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[MAFox2u]

Here's an interesting bit I gathered from the internet.  Notice the date on the article.  It seems that MS cut a corner here to make the ship date.
Please read on.

From the article:
 
Slow Chip Linked To Xbox 360 Shortages

A new GDDR3 memory chip from Infineon Technologies is cited as the primary reason for the Xbox 360 console's slow manufacturing process.

By Courtesy of Gamasutra
EE Times

Feb 15, 2006 09:39 AM

"A story published in in the San Jose Mercury News cites a new type of memory chip used in the Xbox 360 console as the primary reason for the console’s slow manufacturing process, which has led to continued worldwide shortages and had a knock-on effect for the profits of many publishers.

According to author Dean Takahashi’s unnamed sources, the chips are made by a German company named Infineon Technologies. Infineon has apparently had trouble manufacturing enough of the chips at the right speed, which has slowed the overall production process. In addition, an unusually high fault rate on the memory chips has exacerbated the situation.

Takahashi’s report claimed that Infineon has been unable to produce enough GDDR3 (graphics double data rate) memory chips, which are also supplied by Samsung. Some of the Infineon chips are reported to run slower than the 700 MHz necessary, and these have had to be weeded out of the manufacturing process.

Microsoft has never specified the problem, blaming only “component shortages” for the delays. "We have more than 200 suppliers, and I'm not going to point the finger at any one of them," game division head Peter Moore is quoted as saying. In a speech at the recent DICE Summit in Las Vegas, Moore suggested that the Xbox 360 shortages would be over within four to six weeks. "

[thax]

I don't think you understand, MS never cut corners. The supplier was just having trouble getting yields up, none of the memory chips supplied were below spec; this means that all of the below spec chips were either sold to other manufacturers at a slower clock or were destroyed.

Although some memory chips may have later proved to have latent defects that did not arrise until months of usage.

[BCfosheezy]

QUOTE(MAFox2u @ Sep 30 2006, 04:51 PM)

Here's an interesting bit I gathered from the internet. Notice the date on the article. It seems that MS cut a corner here to make the ship date.
Please read on.

From the article:

Slow Chip Linked To Xbox 360 Shortages

A new GDDR3 memory chip from Infineon Technologies is cited as the primary reason for the Xbox 360 console's slow manufacturing process.

By Courtesy of Gamasutra
EE Times

Feb 15, 2006 09:39 AM

"A story published in in the San Jose Mercury News cites a new type of memory chip used in the Xbox 360 console as the primary reason for the console's slow manufacturing process, which has led to continued worldwide shortages and had a knock-on effect for the profits of many publishers.

According to author Dean Takahashi's unnamed sources, the chips are made by a German company named Infineon Technologies. Infineon has apparently had trouble manufacturing enough of the chips at the right speed, which has slowed the overall production process. In addition, an unusually high fault rate on the memory chips has exacerbated the situation.

Takahashi's report claimed that Infineon has been unable to produce enough GDDR3 (graphics double data rate) memory chips, which are also supplied by Samsung. Some of the Infineon chips are reported to run slower than the 700 MHz necessary, and these have had to be weeded out of the manufacturing process.

Microsoft has never specified the problem, blaming only "component shortages" for the delays. "We have more than 200 suppliers, and I'm not going to point the finger at any one of them," game division head Peter Moore is quoted as saying. In a speech at the recent DICE Summit in Las Vegas, Moore suggested that the Xbox 360 shortages would be over within four to six weeks. "

 

This was posted on X-S news way back when it was important. It has absolutely no relevance to any failure of Xbox 360 consoles nor does it imply to. Please try to read more carefully before you post things such as this.

[MAFox2u]

Anyone who does not see the relevance of this must live under a rock.  This report is VERY relevant.  The Xbox 360 has been out less than a year and we are seeing a failure rate of way higher the MS's 3 to 5%.  This is also with very few games actually pushing the hardware.  When the games that push the harware are released the hardware failure rates are going to skyrocket.  Then it will be to late.  By then 6 million people will own a defective 360.

This report is the link that ties it all together.  It ties the consumer complaints, repair technicians observations and even MS's lame warranty extension together.

Now Memory chips are not the only thing that can/will go wrong with the 360.  It is just the most obvious and observed reason.

Anyways, time will tell the tale.

[Chancer]

QUOTE(MAFox2u @ Oct 1 2006, 06:11 AM)

 The Xbox 360 has been out less than a year and we are seeing a failure rate of way higher the MS's 3 to 5%.  This is also with very few games actually pushing the hardware.  When the games that push the harware are released the hardware failure rates are going to skyrocket.  Then it will be to late.  By then 6 million people will own a defective 360.

Who is the "We". Thats a huge assumption on your part, unless you have access to the actual number of consoles out in the field (every unit sold) and the number of confirmed faulty hardware units.
I hope you are not basing the statement on internet whispers and mis information. as far as I can see nobody other than MS will have access to the information to allow an accurate figure and even at that nobody can say what future units will fail.

[MAFox2u]

"We" is defined as consumers who bought the 360.  

MS intentions are very clear and those intentions do not include "we".

If you paid attention when the Xbox was being developed then you know MS used a bunch of PC parts to make it.  They used tried and true PC parts (not  cutting edge by any stretch) and adapted some of them to their game console. In short they made a proprietary game console out of established PC parts technology.

