Technology Of Current, Future Consoles Analyzed

ban25 writes "There's an interesting article at Ace's Hardware with an in-depth analysis of the technology behind the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube, plus hints to the future. It covers the CPUs and GPUs of each of the systems, and also has an interesting discussion about embedded DRAM and its role in consoles compared to the high-speed discrete memories found on all of today's top PC graphics cards. The other part of the article covers the next generation of systems and, in particular, the Xbox 2 and PS3. The recent IBM/MS agreement is discussed, as well as the chances of the Xbox 2 having a PowerPC inside, or perhaps even a CELL derivative. On the PS3 side of things, the piece goes into some detail about the patent that turned up last year on CELL."

Re:Why can't console makers

[Nasarius]

Because they sell a lot more to console gamers than PC gamers. It's just not worth changing all your code, except maybe for XBox games, which use DirectX.

Re:Why can't console makers

[KAMiKAZOW]

I'd never buy a game console. They're too limiting.

What do you think a game console is for? Cleaning your dishes?
I find desktop computers too limiting. Yeah, I can surf the internet, write letters and so on, but in my opinion ALMOST ALL CURRENT PC GAMES SUCK. I don't need 374732 tactical ego shooters. I don't need as many sport games.
That's why I bought a GameCube. I want fun games - not the same crap over and over again. In this autumn/winter season more great games have been and will be released for GameCube than for PCs in a year. Soul Calibur 2, Viewtiful Joe, F-Zero GX, SSX 3, Tales of Symphonia, Metal Gear Solid - Twin Snakes, Baten Kaitos, Mario Kart - Double Dash, Sonic Heroes, Final Fantasy - Crystal Chronicles, Phantasy Star Online 3, Zelda - Four Swords Plus, True Crime, Prince of Persia - Sands of Time (also available on PC),...
And GB Player owners can even add lots of GBA games to the list.

Yeah right, tons of great games are very limiting....

Well...

[hookedup]

The future of the xbox has many unknowns, latest rumor going around is the xbox2 will have a proprietary disc format, much like the GC's. Why you ask? To prevent piracy.

According to an ad on microsofts career website, the Microsoft's Xbox team is seeking an engineer "to manage the design and development of the Xbox Game Disc for the next generation Xbox console", with the job description going on to mention anti-piracy as the first in a list of key factors for the new game disc specification.

Article here [theregister.co.uk] about it