`
`to Win
`
`Precision Forged
`
`CPUs GRAPHICS MOTHERBOARDS CASES & POWER STORAGE MOBILE GAMING FORUMS MORI
`
`» HPtrash talks Dell over buyback [42] Details of ATI's Xbox 360 GPU unveiled
`by Scott Wasson — 12:46 PM on May 19, 2005
`
`4 Most commentedstories
`» Dell goes private in $24 hillion deal [68]
`» Zotac's Zbox 1D42 Plus nettopreviewed [67]
`» Super Bowl Sunday Shortbread [55]
`® Newell wants Steam to be a networkAPI [45]
`
`Hot forum threads
`* Anyone use Driver Genius Professional ?
`CPxOnce)eel]Reelike]“eeeaR=
`¢ Good or bad multiple purpose build?
`® Questions about the Corsair 600T case fan connector
`e Richard III Finally Dug Up
`
`A peek inside the monster new console GPU
`
`WITH MICROSOFT'SOFFICIAL announcementof the next-generation Xbox 360 console this week, ATI has
`decided to disclose some of the architectural details of the graphics processor that it created for the
`system. | had a brief but enlightening conversation with Bob Feldstein, Vice President of Engineering at
`ATI, who helped oversee the Xbox 360 GPU project. He spelled out same of the GPU's details for me, and
`they're definitely intriguing.
`
`Feldstein said that ATI and Microsoft developed this chip together in the span of two years, and that
`they worked "from the ground up" to do a console product. He said that Microsoft was a very good
`partner with some goad chip engineers who understood the problems of doing a non-PC system design.
`Also, because the part was custom created for a game console, it could be designed specifically for
`delivering a good gaming experience as part of the Xbox 360 system.
`
`Unified shaders
`Feldstein cited several major areas of innovation where the Xbox 360 GPU breaks new ground. The first
`of those is the chip's unified shader array, which does away with separate vertex and pixel shaders in
`favor of 48 parallel shaders capable of operating on data for both pixels and vertices. The GPU can
`dynamically allocate shader resources as necessary in order to best address a computational constraint,
`whether that constraint is vertex- or pixel-related.
`
`ITX matherboard reviewed
`
`Zotac’s Z77-ITX WiFi Mini-
`
`OCZ bundles Far Cry 3 with Vector SSDs
`ThinkPad Helix postponed, will now ship in
`
`This sort of graphics architecture has been rumored as a future possibility for some time, but ATI
`worried that using unified shaders might cause someefficiency loss. To keep all of the shader units
`utilized as fully as possible, the design team created a complex system of hardware threading inside the
`chip itself. In this case, each thread is a program associated with the shader arrays. The Xbox 360 GPU
`can manage and maintain state information on 64 separate threads in hardware. There's a thread buffer
`inside the chip, and the GPU can switch between threads instantaneously in order to keep the shader
`:
`arrays busy at all times.
`
`March
`Big retailers sign up to sell Ouya game
`console
`Latest Catalyst beta addresses Crysis 3, Far
`cry3
`a
`|
`L.A. Noire bloaper reel highlights superb
`|
`|
`.
`facial animation
`
`16
`18
`
`wi
`
`uf
`17
`
`This internal complexity allows for efficient use of the GPU's computational resources, but it's also
`completely hidden from software developers, who need only to write their shader programs without
`warrying about the details of the chip's internal thread scheduling.
`
`Wednesday Shortbread
`HP trash talks Dell over buyback
`Tuesday Shortbread
`
`38
`@
`41
`
`More stuff » TOP COMMENTS
`
`alledged; film
`bites man, sky
`
`htps://webarchive.org/web/20 130207073728hp ://techreporl.com/review/8342/details-o[-ati-xbox-360-epu-unveiled[9/12/2015 3:39:11 PM]
`
`AMD1318_0154243
`
`ATI Ex. 2147
`
`IPR2023-00922
`Page 1 of 3
`
`ATI Ex. 2147
`IPR2023-00922
`Page 1 of 3
`
`
`
`Details ofATI's Xbox 360 GPUunveiled - ‘The ‘Tech Report - Page 1
`
`A block diagram of the Xbox 360 GPU. Source: AT}.
`
`On chip, the shaders are organized in three SIMD engines with 16 processors per unit, for a total of 48
`shaders. Each of these shaders is comprised of four ALUs that can execute a single operation per cycle,
`so that each shader unit can execute four floating-point ops per cycle.
`These shaders execute a new unified instruction set that incorporates instructions for both vertex and
`pixel operations. In fact, Feldstein called it a "very general purpose instruction set" with some of the
`same roots as the DirectX instruction set. Necessarily, the shader language that developers will use to
`program these shader units will be distinct from the shader models currently used in DirectX 9, including
`Shader Model 3.0. Feldstein described it as "beyond 3.0." This new shader language allows for programs
`to contain an “infinite” number of instructions with features such as branching, looping, indirect
`branching, and predicated indirect. He said developers are already using shader programs with hundreds
`of instructions in them.
