Console gaming specs for individual systems

 The production of personal game consoles such as Xbox, Ps2, and Nintendo Gamecube have made gaming financially accessible for the common student, young adult or possibly even children.  When choosing which gaming system to get, three factors help determine a buy: cost, specs, what is the main purpose or what is the majority of the games that are going to be played. 

The Nintendo Corporation takes a different approach at video games and tries to target younger audiences.  The Nintendo specs were different when trying to compare game consoles.  The Nintendo GameCube has a MPU (Microprocessor Unit), which is custom IBM power PC “Gekko”.  For the manufacturing process, 0.18 micron IBM copper wire technology.  For the CPU capacity there are 1125 Dmips.  The instruction memory is 8 KB RAM + 8 KB ROM and the data memory is 8 KB RAM + 4KB ROM.  For the main memory bandwidth, it’s 2.6GB per second.  The GameCube’s pixel depth is 24-bit color, 24-bit Z buffer.  For the sound processor, there is a custom Macronix 16-bit DSP.  The system memory for the Nintendo GameCube is 40MB.  GameCube is currently unable to be played on HDTV and memory is saved on a 16MB memory slot.        

Sony’s Playstation2 cost the same as Xbox, $149.99, so competition is understandable.  The Sony Playstation has the most games out of the three consoles being compared, and games keep getting produced.  The specifications for the PS2 were slightly different than those of the Xbox.  Sony’s PS2 has 128 bit “Emotion Engine”.  For the system’s memory, it has 32 MB Direct Rambus and the memory bus bandwidth is 3.2 GB per second.  The PS2 is able to play DVDs and CDs with out having to purchase a remote for an extra cost.  Memory is saved on 16-32 bit memory chips that are external and have to be plugged into the console.  PS2s are not HDTV ready, but who’s to say that the might not do some upgrades soon. 

Out of the three game consoles that were compared and contrasted, Xbox had by far the better outstanding specifications.  The CPU HAS AN Intel Pentium III 733 MHz with 128K cache.  For the OS, Xbox has Windows 2000 that was custom designed by Microsoft.  As far as memory goes, Xbox has a unified 64MB and Xbox’s main memory bandwidth has 6.4GB.  For the GPU bandwidth, Xbox shares the 6.4 GB’s with the rest of the system.  For the storage medium, Xbox has an 8 GB hard disk.  As far as graphics are concerned, Xbox has 250 MHz customized designed NV2X.  Xbox is HDTV supportive and can play DVDs, but you have to purchase a $19 remote.  Lastly, Xbox cost 149.99, unless you buy it used.

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