Microsoft Xbox Next delay rumors abound

[ONQ]

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/09/04/m...rumors-abound/


You're going to have to click on the link to read it not able to copy & paste any small parts from the site & too sleepy to type it out myself.


Planned release date September 2013

CPU & GPU now all AMD



something something other stuff.

[DeviousOne]

Interesting....

[TGO]

Interesting, looks like its suffer with the Next Ring Of Death, hopefully they'll delay if they can't get it sorted and not let customers pay so they get a early launch

Sent via Codec

[radgamer420]

Better to delay it than to launch with another hardware failure epidemic.

[DeviousOne]

Better to delay it than to launch with another hardware failure epidemic.

This!

I had a couple friends with 360's that had ROD a month or two after launch what a major pain in the ass!!!

[radgamer420]

This! I had a couple friends with 360's that had ROD a month or two after launch what a major pain in the ass!!!

Yep my launch model 360 lasted only one month. At least my launch PS3 lasted a year before it got the YLOD. lol

[F34R]

Will foundries bite the release schedule of the XBox Next, or will Microsoft keep the dates they have told those in the know? The recent rash of delay rumors, backed up by some very unusual moves make this more than an idle question. SemiAccurate has been hearing about problems at Microsoft with their next console part since we exclusively reported the tapeout. The short story is that officially the PoR was December 2012 for production wafers in (Note: This is a specific term with a very specific meaning, if you don’t understand what it implies, SemiAccurate does do technical consulting) has not changed. The rumors however are growing much more persistent and frequent, so we spent the last month digging in to the details.
The chip, which is still referred to as ‘Oban’, is being run through multiple fabs in very high quantities, too high by more than an order of magnitude to simply be for dev kits. Yields on the chip are said to be something between painfully low, Nvidia Fermi painfully low, and worse than that. Given the sheer number of wafers Microsoft contracted for, this seems to be both an anticipated problem, and one they have plans to work through. That said, SemiAccurate’s sources are still reporting that there is much work to be done, yields are not even up to “horrid” yet.
One of the things Microsoft seems to be trying is dual or triple sourcing the parts, hoping the elves at one foundry will fix things ahead of the rest. Even if none do, three chances of a breakthrough are better than one. While there is still time to get things right, it takes about 8 weeks to run a hot lot through a fab and analyze the results. If production wafers are really going in this year, the last time a foundry can run a test wafer is about November 1. Anything after that day will not come out of the fab in time for the results to be fed back in to the production chips. That is the technical term for “The XBox Next is going to be delayed”.
Sources on the supply chain side of the console world tell SemiAccurate that there is some slack in the production schedule, six to eight weeks of delay would be possible before the launch would have to be pushed back. That meshes well with what SemiAccurate knows about silicon production times and ODM capabilities. Microsoft insiders tell us that the planned launch date is September 2013, and that is not changing without heads rolling internally.
So, what is the XBox Next? SemiAccurate has been saying for a while that all signs were pointing toward a PowerPC, specifically an IBM Power-EN variant. The dark horse was an x86 CPU, but it was a long shot. It looks like the long shot came through, moles are now openly talking about AMD x86 CPU cores and more surprisingly, a newer than expected GPU. How new? HD7000 series, or at least a variant of the GCN cores, heavily tweaked by Microsoft for their specific needs.
This means both the XBox Next and the PS4 are going to effectively be HSA/FSA devices. Stop and think about that for a minute, AMD has the GPUs for all three next generation consoles, the CPUs for both the XBox Next and the PS4, and is effectively controlling the middleware/interpreted language that is the plumbing for all of it. No matter what the future of video gaming is, PC, console, or mobile, it will almost assuredly have AMD at it’s center. Yes, even Apple.
Getting back to the premise of the story, the rumored delays in the next XBox console, we have a lot of inputs. High level executives bailing out of AMD at a pace rapid enough to wear tracks in the carpet outside of the HR department, Microsoft running around testing every fab that they can get access to, and a shroud of secrecy surrounding the whole thing. SemiAccurate has heard everything from vendor negotiating tactics to last minute design changes for the purported delays, and has tracked them all down to knowledgeable sources.
In the end, there is one, and only one fact at the center of all of these rumors, semiconductor yields. The exact details are harder to come by, but given the very hard limits imposed by the fab technologies involved and the self-imposed start date, time is running out. If there is two months of slack in the supply chain, unless the yield problems are solved by late February 2013, Microsoft can’t hit it’s desired September 2013 launch date.
With that in mind, the last chance any foundry has to start a test wafer is ironically the same end of December date that Microsoft wanted volume production to start. Luckily for everyone involved, breakthroughs can happen at literally any time, so there is still lots of hope. Redmond is telling everyone downstream of them that there is no problem, no delay, and everything is well. While that doesn’t seem to be a realistic perspective from SemiAccurate’s point of view, it isn’t incorrect either. Yet. Lets hope Microsoft can work out the silicon bugs, the industry really needs a boost.

