The Real Reason For The Red Ring Of Death?
So, the graphics chip on the Xbox 360 is what's known as an application-specific integrated circuit, or ASIC. Apparently analyst Bryan Lewis, of Gartner Research, believes that it is the cause of all of Microsoft's RROD woes. At a design conference this week he brought this up.
The Xbox 360 recall a year ago happened because "Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor," said Lewis. Microsoft designed the graphic chip on its own, cut a traditional ASIC vendor out of the process and went straight to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., he explained.But in the end, by going cheap--hoping to save tens of millions of dollars in ASIC design costs, Microsoft ended up paying more than $1 billion for its Xbox 360 recall.
The chip has apparently been redesigned since, but the story remains a sobering reminder of the risks of doing something yourself that might be best left to those more familiar with the technology. We may never get official confirmation as the the reason for the failures, but one can sort of sympathize with Microsoft for wanting to save money on console design. It's becoming an increasingly expensive endeavor, but the cost is hard to pass on to the consumer after a certain point. Imagine how much the NEXT generation of consoles is going to cost to develop.
The truth about last year's Xbox 360 recall [EETimes]
[via: Joystiq]
Sgt. Sausagepants
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 11 June 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: microsoft, red ring of death, xbox
Yeah, so I just got the old RROD on my elite 360 last week. UPS came to pick it up yesterday. I just hope I get it back in working order. *sigh*
I understand why they did it, especially after they were completely shafted by Nvidia last time out, but not letting a third party expert make them is a bit daft as evidenced by the failure rates, exxagerrated they may be, but still more than other consoles combined.
But from a marketing standpoint, and business one it made sense.
So with the design changes is the 360 reliable now? I would consider buying one if I knew it wouldn't break on me right out of the box.