• Microsoft’s Next-gen Console, Xbox 720 Specs Leaked

    // Gradly // blog, Consoles, Gadgets, Games, Microsoft, Rumors, Xbox One 2 Responses

    Xbox 720 Specs Leaked

    Xbox 720 Specs Leaked

    Microsoft‘s Next-gen console, Xbox 720, codenamed Durango, is said to be powered by an 8-core CPU clocked at 1.6 GHz and an 800-MHz graphics processor with 12 shader cores providing a performance of about 1.2 teraflops. This comes on par with specs revealed recently.

    The console will sport an 8GB DDR3 RAM with 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM. And for the first time it will be capable of reading Blu-ray discs up to 50GB at x6 read speeds. According to VGleaks, the full reported specs below:

    Durango system block diagram

    Durango system block diagram

    Full specs list:

    CPU:

    – x64 Architecture
    – 8 CPU cores running at 1.6 gigahertz (GHz)
    – each CPU thread has its own 32 KB L1 instruction cache and 32 KB L1 data cache
    – each module of four CPU cores has a 2 MB L2 cache resulting in a total of 4 MB of L2 cache
    – each core has one fully independent hardware thread with no shared execution resources
    – each hardware thread can issue two instructions per clock

    GPU:

    – custom D3D11.1 class 800-MHz graphics processor
    – 12 shader cores providing a total of 768 threads
    – each thread can perform one scalar multiplication and addition operation (MADD) per clock cycle
    – at peak performance, the GPU can effectively issue 1.2 trillion floating-point operations per second
    High-fidelity Natural User Interface (NUI) sensor is always present

    Storage and Memory:

    – 8 gigabyte (GB) of RAM DDR3 (68 GB/s)
    – 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM (ESRAM) (102 GB/s)
    – from the GPU’s perspective the bandwidths of system memory and ESRAM are parallel providing combined peak bandwidth of 170 GB/sec.
    – Hard drive is always present
    – 50 GB 6x Blu-ray Disc drive

    Networking:

    – Gigabit Ethernet
    – Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct

    Hardware Accelerators:

    – Move engines
    – Image, video, and audio codecs
    – Kinect multichannel echo cancellation (MEC) hardware
    – Cryptography engines for encryption and decryption, and hashing

  • Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox 720 Rumors Round-up

    // Gradly // blog, Consoles, Gadgets, Games, Microsoft, PS4, Rumors, Sony, Xbox One 1 Response

    Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox 720 Rumors Round-up

    Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox 720 Rumors Round-up

    The rumor mill regarding Sony and Microsoft next-gen consoles will not stop before the grand unveil which is due in June E3 game exhibition or a bit earlier.

    A look at what you expect from both consoles, Playstation 4, PS4 (internally referred to as Orbis) and its Microsoft rival XBox 720 (internally referred to as Durango). Both consoles will feature 8-core CPUs clocked at 1.6GHz based on the new “Jaguar” technology by AMD which is currently in development. The new technology is said to offer great power consumption and raw performance.

    Orbis will sport a SoC architecture packed with the latest GPU Radeon 7970M running at 850MHz and featuring 20 of AMD’s “Graphics Core Next” compute units. This specs offer up to 1.84 teraflops metric. On the other side, Durango, will probably use Radeon HD 8770 GPU, featuring 1.23 teraflops. This gives PS4 about 50% of raw power advantage.

    Orbis is also said to feature 4GB of GDDR5 RAM with 512MB reserved for the operating system. While Durango is rumored to sport a set of 8GB DDR3 RAM of which 3GB reserved for the OS.

    Take these speculations with a bunch of salt and expect more information and leaks on the way.

  • XBOX 720 Hardware Specs Revealed! 6 Times More Powerful

    // Gradly // blog, Consoles, Gadgets, Microsoft, Rumors, Sony, Xbox 360, Xbox One No Responses

    Xbox 720

    Xbox 720

    The chipset for the XBOX 360 successor, XBOX 720, was put into production earlier this year, and will be going into mass production by the end of 2012 according to a technology news report by Fudzilla.

    Recent speculation that the new main System on a Chip (SoC) for the Next Xbox (or Xbox 720, if you like) began production is apparently accurate; the SoC did indeed start production in late December of 2011. Sources tell us that the code name for the chip is Oban, and it is being produced by both IBM and Global Foundries for Microsoft.

    ATI 7 Series

    ATI 7 Series

    The report also goes on to add “the power behind the next Xbox will be a PowerPC CPU that is married to an ATI Southern Islands GPU, or modified 7000 series.”. This overall boost in power will make the 720 almost 6 times more powerful as it’s predecessor.

    The Xbox 720 will probably not be announced at this years E3. But the chances are, it will be in stores by Christmas 2013 onwards. Furthermore developer kits will be distributed later this year, so the public won’t be getting it anytime soon.

    The Wii U is still scheduled for release December 2012. However, will Microsoft attach a Blu Ray player onto the new console even if they have to pay royalties to Sony?

    [via nyleveia]