Richard Huddy interview: "X360 most powerful console for 5 years"

[Reanimated]

Gamestar.de (http://www.gamestar.de/index.html) has a new interview (http://www.gamestar.de/magazin/specials/hardware/26071/index.html) (in English) up with Richard Huddy of ATI in which he provides plenty of fanboy forum fodder:

With a unified architecture we have hardware that automatically moulds its-self to the task required and simply does whatever needs to be done. That all means that the Xbox 360 runs at 100% efficiency all the time, whereas previous hardware usually runs at somewhere between 50% and 70% efficiency. And that should means that clock for clock, the Xbox graphics chip is close to twice as efficient as previous graphics hardware. Next on my list is the hardware support for directly accessing memory from within the shader units. This makes the Xbox graphics chip work in a much more flexible way than has ever been possible before. Now it’s relatively simple for a games developer to write code to do anything inside the graphics chip that they could do elsewhere. Accessing memory in arbitrary ways sounds like a very esoteric thing to do within a graphics chip, but actually it allows you to do some amazing things which mean that Xbox 360 games will be more like movies than you ever imagined. It’s so powerful that I’d say that this feature alone makes the Xbox 360 technically superior to any other console planned for the next five years.Aaaaaaaaaannd... GO!

[woodentaco]

This is hilariously over-the-top. It makes me wonder if its even real.

[mulligan]

It’s so powerful that I’d say that this feature alone makes the Xbox 360 technically superior to any other console planned for the next five years.


that's a bold statement.

[Major Scud]

isnt ATI making the revolution chip too? guess nintendo is getting the shaft if their chip maker is claiming the rev chip is crap allready.

[Reanimated]

isnt ATI making the revolution chip too? guess nintendo is getting the shaft if their chip maker is claiming the rev chip is crap allready.




He didn't say Rev's chip was crap, he just said it wasn't getting the same features as Xenos (X360).

And on a side note, I noticed this article was posted at 4:20 :cool:

[MasterEvilAce]

Fix your timezone, because it was definitely posted at 6:20

[Reanimated]

4:20 mountain time.

[trip1eX]

Hey he works for ATI. HE's gotta drink his own koolaid.

[Zeal]

This is suprising, ATi doesn't have a history of talking crap.

I guess they are just trying to match Sony's bullshit hype machine. The same hype that killed the Dreamcast, even though DC still has better graphics than PS2.

[MasterEvilAce]

Nobody lives in the mountains.

[mulligan]

Accessing memory in arbitrary ways sounds like a very esoteric thing to do within a graphics chip, but actually it allows you to do some amazing things which mean that Xbox 360 games will be more like movies than you ever imagined.

How can accesing memory in the gpu such a way is supposed to improve the process? you'd have to code some weird stuff to fully make use of this... but to what use?
(im not saying its bad, but i would like more info on that)

[Chandler]

xbox1 was unified architecture.....!

[gracenote]

I am already gettting sick of the rhetoric from Sony and MS (or nVidia and ATi, as seems to be often the case these days. "Mine is better!", "Mine is betterer!", "Mine is betterest!", "Mine is the betterest ever!", "Mine is the betterest to infinity!". I think maybe I'll just shun them all, and be happy with my PS2 for the next few years.

[EL CABONG]

the amount of pixel shaders 48 compared to what (guessing)ps3's is it and other 360 specs sounds impressive. I know this guy is hella biased and all but talking about 360 the way he did I am more likey to belive what he said than sony's ken just pissing on the 360.

[bKangy]

Yeah, whilst he's obviously shouting everything he can about his product, he's not wildly riding a nuke, screaming, with his hat flying in the air like Ken is.

[Reanimated]

xbox1 was unified architecture.....!



Sure, but the GPU wasn't acting as the northbridge in Xbox 1.

[GrinR]

Having already engaged in several, utterly bestial, sexual encounters with Angelina Jolie, Natalie Portman, and Jennifer Anniston's two daughters I can report that both the attracto-ray functionality and the time-travel vortex are indeed working. Don't belive me? You will, human.

[kokyunage]

Direct access to the memory? Reminds me of the good of Dos days of Mode 13h.

[EvilBob46]

And although my focus is graphics it’s worth pointing out that the CPU cores in the Xbox 360 are seriously powerful too. There are three hyper-threaded cores each clocked at 3.2GHz each. That amounts to almost 20GHz of available processing power (6 * 3.2). Compared to the original Xbox CPU which ran at a lowly 0.7 GHz you can see that we should have roughly 30 times as much CPU power available.

Uhu. This guy is now officially as bad as that Kwutevar Sony guy. Seriously.

[Taco]

Christ ATI. I'd expect Nvidia to be pulling this. You both suck.

[KNOTE]

Yeah, but does it age your video like fine wine? That's the gaming feature most important to me.

[OSX]

WEEOOWEEOO Hyperbole Police here to take you to jail!

Ba-Zing!

[RMan]

Hmm, not sure whether to be excited or not about that one. On one hand, accessing arbitrary ram sounds great, but on the other hand knowing how the graphics pipeline works I’m having a hard time coming up with cool uses for it (of course, I’ve only thought about it for a few minutes). Still, it’s not like handing the developer all the functionality of HLSL SM3 in a way he can code with like a CPU (now, that’d be something). I’d love to hear some examples of what this would allow that would otherwise be difficult or impossible, cause right now knowing as little as I do this feature would fall somewhere between wildly cool and nearly useless, which is a pretty large gap.

