before most anybody else? Well, who better to talk to about all of this (and more) than Nick Baker. Nick is a hardware engineer and Director who leads the team that thought up the XBox 360 hardware architecture. It's an impressive piece of machinery. In fact, Nick recently won the Outstanding Technical Leadership award for the effort. Here, Nick takes us through the design history and some of the implementation details of the XBox 360. What were some of the design trade-offs? How different is the XBox 360 that you can buy today from what you, Nick and his team were initially thinking? It's a very interesting story. We get pretty geeky here, so be prepared to learn a thing or two about game console hardware architecture, the future of XBox 360 as it relates to multi-core, game programming language evolution in the multi-core, and more. [/QUOTE] Download/Stream video interview: channel9.msdn.com (FYI: MS owned blog)

[hyfall381]

slow day in news, eh?

[XanTium]

slow day in news, eh?

you clearly didn't watch the interview.

[bucko]

slow day in news, eh?

And it is a Saturday

[proger]

the jokes against windows at the end were funny!

[DrJeckyll]

Fire that man!

Anyway, who was it again that said to me that I shouldn't view the 360 as a pc because it isn't one? The friggin' Technical Teamleader said it was a pc basically

[redwolf]

it was interesting...though he wasn't too informative, but i learnt something there.

[death trap]

very smart guy with some interesting things to say. interviewer was utter shit and nick baker didn't look all that comfortable doing the interview.

Interviewers should leave the techies alone to do there thing, there's no need to subject the poor bastards to interviews.

Let their work speak for them.

[philbee]

Judging from the look on his face the whole way through the camera man was pointing an ak-47 directly at him.

EDIT: on second thoughts maybe it was bill with the ak-47 making sure he didnt let anything slip.

This post has been edited by philbee: May 27 2007, 03:26 AM

[Anthrox]

maybe we should ask this guy on why all the 360s are dying then

How do you go about designing and building a game console that meets the high standards of today's gamers

My Standards is a console that doesnt die after 12months

[grim_d]

maybe we should ask this guy on why all the 360s are dying then
My Standards is a console that doesnt die after 12months

my console still works after 18 months, meets my standards.

[openxdkman]

This interview shows how smart the hardware architecture designers have been in term of coping with cost requirement (a $200 'light' thing as good as a $1000 pc for gaming). So, bravo for that.

But... Even if it's related to 'auxiliary logistic design', the epoxy weakness and the brutal force brought by X clamps are still unforgivable major design faults.

It's a pity such point is not addressed by technical 'go deep' interviews... Denial is a timebomb!

You know, there is no need to debate about hardware failure by telling what happened with your own xbox360... (you will always find people who will find your post suspicious). Just remember what Brian Crecente (famous blogger/reviewer) asked to a Sony boss (forgot his title/name and it doesn't matter here)... He asked (not exact quote, but close meaning) "I'm going through my 7th xbox whereas the ps3 works flawlessly, why don't you use this kind of argument in your PR war against MS?". The answer to that question doesn't matter here. The fact that a "7th xbox" appears in the question shocked me a lot. Until then it was rumour. It's no longer a rumour, whatever happened to your own xbox, in your specific case.

7 is too much. Unacceptable. But what is even more unacceptable is denial.

This post has been edited by openxdkman: May 27 2007, 05:01 PM

[TheIrishLad]

"Basically it is a box with a bunch of green blinking lights on the front..."

Well, mine had red blinking lights until I fixed it a couple weeks ago...but besides that. Yeah.

[xnoelahg]

my console still works after 18 months, meets my standards.

While I definately feel you on that one, there's a lot of people, including people who view these forums, that have not only had 360's die on them, but aren't the type of people who can fix it themselves.

The 360 may be a great console in many regards, but so far the checklist needed prior to purchasing a 360 looks like this:

A) I'm technically inclined and know where to look for answers in case anything happens to my 360. I can service it myself.

OR

I'm feeling LUCKY!!!

I really wish MS would comment about the failure rate, despite the fact that it's less than 10% (probably). I'm fully aware that the PS2's had a lot of problems at launch, but I don't remember hearing reports of people getting one, and it dies, and getting another, and it dies, etc. I've seen MANY reports of people who are on at least their 3rd console (I, myself, am still on my first and my other first).

[Martinchris23]

I used to be of the 'working launch 360' camp, until about 2 weeks ago (and a good 5 months outside the Manufacturers warranty) I got the ROD. I was always the first to assume that others failed due to negligence, but now I'm convinced otherwise. My 360 has never left its well ventilated home in the entire time I've had it. I've managed a semi-fix for it now, but it means I have to leave it to cool down completely between power cycles.

For anyone thinking that these 360s are failing because of the way they're treated - stop. I can personally assure you it has nothing to do with it.

Martin