Xbox 360 Dev Kits Get Double the RAM


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Our friends at Xbox-Scene have obtained photographic evidence of a new Xbox 360 development kit that comes with 1GB of RAM, that is twice as much as the amount of console memory found in retail systems. The purpose of this increase in console memory is to give Xbox 360 developers the option to run their code and debug tools simultaneously. The extra 512MB come in an update sidecar, that little add-on you may have seen in pictures when game companies show pre-release code. Xbox-Scene provided the following description:

What you can see on the pictures below is just the 512MB-addon taken from inside the new devkit sidecar and modified/wired to be connected as standalone to a dev kit without the rest of the sidecar. The dev kit itself is an XNA prototype with jasper-based motherboard and because it has been modified to work with the 512MB-addon without the rest of the sidecar we'll dub it 'Frankie the 1GB XNA' ;)

Below you can one of the pictures showing the console memory setting of this new Xbox 360 develpment. Click here to see more pictures.

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Source: TeamXbox

And developing for the 360 just got easier :D

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The dev kits have always had more RAM than the retail units...

512 was considered huge at the time for a console. Epic likes to say that they cost Microsoft a billion dollars since originally the design included only 256megs. It's also all graphics grade RAM, so that's something.

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The dev kits have always had more RAM than the retail units...

512 was considered huge at the time for a console. Epic likes to say that they cost Microsoft a billion dollars since originally the design included only 256megs. It's also all graphics grade RAM, so that's something.

Oh right so its basically like ram dedicated for the graphics, like you wouldn't see an 6GB nVidia graphis card they are most likely 512mb - 1GB

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Oh right so its basically like ram dedicated for the graphics, like you wouldn't see an 6GB nVidia graphis card they are most likely 512mb - 1GB

Well, it's a faster speed, more bandwidth. It also allows a lot of flexibility, because aside from amounts reserved for system use (guide, cross-game chat, etc), you can devote more or less to graphics as you need to, versus the PS3 which has segmented memory (256 for graphics, 256 for system, and of course also reserves resources for XMB etc).

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The dev kits have always had more RAM than the retail units...

oh rly?? ...... 512 until now :rolleyes:

and yup, 360's unified memory architecture is far more efficient than ..... well, you know who

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Oh right so its basically like ram dedicated for the graphics, like you wouldn't see an 6GB nVidia graphis card they are most likely 512mb - 1GB

Nah, it's not dedicated for the graphics, it's GDDR3 RAM, which you would usually expect to see on board a graphics card, but the 360's 512MB of memory is available for use as system memory as classical RAM, or by the graphics card. There's not a set pool for the GPU and a set pool for system RAM, it's a dynamic pool used by both.

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that's why so many of the games we pay for run and play like crap. they're proofed and tested on leisurely development kits and PC workstations rather than on actual gear. ditto testing with cheats and hacks turned on. so it goes like this: "we're game developers! we're lucky and privileged, and the game works on specs that no user in the real world has access to! MUHAHAHAHA! let's go down to the Bennigan's! MUHAHAHAHAHA sucker gamers....MUHAHAHAHA!"

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that's why so many of the games we pay for run and play like crap. they're proofed and tested on leisurely development kits and PC workstations rather than on actual gear. ditto testing with cheats and hacks turned on. so it goes like this: "we're game developers! we're lucky and privileged, and the game works on specs that no user in the real world has access to! MUHAHAHAHA! let's go down to the Bennigan's! MUHAHAHAHAHA sucker gamers....MUHAHAHAHA!"

mmmm no, all games are designed, developed and tested on retail configurations. they've doubled dev's kit ram for debugging code but that doesn't influence games performance at all ;)

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neoadorable you clearly have never spoken to a developer before have you?

They required the extra ram so they can get the required feedback from the testing, they run many diagnostic tools whilst developing which needs the extra ram. Until now they have had the same 512mb of ram which limited them in a sense as they were not able to maximise the console due to running extra debugging tools or diagnostics on certain loops in the game.

It will be good to see what this will be used for, things such as Natal development spring to mind.

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For one, I think he was being sarcastic.

@Sal0hcine, I think the devs have always had the extra ram. The sidecar has been part of the dev kits since day 1 (as noted in pictures of the kits) and if it wasn't holding extra RAM back then, what was it doing?

-Spenser

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that's why so many of the games we pay for run and play like crap. they're proofed and tested on leisurely development kits and PC workstations rather than on actual gear. ditto testing with cheats and hacks turned on. so it goes like this: "we're game developers! we're lucky and privileged, and the game works on specs that no user in the real world has access to! MUHAHAHAHA! let's go down to the Bennigan's! MUHAHAHAHAHA sucker gamers....MUHAHAHAHA!"

Always say no to dodgy blokes offering you little yellow pills with smiley faces.

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no, never spoke to a developer. never went to E3 in 2000 and 2001. never played games from 1979. it's all been one long dream about a butterfly in the forest. or was it the other way around?

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no, never spoke to a developer. never went to E3 in 2000 and 2001. never played games from 1979. it's all been one long dream about a butterfly in the forest. or was it the other way around?

I think we'd all be better off if we were a butterfly's dream, so it's almost certainly you dreaming the butterfly.

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then you're part of the dream, too. man i have an active imagination. that is assuming i'm even here.

Gorgiasian Sophistry. You doubt that anything exists, you doubt that if anything exists that you can comprehend it's true nature, and you doubt that any knowledge you may have can be transmitted to any other entity. It's time to move onto Descartian solipsism now, you know that at the least, you doubt, and that therefore you exist, despite the fundamental nature of reality.

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the thing is my clever and over-read friend, i doubt descartes, and that even rhymes. far as i'm concerned his only contribution was Deckard in Blade Runner.

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From the story, it seems like this is new. They specifically say this "updated sidecar" holds the extra 512MB of RAM.

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