`
`| asked Feldstein whether the shaders themselves are, at the hardware level, actually more general than
`those in current graphics chips, because | expected that they would still contain a similar amount of
`custom logic to speed up common graphics operations. To my surprise, he said that the shaders are
`more general in hardware. At the outset of the project, he said, ATI hired a number of compiler experts
`in order to make sure everything would work right, and he noted that Microsoft is no slauch whenit
`comes to compilers, either. Feldstein said Microsoft "made a great compiler for it.”
`
`At this point, Feldstein paused quickly to note that this GPU was not a VLIW machine, apparently
`reminded ofall of the compiler talk surrounding a certain past competitor. (The GeForce FX was,
`infamously, a VLIW machine with some less-than-desirable performance characteristics, including an
`extreme sensitivity to compiler instruction tuning.) He was quite confident that the Xbox 360 GPU will
`not suffer from similar problems, and he claimed the relative abundance of vertex processing powerin
`this GPU should allaw objects like fur, feathers, hair, and cloth ta loak much better than past
`technology had allowed. Feldstein also said that character skin should look great, and he confirmed to
`me that real-time subsurface scattering effects should be possible on the Xbox 360.
`
`The Xbox 360 GPU's unified shader model pays dividends in other places, as well. In traditional pixel
`shaders, he noted, any shader output is generally treated as a pixel, and it's fed through the rest of the
`graphics pipeline after being operated on by the shader. By contrast, the Xbox 360 GPU can take data
`output by the shaders, unaltered by the rest of the graphics pipeline, and reprocess it. This more
`
`ew link found
`
`Pd I'd look up some of
`
`+28
`
`=
`
`han the prequels were +21
`
`Prec isio al
`NEW GALLERY ITEMS
`wry
`
`More pictures »
`
`shietudey
`WHAT YOU
`
`+35 share of leaving custe +31
`
`efficient flow of data, combined with a unified instruction set for vertex and pixel manipulation, allows
`
`easier implementation of some impartant graphics algorithms in real time, including higher-order
`5
`5
`ae
`5
`5
`5
`5
`surfacesard global umination. I would expect to see fluid animation of complex terrain and extensive
`use of displacement mapping in Xbox 360 games. Feldstein also pointed out that this GPU should have
`«a
`.
`a
`—
`sufficient muscle to enable the real-time use of other complex shader algorithms as they're invented.
`
`120GB OCZ Vertex 3
`Core i7-3960X
`120GB Corsair Force GT
`Core i7-3930K
`64GB Crucial M4
`Core i7-2700K
`3TB Caviar Green
`Core i5-2550K
`2TB Caviar Black
`Core i5-2450P
`TB Caviar Green
`Core 13-2130
`1TB Spinpoint F3
`1TB Caviar Black
`FX-8120 Black
`500GB Scorpio Black
`Phenom Il X6 1090T
`
`
`
`
`
`
`PhenomIl X2 565 Black
`Checkother prices:
`Tags: Graphics
`Previouspage | Next page o
`AB-3870K
`A6-3500 Radeon HD 7970
`
`: icsGameconsoles jo 2 Phenom Il X4 975 Black |
`
`Radeon HD 7950
`
`htps://webarchive.org/web/20 130207073728hp ://techreporl.com/review/8342/details-o[-ati-xbox-360-epu-unveiled[9/12/2015 3:39:11 PM]
`
`AMD1318_0154244
`
`ATI Ex. 2147
`
`IPR2023-00922
`Page 2 of 3
`
`ATI Ex. 2147
`IPR2023-00922
`Page 2 of 3
`
`
`
`Details ofATI's Xbox 360 GPUunveiled - ‘The ‘Tech Report - Page 1
`
`28 comments — Last by mas_at_1:01 PM on 05/21/05
`
`| Ei
`
`Radeon HD 7870
`Radeon HD 7850
`GeForce GTX 680
`GeForce GTX 580
`GeForce GTX 570
`GeForce GTX 560 Ti
`GeForce GTX 560
`Corsair 600T
`Corsair 650D
`
`Copyright ©1999-2013 The Tech Report. All rights reserved.
`| Pdi
`icv
`|S
`5
`see
`
`htps://webarchive.org/web/20 130207073728hp ://techreporl.com/review/8342/details-o[-ati-xbox-360-epu-unveiled[9/12/2015 3:39:11 PM]
`
`AMD1318_0154245
`
`ATI Ex, 2147
`
`IPR2023-00922
`Page 3 of 3
`
`ATI Ex. 2147
`IPR2023-00922
`Page 3 of 3
`
`