Microsoft launches CPU-GPU combined Xbox 360 SoC

Microsoft has designed the processor particularly to counter the market threats from AMD’s next generation Bulldozer and Bobcat processor technology.

The processor has been manufactured with the IBM/GlobalFoundries 45nm process and is the first production desktop-class processor which will combine CPU, GPU, memory, and I/O logic onto a single silicon and can be a tough competitor for AMD’s Fusion and Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors.

Officials at Microsoft announced that the combination has been made to allow better power efficiency. The processors are expected to be cheap as manufacturing will be inexpensive due to fewer chips. The heat management has also been enhanced and the sizes of the motherboard and the power supply unit have been drastically reduced.

The SoC has taken five years to be developed and contains about 372 million transistors which are very less in comparison to modern GPUs and processors. The processor has a tri-core CPU, an ATI GPU, a dual-channel memory controller, I/O, and a new front side bus (FSB) instead of an easier internal connection.

Microsoft has guaranteed there are no processor incongruity between the old and the new Xbox 360 consoles, as it will implement a latency and bandwidth that will impersonate the old system which worked with separate CPU and GPU processors, the Think Digit website reported.