Xenon (processor)

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Not to be confused with the Intel Xeon.

Xenon is the Codename for the Xbox 360 system.^[1] The processor, codenamed "Waternoose" by IBM^[2] or "XCPU" by Microsoft is based on IBM's PowerPC technology, consisting of 3 independent slightly modified PPE-cores from the Cell microprocessor. Each individual core includes 32KB of L1 instruction cache and 32KB of L1 data cache.

The processors are labelled "XCPU" on the packaging.

[edit] Specifications

• 90 nm process, 165 million transistors
• Three symmetrical cores, each two way SMT-capable and clocked at 3.2 GHz
• One VMX128 (similar to AltiVec) SIMD Dual threaded.
• 2× (128×128 bit) register file for each VMX unit, 6 in total.
• 1 MB L2 cache (lockable by the GPU) running at half-speed (1.6 GHz) with a 256-bit bus
• 51 gigabytes per second of L4 memory bandwidth (256 bit × 1600 MHz)
• DOT products performance: 9.6 billion per second
• 116 GFLOPS theoretical peak performance
• In-order code execution
• ROM storing Microsoft's random encryption key generating software
• Big endian architecture.
• 5.4 GHz Front-Side Bus

[edit] References

1. ^ IBM press release: IBM delivers Power-based chip for Microsoft Xbox 360 worldwide launch, San Jose, CA, 25 October 2005
2. ^ "Learning from failure - The inside story on how IBM out-foxed Intel with the Xbox 360", Dean Takahashi, Electronic Business, May 1, 2006

• Xenon hardware overview by Pete Isensee, Development Lead, Xbox Advanced Technology Group, written some time before 23 June 2004
• IBM developer conference: Application-customized CPU design paper, 6 December 2005