• Order of the Butterfly
    Order of the Butterfly
    Neko
    Posts: 301 from 2003/2/24
    From: Genesi
    Quote:

    He explicitely refered to XenoN CPU, not to XenoS GPU.


    IBM own that, too. I was merely making a point that you can buy every IP in the Xbox360 from the people who designed it.

    Nearly everything in the Xbox360 is subcontracted out. Microsoft are not a Power Architecture licensee so they cannot make Power Architecture processors. IBM own all the technology inside for the CPU. AMD own all the graphics IP. The southbridge (USB ports, DVD drive, etc.) is by SiS I think.

    You cannot buy the exact chips, but several analogs are available on the market from each supplier, and certainly nearly every IP component inside is not directly owned by Microsoft - I doubt Microsoft bought an exclusive license to SiS's USB and SATA controller, for example, or had a brand new core designed.

    What Microsoft do own is the case design and the OS on top, the weirdo wireless protocol they use for controllers (and maybe the chip that drives it since it's probably very similar to the ones the Keyboard & Mouse division use), and of course a whole department for media and game provisioning, development and publishing, which is what makes a successful console.
    Matt Sealey, Genesi USA, Inc.
    Developer Relations
    Product Development Analyst
  • »06.02.09 - 19:49
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