Microsoft Xbox :: essays research papers

In the console-gaming world people know Sony and Nintendo. Microsoft may be the largest and richest software company in the world, but it’s unknown when it comes to console gaming. Microsoft is counting on the Xbox to change that perception. Gamers may not be willing to take a chance with the Microsoft Xbox, even if it is far superior to any console ever made. Nintendo Gamecube is nothing if charismatic. Nintendo’s new machine is half the size of any other console and looks like a toy with its brightly colored plastic shell and handle. It’s destined to be home of such popular games as Mario, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, and Kirby. Nintendo Gamecube seems mismatched as it goes up against the Microsoft Xbox and the Sony Playstation 2 (a multimedia mayhem that Sony says it’s supposed to be â€Å"The Future Of Entertainment†). All this makes you think; what makes Nintendo believe it can possibly go up against the ultra-sophisticated Xbox. The Microsoft Xbox has powerful components within that overpower any other console, including its CPU or it’s Central Processing Unit. The Xbox runs an Intel Pentium III 733-megahertz (MHz) processor. This is a lot more powerful than Nintendo Gamecube’s IBM Power PC 485-megahertz Gekko chip processor and even lower the Sony Playstation 2’s 128 bit â€Å"Emotion Engine† which is clocked around 294-megahertz. A few more components that make this console far superior to any other is its graphics processor, or GPU, which stands for Graphic Processing Unit. Microsoft had teamed up with Nvidia to create a chip that was made especially for the Xbox. The computer-based company ‘s 250-megahertz chip gives the console an amazing resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and 125 Million Polygons per Second. Sixty four- (64) megabytes (Mb) of DDRam back all this up, for great non-glitch games and smooth running. Nintendo also has a computer-based company teaming up with th em to create the 162-megahertz ATI Flipper GPU Chip. This chip can only handle around 6-12 Million polygons a second and is only backed up by 43-megabytes of DDRam. Another feature that is a first in the console industry is Xbox’s internal 8-Gigabyte (Gb) Hard-Drive or Hard Disk Drive (Hdd). This contributes too much of Xbox’s weight, but gives many features. With this you don’t have a need for a memory card to save your game files, you save them right to the hard-drive. This is a very nice feature on the Xbox, because it saves you money.