MSFT X-Box.......
eetimes.com
Microsoft pairs with Nvidia on
X-Box gaming console
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
(03/07/00, 11:28 a.m. EST)
SAN MATEO, Calif. ? Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates will announce
the company's long-rumored X-Box game console at the Game
Developers Conference (San Jose, Calif.) on Friday (March 10). Still in
its final stages of development, X-Box is touted as a killer consumer
platform designed to compete against Sony Computer Entertainment's
recently-launched Playstation 2. And Microsoft has decided to work
with Nvidia Corp., its graphics chip partner, on the X-Box
architecture.
Current plans call for an X-Box launch in time for the Christmas 2001
selling season.
The development of X-Box is crucial to Microsoft's effort to extend its
presence into a TV-centric consumer market. Lately, the software
giant has been leveraging its WebTV technologies to drive Web
applications and Microsoft's TV platform on a TV set-top. A group of
Microsoft engineers working on X-Box resides in Microsoft's WebTV
building in Mountain View, Calif.
Among the many 3-D graphics chip companies scrambling to diversify
their businesses into a non-PC consumer market, Nvidia and GigaPixel
Corp. were the two finalists with 3-D graphics technologies for X-Box,
according to George Haber, president and chief executive officer of
GigaPixel. GigaPixel had even moved its entire engineering team to
Microsoft's WebTV building a few weeks ago as part of a licensing
agreement between the two companies, said Haber.
"Our project with Microsoft was moving full steam ahead," Haber said.
"We were even ahead of schedule."
But on Monday (March 6), Microsoft selected Nvidia as the graphic
chip provider for X-Box. Haber said he was summoned by Microsoft
and told of its decision to work with Nvidia in order to minimize the
variables and risk factors associated with the X-Box launch. "They
obviously felt that Nvidia is a safer bet," he said, because it is a
market leader and has closer relationships with software developers.
Out of place
Faced with the unexpected turn of events, Haber said that Microsoft
assured GigaPixel that it would pay the full promised licensing fee, and
continues to be interested in GigaPixel's technologies. "Based on the
discussions we had today with Microsoft, we will probably stay in
Microsoft's WebTV building for the next few weeks," Haber said. But
GigaPixel is currently reevaluating its agreement with Microsoft, Haber
said. "We are still hoping to work with Microsoft on the long term," he
said.
One Microsoft defender, who spoke on the condition of anonymity,
addressed Microsoft's decision to partner with one graphics chip
vendor. "Not all graphic chips behave the same," the source said. "The
performance of the game console depends upon the underlying
architecture of the graphics capability. In defining X-Box, Microsoft
needed to pick a hardware platform to which game developers can
optimize their games."
It is unclear at present what features X-Box is designed to offer,
aside from state-of-the-art game playing, or who may want to build
X-Boxes. And it is uncertain whether a compelling enough business
model exists that would encourage system OEMs to jump into the
low-margin gaming console business. More important, if X-Box is based
on the same 3-D graphics technologies that are available in the PC
market, it's not clear what differentiation or added value the X-Box
can offer.
Consumer goldmine
Meanwhile, there is no shortage of explanations for Microsoft's
eagerness to launch X-Box. Sony's Playstation 2 offers three key
applications for TVs in the living room ? gaming, DVD playback, and
network connections ? and neither Microsoft nor Intel wishes to see
this huge segment of the consumer market dominated by Sony.
X-Box represents Microsoft's second attempt to crack the game
console market. Microsoft once tried to drive its Windows CE
operating system deeper into homes by partnering with Sega
Enterprises Ltd. on its Dreamcast machine. But the Microsoft-Sega
deal on Dreamcast has proven to be less than successful, because
Windows CE has meant little to either game developers or the
consumer electronics market in general. Game developers continue to
write videogames to Sega's proprietary platform, rather than to
Microsoft's Windows CE applications programming interface. No other
consumer electronics vendors have positioned Windows CE as a
must-have operating system for their platforms.
"Microsoft has already tried and failed once in the gaming market,"
said Peter Glaskowsky of Microprocessor Report. "If Dreamcast had
been successful, there'd be no need for X-Box. Microsoft would simply
encourage developers to port their PC games to Dreamcast instead.
You've probably noticed that isn't happening. That's because Windows
CE for Dreamcast is a developer's nightmare."
On the other hand, X-Box does hold promise for PC graphic chip
companies, many of which are fiercely competing to get a design-win
in the consumer market.
Many 3-D graphics chip companies want to diversify because they see
the handwriting on the wall. As long as they keep designing chips for
the PC market, their market would be limited to a high-end PC gaming
field with a population of about only two million gamers. More
important, many graphic chip companies are under tremendous
pressure to re-define their roles, because the 3-D graphics market is
quickly moving to more highly-integrated parts for PCs. Intel plans to
launch a Pentium III-class CPU with integrated graphics and memory
controller, for example.
Keenly aware of the changing industry landscape, graphic chip
companies are eager to cut deals with consumer electronics
manufacturers or with other chip companies. For example, Broadcom
Corp., a leading silicon provider for cable set-tops, announced last
week its acquisition of Stellar Semiconductor Inc., a 3-D graphics
intellectual-property company. Meanwhile, ATI Technologies Inc., a
graphic chip vendor the pursues both the PC and consumer cable
set-top markets, last month snatched up ArtX Inc., a small company
that pulled off a design win in Nintendo's next-generation videogame
console, dubbed Dolphin.
Rich Nelson, director of marketing at Broadcom, said there was no link
between Microsoft X-Box plans and Broadcom's acquisition of Stellar
Semiconductor. "With or without X-Box, we've been working with
Stellar Semiconductor less than a year, believing that 3D is becoming
an important building block within a set-top," Nelson said. Having a
local 3-D graphics processing engine within a set-top is a natural
extension to the company's strategy, he said. Such a built-in 3-D
capability opens up new service and application opportunities for both
cable operators and game developers, he said.
Asked if Broadcom's system OEMs are considering spinning their
set-tops into game consoles, Nelson said, "They certainly want to see
such a capability, but business models still need to be worked out"
before they can commit to a converged game console/cable set-top
model design. |