[Heretic Machine]

I'm not really seeing this as hype... Most of this sounds fairly well thought out. Sure there is that whole "best console for five years" thing... But that could be true. I mean, what's it's competition? The PS3, Revolution? Well we can only guess there, but it does have a chance at being better than both. The only other competition is the Phantom. Which of course makes ATI full of shit, as we all know that the Phantom will be at least 100 years ahead of all other consoles of this generation.

[Kagger]

Man, its processing has nothing on my brothers computron...

[Taco]

Xbox 720 and PS4 will be out before the 5 years is up. And claiming a 20ghz system? Come on Perigon.

[Blue]

I'm not really seeing this as hype... Most of this sounds fairly well thought out. Sure there is that whole "best console for five years" thing... But that could be true. I mean, what's it's competition? The PS3, Revolution? Well we can only guess there, but it does have a chance at being better than both. The only other competition is the Phantom. Which of course makes ATI full of shit, as we all know that the Phantom will be at least 100 years ahead of all other consoles of this generation.

The Phantom. *** had best be afraid of that business. Most powerful console in five years? Oh I think not.

Once again, that name is Phantom.

[Heretic Machine]

Xbox 720 and PS4 will be out before the 5 years is up. And claiming a 20ghz system? Come on Perigon.

Maybe, but as a rough number, I can buy that. The five years part, not the 20ghz. I'm not sure about that, sounds a bit puffed up, but I'm sure it will be plenty faster than the current XBOX.

Of course, it won't be 2000000000000 times more powerful than the Dreamcast, like the PS2, but still...

[d0g_p00p]

Yay, more talk about better MS/Nin/Sony consoles that are not even out yet. Screw this crap, I am buying a Vectrex system on ebay and keeping it real!

[TrackZero]

Yeah, whilst he's obviously shouting everything he can about his product, he's not wildly riding a nuke, screaming, with his hat flying in the air like Ken is.

Heh, now that's a great mental image.

[Morrolan]

It's also a great MOVIE image, you fucking NEOPHYTE!

Just kidding, but yeah, go watch Dr. Strangelove.

[TrackZero]

It's also a great MOVIE image, you fucking NEOPHYTE!

Just kidding, but yeah, go watch Dr. Strangelove.

Uhh...yeah, I'm quite aware of the reference, thanks. The image of Ken being on the nuke was the amusing part...apparently only to me though.

[Dirty Harry]

Uhh...yeah, I'm quite aware of the reference, thanks. The image of Ken being on the nuke was the amusing part...apparently only to me though.
actually that made me chortle pretty hard, but i remeber then that i love ken and he will have my Sony fanboybabys.

[Balthasar]

Uhu. This guy is now officially as bad as that Kwutevar Sony guy. Seriously.

You have to admit, though, just reading that logic is funny. It's almost as bad as when that Microsoft shill decided to run hardware tests on non-existant hardware. I don't know a whole lot about hyperthreading, but it is quite difficult to believe that calculating the power of a processor using HT is as simple as multiplying by 2. If that were the case, why is Intel so hot to release a dual-core processor? An HT P4 (or Pentium M, if that ever becomes possible) should be superior to a dual core chip, with the lower wattage the HT P4 should need and, consequentally, the lower heat produced. Also, and clearly I know very little about the tech from this question, but I thought HT was Intel-owned tech?

[Hellstorm]

I don't know if any of you read this whole article, but this guy has no contact with ATI West which is making the Rev chip. He probably doens't even know what the wizards at ArtX are doing.

[mister_slim]

I don't know if any of you read this whole article, but this guy has no contact with ATI West which is making the Rev chip. He probably doens't even know what the wizards at ArtX are doing.
I did like the part where he mentioned the GC having a primitive version of the eDRAM.

Anyway, will the 360 run AI and gameplay 30 times faster than the Xbox?

[sTubbs]

I did like the part where he mentioned the GC having a primitive version of the eDRAM.

Anyway, will the 360 run AI and gameplay 30 times faster than the Xbox?

Why would it? A 3 GHz Pentium doesn't run AI and gameplay ten times faster than a 300 MHz Pentium. I see no reason why the same rules would not apply to 360.

[mister_slim]

Why would it? A 3 GHz Pentium doesn't run AI and gameplay ten times faster than a 300 MHz Pentium. I see no reason why the same rules would not apply to 360.
I was thinking more in-order vs. out-of-order processors and their capabilities.

[Lodin]

Fuck this bullshit, I'm just looking forward to playing some games on my Revolution.

[Taco]

"Some" may be a bit of a stretch. Maybe "a game or two"?

[Pumped'Up]

This Huddy is a typical brainwashed delusional Xbox fanboi. Nothing new here, on EvAv.

[GodFather]

all this next gen stuff is so over the top...yeah yeah yeah..ill stick to my pc...cause it will still blow away anything out there on console..I always look at consoles as fun distractions..

[gojira]

Ugh. I'll be keeping my Dreamcast. There are still games for it I haven't finished yet!

[Dracula-X]

I loves the bomb.