There ya go.

[davin_g]

Yep my launch model 360 lasted only one month. At least my launch PS3 lasted a year before it got the YLOD. lol

Still have my 60gb running strong...and a 40gb a year later...and a slim at its launch...never an issue...not even fan issues. Of course I changed the harddrives. My brothers launch console however died last year with a disc read error...but that isn't bad for the use it got. I don't know a friend that didn't have at least 3 xbox refirbs.

[MATRIX 2]

I have a hard time believing they moved to an X86 cpu, and that i they did they chose AMD to design/produce it.

And even if the planned launch date is September 2013, they still have a couple months after to offset any delays and launch before December 2013.

I wouldn't worry, MS is surely doing everything possible to get yields up to their desired levels on time.

[Dave-The-Rave]

Something can't be delayed if it never had a release date to begin with.

[mynd]

Interesting, why the rush?
Maybe they were planning on an early launch.
I always felt launching earlier in the year at least gives you a chance to keep the pressure off at Xmas.
If it was planned as an E3 launch ( and I mean a literal launch-its in the shops tomorrow like they did with the Slim), then I think they have at leats given them plenty of time to get it right.

I'm liking all these rumours of early produciton, advanced planning..its sure has hell more comforting than hearing Project Gotham Racing 3 wasnt running on a 360 till 3 months before launch...

[radgamer420]

Still have my 60gb running strong...and a 40gb a year later...and a slim at its launch...never an issue...not even fan issues. Of course I changed the harddrives. My brothers launch console however died last year with a disc read error...but that isn't bad for the use it got. I don't know a friend that didn't have at least 3 xbox refirbs.

Both launch consoles were crap its just that the 360 was alot worse. But now both 360 slims and PS3 slims are pretty reliable.

[radgamer420]

Interesting, why the rush? Maybe they were planning on an early launch. I always felt launching earlier in the year at least gives you a chance to keep the pressure off at Xmas. If it was planned as an E3 launch ( and I mean a literal launch-its in the shops tomorrow like they did with the Slim), then I think they have at leats given them plenty of time to get it right. I'm liking all these rumours of early produciton, advanced planning..its sure has hell more comforting than hearing Project Gotham Racing 3 wasnt running on a 360 till 3 months before launch...

Yep I agree. I hope the next box launches with a PGR game since the 360 and the OG Xbox both did.

[ONQ]

There ya go.

how did you get that site to copy & paste?

[Lethal_NFS]

how did you get that site to copy & paste?

Right click and copy lol

Actually, you highlight what you want to copy, don't let go of the mouse button. Then press Ctrl C. Then you can right click and paste what you just copied

[Vulgotha]

Mixed feelings about AMD chips. They're laggards compared to Intel, but their GPU's hold solid ground against Nvidia.

