Xbox 360

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU	3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each 2 hardware threads per core; 6 hardware threads total 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core; 3 total 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread 1 MB L2 cache
CPU Game Math Performance	9 billion dot product operations per second
Custom ATI Graphics Processor	500 MHz 10 MB embedded DRAM 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines Unified shader architecture
Polygon Performance	500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate	16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X MSAA
Shader Performance	48 billion shader operations per second
Memory	512 MB GDDR3 RAM 700 MHz DDR Unified memory architecture
Memory Bandwidth	22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM 21.6 GB/s front-side bus
Overall System Floating-Point Performance	1 TFLOP
Storage	Detachable and upgradeable 20 GB hard drive 12X dual-layer DVD-ROM Memory unit support starting at 64 MB
I/O	Support for up to 4 wireless game controllers 3 USB 2.0 ports 2 memory unit slots
Optimized for Online	Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, Gamer Profile for digital identity and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies or listening to music Built in Ethernet Port Wi-Fi Ready: 802.11 A, B and G Video Camera Ready
Digital Media Support	Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD Stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras, Windows XP PCs Rip music to Xbox 360 hard drive Custom playlists in every game Windows Media Center Extender built in Interactive, full screen 3D visualizers
HD Game Support	All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing Standard definition and high definition video output supported
Audio	Multichannel surround sound output Supports 48 KHz 16-bit audio 320 independent decompression channels 32-bit audio processing Over 256 audio channels
System Orientation	Stands vertically or horizontally
Customizable Face Plates	Interchangeable to personalize the console

Key Highlights

Hardware, software, and services: Unveiled to the world on MTV on Thursday, May 12, 2005, Xbox 360 represents a dramatic leap forward in high-definition gaming and entertainment experiences. Fusing powerful hardware, software, and services, Xbox 360 fully engages you in a gaming experience that is more expansive, dramatic, and lifelike, where the possibilities are limitless and your imagination knows no boundaries. The next generation is here.

Industrial design: A merger of form and function, Xbox 360 wraps powerful technology in a sophisticated exterior. Two of the most innovative design firms in the world—San Francisco-based Astro Studios and Osaka, Japan-based Hers Experimental Design Laboratory Inc.—came together to craft a sleek, stylish system that conveys the very essence of Xbox 360.

Xbox Gamer Guide: The Xbox Gamer Guide is an entertainment gateway that instantly connects you to your games, friends, music, movies, and downloadable content. Available at a touch of the Xbox Guide Button, the Xbox Gamer Guide gives you instant access to the experiences and content you want, from the gamer card of the player that just invited you to play online to new downloadable content for the game currently running.

Personalized interface: Xbox 360 lets you create your own unique system and experience. With interchangeable Xbox 360 Faces, it's easy and fun to change the appearance of your console. Switch on your system and customize the look and feel of the Xbox Gamer Guide and Xbox System Guide with unique "skins." From sleek and sophisticated to fun and funky, pick the Faces and skins that show your personality.

Ring of Light and Xbox Guide Button: Divided into four quadrants, the glowing Ring of Light and Xbox Guide Button visually connect you to your games, digital media, and the world of Xbox Live, the first global, unified online console games service. Featured on both the wireless and wired controllers, the Xbox Guide Button puts you in control of your experience. In addition to bringing up the Xbox Gamer Guide and the Xbox System Guide, the Xbox Guide Button lets you turn the system on and off without ever leaving the couch.

Xbox Live: Xbox Live is where games and entertainment come alive, the only unified place where you can play with anyone, anytime, anywhere. And the best just got better. Connect your Xbox 360 to your broadband connection and get instant access to Xbox Live Silver. Express your digital identity through your Gamertag and gamer card, talk with others using voice chat, and access Xbox Live Marketplace—all right out of the box, at no extra cost. Upgrade to Xbox Live Gold and enter the exciting world of multiplayer online gaming. With intelligent matchmaking, access to all your achievements and statistics, video chat and video messaging, and an enormous selection of games, Xbox Live Gold delivers your competition, on your terms.

Xbox Live Marketplace: Keep your favorite games fresh with instant access to new content. Xbox Live Marketplace is a one-stop shop to download new game trailers, demos, and episodic content, plus new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins, and more. Accessible to everyone who establishes a broadband connection with their Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace lets you personalize and extend your experience, on demand.

Games: Xbox 360 redefines what games look like, sound like, feel like, and play like to engage you like never before. With Xbox 360, epic worlds are alive with detail, from thunderous skies rumbling over a mountain range to tiny blades of grass rustling together in the breeze. Vibrant characters display depth of emotion to evoke more dramatic responses, immersing you in the experience like never before. You’ll see all Xbox 360 titles at 720p and 1080i resolution in 16:9 widescreen, with anti-aliasing for smooth, movie-like graphics and multi-channel surround sound.

Digital entertainment: Amplify your music, photos, video, and TV. Watch progressive-scan DVD movies right out of the box. Rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive and share your latest digital pictures with friends. Make the connection, and Xbox 360 instantly streams the digital media stored on your MP3 player, digital camera, Media Center PC, or any Microsoft Windows XP-based PC.

