According to Gartner's research VP and Chief Analyst, Bryan Lewis, the Red Ring of Death that's plagued the Xbox 360 since launch is the result of a crappy graphics chip -- one designed by Microsoft itself.
At the Design Automation Conference in California, Lewis explained that in order to avoid paying a third party ASIC vendor, Microsoft opted to design the GPU itself and then send it off to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
It's kind of like the time your dad wanted to fix his own leaky toilet, only this is a lot less funny and a lot harder to clean up. Lewis says Microsoft's solution was to let an ASIC vendor redesign the chip after all, whom he believes is ATI.
As of yet, no one from the big M has bothered to poke their head out and deny anything. Do you think Microsoft tried to sweep this one under the rug, or did Bryan Lewis plant it there?
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Contest:
7:06 PM on 06.11.2008
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It's not stupid, it's advanced.
I've been looking into getting a new 360 this summer. Not having one I haven't been keeping up with much of the news regarding the RRoDs, are those not a problem with brand new models now?
also, GIR.
If untrue, scandal is full of scandal. I wish MS would respond quickly to the allegation(s), and with something besides, (loosely quoted) 'There isn't any one cause of this '.. blah blah. AFAIK, the newer models of 360 don't have this problem. AFAIK tho'. :o/
The only thing that could make Dtoid MOAR BUTTSECKS AWESOME would be Gir
Also, wasn't this common knowledge?
Problem solved.
"Frank, I'm going to start slapping you now, and I may never stop."
Furthermore, ATI doesn't have fabrication plants of their own. They use TSMC themselves. Googling this up will reveal a wealth of information but just for completeness, here's an article that mentions it in passing: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/14/ati_x_first/
I call bullshit.
YAY!
It got sent off from the UK to germany and took 2 weeks to return home, but when it did it was much quieter and ran alot cooler and whe nI swiytched it off it no longer madew horrible cracking noises.
On the form it said they replaced the MoBo and I could tell that included everything attached to it as the DVD drive was new too.
The birthdate of mine was december 2006 and I bought it July 2007 and it died May 2008. So I was lucky to get it fixed in the `1yr warrantery as with it not being RROD I would not of been entitled to a free fix a few weeks later.
Since it has been fixed I am sure it will not get the RROD now or any other problems as I can just tell by the sound of it and the heat it no longer produces tha tthey have obviously fitted it with the new stuff that is more reliable by far.
If they already ARE in newer 360s, has the RRoD rate gone down or even gone away due to their inclusion?
I haven't got a 360 yet but I plan to eventually. The thought of purchasing a potentially broken product has kept me on the fence for some time.
I mean, the PS1 had problems with the disc spinner and the PS2 had problems with misaligning laser eyes but none of these problems presented themselves until years after purchase and they had simple (though annoying) easy fixes that you could use to extend the system lives without resorting to sending it away for repair.
And XP runs pretty damn well for me. I get a lockup or something similar every few weeks or so which is about equal to how often my girfriend's Maxbook pro freezes or crashes or whatever they do.
Case and point, something's wrong with the damn graphics chip, whether it's the soldering or the chip itself.
Also, Obey the Taco Man!
(dreams of a recall that will never happen...)
"To fix the problem, Microsoft went back to an unnamed ASIC vendor based in the United States and redesigned the chip, Lewis added. (Based on a previous report, the ASIC vendor is most likely the former ATI Technologies, now part of AMD.)"
"Unnamed", "most likely".. What??!
It was ATI who designed the chip, and this was known before before Xbox launch:
http://www.beyond3d.com/content/articles/4/
The previous is an article *long after* we knew who was designing the chip. You can find several hundred articles like these..
People who had the slightest techno interest knew ATI was designing Xenos.. And here I read speculations about who it may be, years after launch. Topher, you seriously are not telling us that you didn't know Xbox's GPU was ATI Xenos, years in the making before Xbox's launch..
... am I cool yet? :)
I have had 2 RRoDs since launch, so yeah, I agree the 360 is a piece of shit hardware wise, but if its the GPU, isn't that ATI's fault?
Oh, and XP and Vista may have their faults, but seriously, look at the alternatives. Open source? Mac? pleeeassee...
Microsoft's real sin here was improper testing. I'm pretty sure the reason why the RROD happened is because Microsoft didn't stress test the machine while there was a DVD in the drive, and thus they didn't consider that the heat generated by the DVD drive would overwhelm the GPU heatsink.
Oh yeah, putting a DVD drive on top of a low-profile heatsink. THAT was a bright thing to do.