GameCube, X-Box & Co.

The Escalation Continues...

While the much awaited PlayStation 2 still isn’t available in Europe, it has already been relegated to video game prehistory with regard to certain projects for the future.

It’s true that the counter attack in the form of the GameCube by NINTENDO isn’t, strictly speaking, a serious threat, because the two machines don’t address themselves to the same public. It’s different for the X-Box, however, a real war machine developed by MICROSOFT, with the goal, virtually admitted, of countering the overblown ambitions of SONY.

If we stick to the technical specifications indicated on paper, the X-BOX is head and shoulders over the rest, with the poor PSX 2 suddenly becoming obsolete.

With a main processor running at 733 MHz, and of which one can easily identify the brand Intel Pentium (AMD and their ATHLON model appear to have lost the race against Intel to clinch the market), as well as a minimum of 64 Mb of RAM DDR on board (some rumours persist of an increase to 128 Mb, or even 1 GB on the final version!) the X-Box is thus capable of generating a total of some 100 million polygons per second, with this added to by up-to-date visual prowess in the realms of shading, textures of "photo-realism" quality, and other effects of transparency in real time.

In terms of simple comparison, the PlayStation 2 and its Emotion Engine of 295 MHz can only manage 20 million polygonal objects per second when running at full pace… enough to make it lose a good deal of its sex appeal, eh?

The addition of a N-Vidia graphics chip, equipped with a super DSP calculator allows for the processing of 4.8 Giga pixels per second, which also plays a big part in the visual results of the X-Box.

MICROSOFT are not taking any risks, outsourcing this major element of their battle-horse - N-Vidia being the clear leader in this technology in what is a highly competitive market, with keystone models such as the GeForce and now the GeForce2.

The keenest among you will be thrilled to learn that despite the presentation of a prototype X-Box based on the NV-15 chipset during the last E3 exhibition, the final version will contain the very latest chip from the manufacturer (called NV-25).

Another asset of the MICROSOFT giant: the integration of a built in hard disc of 8 Go capacity, coupled with an extension port allowing for an external back-up of the same capacity. This allows, apart from other applications, for the for the minimisation of loading time and interminable sessions of "LOADING… PLEASE WAIT", to which, up until now, we have been condemned (a nostalgic reminder of the loading time of my THOMSON MO5 with a game that cost two French Francs, stocked on a cassette, allowing me the time to have a quick game of Monopoly during the wait. Thank goodness, times have changed. Thank you, Year 2000!).

And Home Cinema in all this?

What we Home Cinema fans are mainly interested by is the faculty of the X-Box to play films in DVD Video format, being equipped with an X5 drive and MPEG-2 decompression circuit.

Let’s hope that MICROSOFT has the good idea of utilising the large amount of DR RAM available in the quality of line memory, thus allowing for a changing of layers – totally invisible on some films reputed as being a little delicate in this department: a totally new function, of which until now no manufacturer has taken advantage (while certain are seeking to differentiate themselves from the competition).

Concerning the audio section of the beast, for the moment we don’t have much information as to the different sound formats to be adopted. We know however that the I3DL2 chipset utilised will be capable of reproducing Virtual 3D audio and Dolby Digital, MICROSOFT envisaging, moreover, to integrate a decoder for the reproduction of the latter. Doubtless, with its 256 channels in polyphonic (as against 48 on the PS2), the X-Box will have no problem handling DTS soundtracks that are so dear to us.

To surf with ease on the rolling wave of Internet, the unit will have two appropriate connection types:
- a high speed connection with a 10/100 type Ethernet adapter;
- a more "classic" analogue connection destined for standard 56K modems.

In short, nothing too surprising for a machine presenting itself like neither more nor less than a "big" PC, boosted to the hilt with specific extensions dedicated to video games and entertainment in general.

To persuade you, it would be sufficient to underline the fact that the operating system co-ordinating all this is based on the (sadly) famous WINDOWS 2000, lightened for the occasion to less than 500 KB, and benefiting from the introduction of new DIRECT X8 type instructions.

Yes… I’ll grant you that … it’s a little less exciting!

Interfacing will be predominantly based on the USB norm, with 4 ports dedicated to joy-pad links and 5 supplementary ones for the connection of different peripheral units (keyboard, mouse, camera, printer, etc.). The audio/video signals will be transported via a configurable connection, adapted to all types of reproduction, even including HDTV, with resolution limited to 1920 x 1080, which should be sufficient...

Programmed for a simultaneous world release for the end of 2001, at a price that should not be higher than around 300 Euros (2000 French Francs) (!...), this console/PC/DVD hybrid will make quite a few waves. We, of course, will keep you informed of any new information as it comes to hand with regard to the technology and its commercialisation.

Hey, I wonder if I can get my PS 2 deposit back…