Next-gen Xbox chips 'enter production for devs'

[Boz]

Processor co-designed by IBM and Global Foundries, report claims; Massmarket production 'a year off'

The processor that will be at the centre of next Xbox entered production in December last year, according to two separate reports.

It is said Microsoft commissioned both IBM and Global Foundries to build a high-performance PowerPC CPU, codenamed Oban, for the next console.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/39580/Next-gen-Xbox-chips-enter-production-for-devs?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

[spacer]

The next Xbox hasn't even been announced yet, and it's processor has already started to be manufactured for dev kits? According to the article, mass production of the processor won't even begin until 12/2012. So, when the new Xbox does get released sometime in 2013 it will already be over two years old? That sounds like a fantastic business decision...

[Snake89]

The next Xbox hasn't even been announced yet, and it's processor has already started to be manufactured for dev kits? According to the article, mass production of the processor won't even begin until 12/2012. So, when the new Xbox does get released sometime in 2013 it will already be over two years old? That sounds like a fantastic business decision...

Well yeah, it takes devs a few years to make a game. An all devs already have the dev kit at least a year or so before the next system has been announced.

[torrentthief]

yeah, the game developers need time to make the games for the launch date, game engine developers need even longer as they create the engines for the actual games.

[~Johnny]

The next Xbox hasn't even been announced yet, and it's processor has already started to be manufactured for dev kits? According to the article, mass production of the processor won't even begin until 12/2012. So, when the new Xbox does get released sometime in 2013 it will already be over two years old? That sounds like a fantastic business decision...

This happens with basically all new chips - the first few production runs are quite limited, and usually used to create "sampling" chips to be distributed to potential vendors to get products ready for when the full production starts up. And there's usually a sizeable time gap between sampling chips going out and full production beginning, for testing and product development reasons.

I know mobile chips usually have about ~6 months, maybe more, between the first sample chips being shared, and a commercial production run beginning. And of course, the processor design has to be more-or-less completed before they can even start to think about creating chips to send out for sampling, so by the time it reaches the end user the architecture has already been complete for over a year, maybe more. Assuming they're just finishing up the processor architecture now to start with their limited runs, and they're looking at a 2013 release, that's only about a years difference, so it's not that bad.

Top-end console CPU's always tend to push the boat at the time they're released, so I wouldn't be too worried about it's age or power, it's just the way chips are made these days :p