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[Xbox-Scene]

Xbox Dev Team about Xbox (360) Operating System-- Posted by XanTium on February 18 00:48 EST
From the Xbox Development Team blog:

One of the first questions I get when someone hears I work on Xbox is "So, what operating system do you guys use?  Windows 2000, right?"  I am honestly not sure where the Win2K misperception comes from, but Xbox runs a custom operating system built from the ground up.  While our operating system exports many of the same APIs found in Win32 (e.g. CreateThread or WaitForSingleObject), not everything is there.  For instance, there is no use for CreateWindow on Xbox - all graphics are done through (our own flavor of) Direct3D.

There are a number of reasons both Xbox and 360 have their own OS.  First, it gives Xbox a chance to own its own destiny in terms of architecture.  When you have your own operating system, it's easy to go in and change things.  Second comes performance.  There isn't much of a hardware abstraction layer on Xbox - most stuff talks almost directly to hardware.  This eliminates a lot of software overhead you might find on a PC.  Third is security.  With our own operating system, it also becomes a lot easier to design & implement our own security architecture.  As the community is finding out, there is a lot of custom stuff.

The operating system is more than just the kernel.  On Windows, you have critical components such as EXPLORER.EXE, shlwapi.dll, user32.dll, and others that are required for your system to function.  On Xbox 360, we have similarly critical components.  When you see a required system update from Xbox Live, we are mostly updating these critical components with fixes as well as new features.

That's a primer on our operating system.  I wouldn't want to spill all my guts in one post 'cuz then I'd have nothing to talk about later on.  Let us know if you want to know more about the OS in the comments...

[Moleman]

Kind of funny that they link to free60.org, being official and all that jazz.

[flashfreak]

At least they know whos after them. Unless they follow exactly what they're doing and somehow block any software exploits that the free60 team (everyone) discover.

[zookolo]

Hi,

I’m very interested in learning more about the Xbox 360 OS.  I would like to know about the privileges that are given for different tasks.  Example do games run in “super user mode” (Full administrative privileges) like the first Xbox.

More network specific -
As we know like many devices the Xbox 360 has a MAC and can receive an IP address , when connected to the interest what ports are open/closed.  What are the most common ports the 360 uses when downloading files playing games online.  Has anyone sniffed data sent/received from a 360 for analysis.  


Basically they are just a few of the many questions I would have.  I think I will have to do some more research  instead of expecting someone to spend valuable time explaining, when these questions have probably been answered many times over.



Ahh an interesting site free60.org....  Anyway that’s enough bs from me for today.

Peace... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

This post has been edited by zookolo: Jun 14 2006, 09:19 PM

[Dick_Trickle]

IS it safe to install the dashboard updates??? Will it be in 6 months from now??? Worse case scenario, what would happen??

[vax11780]

QUOTE(Dick_Trickle @ Nov 19 2006, 12:51 AM)

IS it safe to install the dashboard updates??? Will it be in 6 months from now??? Worse case scenario, what would happen??

Worst case scenario: Nobody responds because you resurrected a thread that is 5 months old.

Cut to Lawrence Olivier in "The Marathon Man"... Is it safe?

Not knowing what you have done to your console, the question is un-answerable, so I give you an answer. No, it is not safe, it will never be safe, you will brick your xbox and never be able to play pirated games again.