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Technology Stocks : Advanced Micro Devices - Moderated (AMD) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe NYC who wrote (76781)	4/8/2002 10:13:32 PM
From: fyodor_	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

Joe: I think it is still MSFT's intention to eventually bring X-box users to the Windows fold, once Sony and playstation are gone. I think that's the game-plan. Maybe, but that still doesn't explain why MS chose a PC to base it on. Why not do a "real" console? NVIDIA could still do the graphics&#133 and draw heavily upon their PC products, but without being limited by many of the obstacles present in the PC. Let me be a bit more specific: As it is, the XBox uses what is basically a traditional North Bridge / South Bridge / CPU / GPU setup. And since all consoles use a UMA-type approach (seperate memory for graphics and CPU would be just too expensive), this means that all memory transfers to and from the GPU go via the North Bridge. A relatively simple change would be to junk the North Bridge and replace it with a HT-bridge (if even that). The memory would then be connected directly to the GPU's memory controller and any accesses by the CPU would occur via HT (similar to what would occur in a dual processor Hammer system, but without the nasty cache-coherence problems). Ideally, the GPU would function as the hub of the system, with the memory, South Bridge (sound and peripherals) and CPU connected directly to it. -fyo