Cell Processor

Playstation 3 Cell Processor

The setup of the Cell processor is like having a team of processors all working together on one chip to handle the large computational workload needed to run next-generation video games. In order to understand how the Cell processor works, it helps to look at each of the major parts that comprise this processor.

The "Processing Element" of the Cell is a 3.2-GHz PowerPC core equipped with 512 KB of L2 cache. The PowerPC core is a type of microprocessor similar to the one you would find running the Apple G5. It's a powerful processor on its own and could easily run a computer by itself; but in the Cell, the PowerPC core is not the sole processor. Instead, it's more of a "managing processor." It delegates processing to the eight other processors on the chip, the Synergistic Processing Elements.

The computational workload comes in through the PowerPC core. The core then assesses the work that needs to be done, looks at what the SPEs are currently processing and decides how to best dole out the workload to achieve maximum efficiency.

­ The SPEs used in the Cell processor are each SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data), 128-bit vector processors. Vector processors are designed to quickly process several pieces of data at once. They were commonly used in the 1980s in large, powerful, scientific supercomputers and were created as a faster alternative to the more common scalar processor. Scalar processors can only work one data element at a time. Despite this limitation, advances in scalar design and performance have made the use of vector processors very rare these days in most computers. However, because of the vector processor's ability to handle several data elements at once, IBM resurrected this design for the Cell. There are eight SPEs on the chip, but only seven of them handle processing. The eighth SPE is built in as redundancy in case one of the other seven fails.

The SPEs each come loaded with 256 KB SRAM. This high-speed memory helps each SPE crunch numbers quickly. The SPE memory is also visible to the main Processing Element. This allows the PowerPC Core to utilize the resources of each SPE in the most efficient way possible. All of this amounts to unprecedented power for a piece of consumer electronics

Features

PS3 Special Features

The PlayStation 3 has a front-loading, Blu-ray optical disc drive, and PlayStation 3 games will be distributed on Blu-ray discs. Blu-ray discs can hold up to 54 GB of content as opposed to the dual-layer DVD format currently used, which can only hold about 4.7 GB (or 8.5 GB in the DVD-9 format). Even though it has a Blu-ray disc drive, gamers can still play older PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games on the PlayStation 3. The disc drive can support:

• CR-ROM
• CDR+W
• DVD
• DVD-ROM
• DVD-R
• DVD+R
• SACD

The 20GB and 60GB PlayStation 3 models.

The PlayStation 3 comes in two configurations -- a 60GB hard drive model and a 20GB hard drive model. Both models feature:

• One Gigabit Ethernet port
• Four USB ports
• One HDMI output
• Composite video (with dedicated AV cable)
• S-video (with dedicated AV cable)
• Component video (with dedicated AV cable)
• Optical audio output
• Bluetooth 2.0 EDR

The 60GB hard drive also includes:

• Built-in 802.11 b/g wireless connectivity
• Flash memory slots, which accept Compact Flash, Secure Digital and Memory Stick Duo

The PS3 audio has been upgraded. The new console supports:

• Dolby Digital 5.1
• DTS
• LPCM
• DSP

There's no arguing with the success of Microsoft's Xbox Live online gaming service. Xbox Live has created the first cohesive online console-gaming community, boasting more than millions of subscribers. The older PlayStation 2 can take multiplayer games online, too, but users needed to buy an extra network adapter to do so. Also, Sony left it up to each game company to build and host its own online gaming community, so the PlayStation 2 never offered the online structure that Xbox does.

After the 2005 Expo, we suggested that if Sony's hoping to stave off Microsoft's advance into the console market, a cohesive online community is going to be crucial. Apparently they agreed. With the release of the PS3, Sony has also opened the PlayStation Network for "online gaming, entertainment and digital distribution" [Source: PlayStation]. Unlike Xbox Live, there's no subscription fee. While some premium (read: pay) content will be sold in the network's store, online multiplayer gaming, audio and video chat and game downloads are free. -->

Playstation 3

PS3 GPU: RSX "Reality Synthesizer"

Because graphics are so important to computers (and especially computers designed to play video games), there are microprocessors dedicated only to creating and displaying computer graphics. This processor is called the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). One of the most anticipated aspects of the PlayStation 3 is the new GPU that was created for it -- the RSX "Reality Synthesizer."

©2006 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The Reality Synthesizer GPU has the power to create the realistic environments of the upcoming (release date still TBA) PS3 game "The Getaway 3."

Sony designed the RSX with graphics-card manufacturer Nvidia. The RSX is based on Nvidia's GeForce graphics technology. It's a 550-MHz, 300-million-transistor graphics chip. To put that in perspective, according to this Nvidia press release, the number of transistors on the RSX is "more than the total number of transistors in both the central processing units and the graphics processing units of the three leading current-generation systems, combined."

Unlike the GPU in the Xbox 360, the RSX is built on the traditional independent vertex/pixel shader architecture. Shaders are computer programs that determine the final look of what you see on the screen when you're looking at computer animation. To learn about shaders, see our answer to this question, "What are Gouraud shading and texture mapping in 3-D video games?"

©2006 Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Real-time lighting, shadows and reflections add to the level of realism in games like "The Getaway 3."

All of this translates to a level of graphic detail never before seen on a video-game console. With one HDMI output, the PlayStation 3 supports 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p.