X360 and Gamecube have a similar graphics feature

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Splendid
Dec 26, 2003
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Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati,alt.games.video.nintendo.gamecube,rec.games.video.nintendo,alt.games.video.xbox,microsoft.public.xbox (More info?)

the ATI-designed Xenos graphics processor in Xbox 360 and the ArtX-designed
Flipper graphics processor in Nintendo Gamecube, apparently have at least
one feature in commen with each other:

http://www.beyond3d.com/articles/xenos/index.php?p=04

quote:
.......................................................................................................
"When the frame or tile has finished rendering, the colour data will then be
resolved on the daughter die, with the Multi-Samples being blended down to
their pixel level. The resolved buffer information is then passed back from
the daughter die to the parent which then outputs to system RAM such that,
when all the tiles are finished, this can then be outputted to the display
device. Although the resolved colour data has to be stored in system RAM,
which uses some bandwidth during the transfer, the efficiency of the write
as the resolved data comes out of the daughter die to be written to system
RAM is very high. This high efficiency is due to the fact that it is dealing
with a significant quantity of non-fragmented data and the bus isn't as busy
with lots of other bandwidth consuming, high frequency and inefficient frame
buffer read / write / modify operations for the back buffer. This helps in
alleviating the fact that the parent die is also handling system memory
requests. Also note that data can be written to the eDRAM at the same time
as it is being cleared from the previous data that resided there, meaning
there should be little to no wait when removing the previous data from the
eDRAM (We've heard comments from developers familiar to both designs that
this element of Xenos bears similarities to the "Flipper" design for
Nintendo's Gamecube, a part that was originally designed by ArtX, who of
course were subsequently purchase by ATI, however ATI are keen to point out
that while there may be apparent similarities the designs are entirely
independent as there are distinct virtual and physical barriers between the
groups working on the various console developments, past and present, and no
members of the Flipper architecture team were involved in Xenos's
development). "
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<Rage6c> wrote in message news:k92dnYe8Yq9WrjPfRVn-3g@comcast.com...
> the ATI-designed Xenos graphics processor in Xbox 360 and the
ArtX-designed
> Flipper graphics processor in Nintendo Gamecube, apparently have at least
> one feature in commen with each other:
>
> http://www.beyond3d.com/articles/xenos/index.php?p=04


That's really not surprising. After all, Microsoft DID choose to go with
both the CPU and GPU suppliers of the Gamecube to provide them with the
parts for the X360 (and Nintendo's using them again, so the Rev may be very
similar). They probably did it mostly because they were taking it in the
rear on hardware losses, while Nintendo wasn't, for minimal difference in
performance. This gen, they might be able to turn a profit.