The only sensible reason they're opting for them is probably the cost\performance\heat savings of an AMD SOC solution. Unless I've missed my guess entirely- I would imagine these benefits would still transfer over to the console embedded hardware space.

So I suppose this is entirely logical. I guess Bulldozer just left a bad taste in my mouth. I eagerly awaited AMD returning to trading blow for blow with intel in the desktop space.. Just to be left sorely disappointed time and time again.

[mynd]

Right click and copy lol

Actually, you highlight what you want to copy, don't let go of the mouse button. Then press Ctrl C. Then you can right click and paste what you just copied

Lethal did you say something?....Im to busy trying to shake my monitor to see if you avatar will try put her hands out to balance herself......

[MATRIX 2]

Mixed feelings about AMD chips. They're laggards compared to Intel, but their GPU's hold solid ground against Nvidia.

The only sensible reason they're opting for them is probably the cost\performance\heat savings of an AMD SOC solution. Unless I've missed my guess entirely- I would imagine these benefits would still transfer over to the console embedded hardware space.

So I suppose this is entirely logical. I guess Bulldozer just left a bad taste in my mouth. I eagerly awaited AMD returning to trading blow for blow with intel in the desktop space.. Just to be left sorely disappointed time and time again.

Intel is a Juggernaut.

[X2]

Is this a legit site to put trust in?

[coolguy]

They start these rumors to hype out the consoles supply and demand..

[YoungMullah88]

Interesting, why the rush?
Maybe they were planning on an early launch.
I always felt launching earlier in the year at least gives you a chance to keep the pressure off at Xmas.
If it was planned as an E3 launch ( and I mean a literal launch-its in the shops tomorrow like they did with the Slim), then I think they have at leats given them plenty of time to get it right.

I'm liking all these rumours of early produciton, advanced planning..its sure has hell more comforting than hearing Project Gotham Racing 3 wasnt running on a 360 till 3 months before launch...

uhm to release before sony?

[Soldier 95B]

Delay or no delay, just get it RIGHT. I don't want no RROD this time, thank you!

[mynd]

uhm to release before sony?

Thats gonna happen anyway...

[davin_g]

Both launch consoles were crap its just that the 360 was alot worse. But now both 360 slims and PS3 slims are pretty reliable.

In terms of reliability I don't think it was even close. PS2 had its issues when it launched as well but I got lucky on that one too. 360 not only were bricking but scratching disks and they knew it was crap and put it out. PS3 has had issues but nothing like the 360.

I can honestly say yes the both have been addressed and you can't say much of anything bad about Microsoft since they paid 100% to fix all those consoles. As related to this article though it does make you wonder will microsoft again put knowingly inferior product out there again just to gain a foot hold and release first and fix it after the fact like they did last time or wait and make sure its a sound product. That is a fair question.

[radgamer420]

In terms of reliability I don't think it was even close. PS2 had its issues when it launched as well but I got lucky on that one too. 360 not only were bricking but scratching disks and they knew it was crap and put it out. PS3 has had issues but nothing like the 360. I can honestly say yes the both have been addressed and you can't say much of anything bad about Microsoft since they paid 100% to fix all those consoles. As related to this article though it does make you wonder will microsoft again put knowingly inferior product out there again just to gain a foot hold and release first and fix it after the fact like they did last time or wait and make sure its a sound product. That is a fair question.

We'll never know how close it was because neither MS nor Sony ever released hardware failure percentages. All we got were unreliable polls like the Game Informer poll for example. Like I said MS was worse no doubt but we'll never know how much worse. But if MS repeat a RROD level failure rate I think the Xbox brand will suffer irreparable damage because consumers wont put up with it a second time. And PS2 had issues well beyond launch. So much so that Sony was dragged into court by a class action lawsuit that Sony lost. And Sony was charging people for YLOD repairs while MS fixed RROD for free so lets be fair here. Sony hardware wasn't as bulletproof as youre making it out to be.