21Ghz Console

[Shadowfalcon]

I just thought you all might like to see this. http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mmedia/display/20040627030133.html
The xbox 2 will able to process 21 billion operations per second. Freaking amazing.

[Harkin]

i dont think it is 21Ghz... but nice try... operations isnt the speed in most cases... but with a 3-core 3.5Ghz processor... so there ya go..

[Xordan]

hmm, perfectly possible. I assume this thing is aimed for release in 2010 or somewhere around that Although not 21Ghz The article doesn\'t say that.

[Shadowfalcon]

3 x 3.5ghz 10.5 billion ops per second. BUT, each processor can process 2 threads per operation, so 3 x 3.5 x 2 = 21ghz. and it does say it in the article somewhere.

Edit:
\"The Xbox 2 microprocessor can issue two instructions per clock cycle per core. At peak performance, Xenon can issue 21 billion instructions per second.\"

[KwartzTheKran]

Specs shmecks! (Most of the stuff on that website means nothing to me)
As with all consoles it will be nothing unless they get some damn decent ergonomics on the pads (Its generally accepted that the PS2 style is far far better than the xbox\'s frankenstein monster) and just as important; some decent games. But at least they recognise the need for four players on the xbox, no damn multitap.

[dfryer]

Do not confuse GHz with instructions per second.  GHz refers to the rate of clock oscillation.  Even if 10 clocks were ticking once per second, no clock is ticking 10 times per second.

[Shadowfalcon]

what im saying is, if the information posted on the site is true, it would be the equivilent of a standard x86 cpu running at 21ghz

[Xordan]

no it wouldn\'t, it would be the equivelant of 3 processors running at 3.5 Ghz. The three cores allow more data to be processed in each tick of the clock, three times as much as one processor. The speed that the clock is ticking doesn\'t change.

[swift]

Strange...................

Looking at powerpc\'s site it appears that the fastest processor they currently offer is 2.5 Ghz.  It\'s currently a fairly high end chip.  I\'ve seen one in a $10000 server.  

While adding another Ghz in a year would not be impossible, it might be a little optimistic on microsoft\'s part to expect that they can push the price of the cores down enough to have a triple core implementation within the price range that people will pay for a console.  

Also, triple core configurations are incredibly rare.  Suffice to say i\'ve never heard of one until today.  dual, quad, 8, 16 yes, but 3,5,7 ?

I thought that there were limitations that required processors be installed in powers of two for smp machines?

Sorry about my sceptisim, but I don\'t think this will be available with these specs next year !

Xbox -2 clusters would be nice though ! Would be cool to have a 20 unit stack of them.

[Shadowfalcon]

ok, look. my computer is  pIII 1.3ghz. it can do 1.3 billion operations in one second. the xBox 2 can do 21 billion operations in one second, making it 21ghz. Im not wrong here.

[Harkin]

the xbox 2 will not be 21 GHz, the fastest cpus for a computer are about 3.2GHz, and are 64bit...

the cpus dont multiply onto each other, they take different loads, and depending on BUS speeds, the overall speed will be proabably lowered... the best way to say the speed of such a machine is 3*3.5Ghz, not 21GHz...

The CPU includes three independent processors (cores) on a single die.

the cpus are not working together persay, but taking share amounts of load as stated above... if my taking of this is as it really is...

[Shadowfalcon]

I know that the article says 3 x 3.5, all i am saying is that in order for a REGULAR DESKTOP COMPUTER to do the same thing the x2 can theoreticaly do, it would have to be 21 ghz (not counting the hyperthreading p4\'s) Also, im not saying this article is true, it might be all BS for all i know, but if it IS true, thats one freaking fast computer, and i cant wait to see if its true.

[Merdarion]

Originally posted by Shadowfalcon
3 x 3.5ghz 10.5 billion ops per second. BUT, each processor can process 2 threads per operation, so 3 x 3.5 x 2 = 21ghz. and it does say it in the article somewhere.

So wide so good. But don\'t you think you\'ll loose some performance to switch them together?

[Zorium]

Nowhere on the site does it say three processors.  What it does say however is that the SINGLE processor is a triple core model (is this even possible as its not a power of two?).

The performance increase of multi-core a processor although signifigent is nowhere near the clock speed multiplied by the number of cores.

I would expect that the performance of the processor in the Xbox2 would be the equivilent of a 4ghz-5ghz P4.

-Zorium

[Xordan]

A PC with a clock speed of 1Mhz could perform more calculations per second than a 10Ghz could.

If the 10Ghz PC was processing 1 byte every clock beat, and the 1 Mhz was processing 1Gb every clock beat.

Clock speed means nothing It\'s just how many beats per second the processor works at. You can\'t multiply or add speeds together.