This made the Xbox fairly stable hardware wise.  The only major hardware problems that occured were either subtlely addressed (aka a hardware change), or just plain lie about (aka mislead by ommission).  

However MS major contribution to the Xbox was not the hardware design, but the software and system security.  MS designed a security system with no less than 6 major flaws.  Flaws that were quickly exposed as major design flaws.

Now with the 360 MS decided to be bold and actually design the system from ground up.  Cutting edge through proprietaty chips and hardware designs.  The problem is that they aren't any good at it.  The glaring mistakes they made on the security side of the Xbox are now clearly showing on their hardware designs.  Compound that with the manufacturing debacle.

Do I need to go on?  Can "we" get it.  

It is time to start thinking outside of MS's box.

Do "you" get it?

[thax]

QUOTE

Now with the 360 MS decided to be bold and actually design the system from ground up. Cutting edge through proprietaty chips and hardware designs. The problem is that they aren't any good at it. The glaring mistakes they made on the security side of the Xbox are now clearly showing on their hardware designs. Compound that with the manufacturing debacle.

Your logic that because the original xbox had security problems, that those problems then turned into other problems for the x360 is very weak reasoning. Your statement that MS isn't very good as designing cutting edge systems through proprietary chips and hardware designs isn't well supported. MS wasn't the only company involved in the design process, many companies with a great level of experience in field were involved in this process.

When the system works, it works great, this means the problems stem from the manufacturing process. MS isn't the company directly manufacturing the console, other companies are. With any cutting edge piece of hardware the defect rate will be higher, in addition the latent defect rate will be proportionally higher. When manufacturing related issues arose MS reacted to the problem and corrected it.

[CattyKid]

QUOTE(thax @ Oct 1 2006, 02:29 PM)

Your logic that because the original xbox had security problems, that those problems then turned into other problems for the x360 is very weak reasoning. Your statement that MS isn't very good as designing cutting edge systems through proprietary chips and hardware designs isn't well supported. MS wasn't the only company involved in the design process, many companies with a great level of experience in field were involved in this process.

When the system works, it works great, this means the problems stem from the manufacturing process. MS isn't the company directly manufacturing the console, other companies are. With any cutting edge piece of hardware the defect rate will be higher, in addition the latent defect rate will be proportionally higher. When manufacturing related issues arose MS reacted to the problem and corrected it.

Everything he said.
Especially the poor logic area.

[BCfosheezy]

QUOTE(MAFox2u @ Oct 1 2006, 11:13 AM)

"We" is defined as consumers who bought the 360.

MS intentions are very clear and those intentions do not include "we".

If you paid attention when the Xbox was being developed then you know MS used a bunch of PC parts to make it. They used tried and true PC parts (not cutting edge by any stretch) and adapted some of them to their game console. In short they made a proprietary game console out of established PC parts technology.

This made the Xbox fairly stable hardware wise. The only major hardware problems that occured were either subtlely addressed (aka a hardware change), or just plain lie about (aka mislead by ommission).

However MS major contribution to the Xbox was not the hardware design, but the software and system security. MS designed a security system with no less than 6 major flaws. Flaws that were quickly exposed as major design flaws.

Now with the 360 MS decided to be bold and actually design the system from ground up. Cutting edge through proprietaty chips and hardware designs. The problem is that they aren't any good at it. The glaring mistakes they made on the security side of the Xbox are now clearly showing on their hardware designs. Compound that with the manufacturing debacle.

Do I need to go on? Can "we" get it.

It is time to start thinking outside of MS's box.

Do "you" get it?

This article does not "tie" anything together. It explains why there was a shortage of xbox 360 consoles right after launch. It goes on to specifically state that the process was slowed down to weed out the chips that could not handle the load. That proves that good chips are making it into the consoles. Your own post disproves your theory and does not support anything you have said.

 

If what you said were true I might be able to follow your line of thinking. #1 the graphics solution in xbox was a NOT a geForce 3. It also had the northbridge incorporated in the same chip. You cannot find this NOR can you find the mcpX chip anywhere other than xbox. You also cannot find the pentium 3/celeron hybrid used in xbox anywhere OTHER than xbox.

MS did not design any of the components that are contained in it's console. The manufacturers of the components inside of the console laid out the components they had to offer and worked closely with MS to decide what was best. The power pc processor is nothing new. ATI graphics cards are nothing new. Yes, you'd be hard pressed to find the tri-core power pc processor anywhere else. You can find dual cores, that are identical. They simply chose to go with an IBM power pc chip that incorporates 3 cores and hypervisor. Sure that makes it different than a normal chip. Does it mean that the technology is not tried and true?  The graphics is just another generation of the ATI's graphics card family. It is the same as in xbox when nvidia designed a gpu/northbridge that you can't buy anywhere else.

 

At the end of the day you have no point. I have fixed every xbox 360 that has been thrown at me. Everyone one of them has been either a graphics overheating issue or a power supply issue. Neither or which has to do with the memory chips.

 

You clearly do not know what you are talking about. None of your arguments are even valid.

[C o s m o]

This is old news supporting a bad argument, and this topic is doomed to go down in flames.
Closed.