Xbox 360 tech specs, facts, product overview - you want 'em, we got 'em, all nicely presented with plenty of bullet-points. The Xbox 360 fact sheet provided below has come direct from Microsoft. Enjoy.
XBOX 360 FACT SHEET

Product Overview

The Xbox 360TM video game and entertainment system places you at the center of the experience. Available this holiday season in Europe, Japan, and North America, Xbox 360 ignites a new era of digital entertainment that is always connected, always personalized, and always in high definition.

Xbox 360 gives you access to the games you want to play, the people you want to play with, and the experiences you crave-when and where you want them.

Key Highlights

Hardware, software, and services: Unveiled to the world on MTV on Thursday, May 12, 2005, Xbox 360 represents a dramatic leap forward in high-definition gaming and entertainment experiences. Fusing powerful hardware, software, and services, Xbox 360 fully engages you in a gaming experience that is more expansive, dramatic, and lifelike, where the possibilities are limitless and your imagination knows no boundaries. The next generation is here.

Industrial design: A merger of form and function, Xbox 360 wraps powerful technology in a sophisticated exterior. Two of the most innovative design firms in the world-San Francisco-based Astro Studios and Osaka, Japan-based Hers Experimental Design Laboratory Inc.-came together to craft a sleek, stylish system that conveys the very essence of Xbox 360.

Xbox Gamer Guide: The Xbox Gamer Guide is an entertainment gateway that instantly connects you to your games, friends, music, movies, and downloadable content. Available at a touch of the Xbox Guide Button, the Xbox Gamer Guide gives you instant access to the experiences and content you want, from the gamer card of the player that just invited you to play online to new downloadable content for the game currently running.

Personalized interface: Xbox 360 lets you create your own unique system and experience. With interchangeable Xbox 360 Faces, it's easy and fun to change the appearance of your console. Switch on your system and customize the look and feel of the Xbox Gamer Guide and Xbox System Guide with unique "skins." From sleek and sophisticated to fun and funky, pick the Faces and skins that show your personality.

Ring of Light and Xbox Guide Button: Divided into four quadrants, the glowing Ring of Light and Xbox Guide Button visually connect you to your games, digital media, and the world of Xbox LiveTM, the first global, unified online console games service. Featured on both the wireless and wired controllers, the Xbox Guide Button puts you in control of your experience. In addition to bringing up the Xbox Gamer Guide and the Xbox System Guide, the Xbox Guide Button lets you turn the system on and off without ever leaving the couch.

Xbox Live: Xbox Live is where games and entertainment come alive, the only unified place where you can play with anyone, anytime, anywhere. And the best just got better. Connect your Xbox 360 to your broadband connection and get instant access to Xbox Live Silver. Express your digital identity through your Gamertag and gamer card, talk with others using voice chat, and access Xbox Live Marketplace-all right out of the box, at no extra cost. Upgrade to Xbox Live Gold and enter the exciting world of multiplayer online gaming. With intelligent matchmaking, access to all your achievements and statistics, video chat and video messaging, and an enormous selection of games, Xbox Live Gold delivers your competition, on your terms.


Xbox Live Marketplace: Keep your favorite games fresh with instant access to new content. Xbox Live Marketplace is a one-stop shop to download new game trailers, demos, and episodic content, plus new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins, and more. Accessible to everyone who establishes a broadband connection with their Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace lets you personalize and extend your experience, on demand.


Games: Xbox 360 redefines what games look like, sound like, feel like, and play like to engage you like never before. With Xbox 360, epic worlds are alive with detail, from thunderous skies rumbling over a mountain range to tiny blades of grass rustling together in the breeze. Vibrant characters display depth of emotion to evoke more dramatic responses, immersing you in the experience like never before. You'll see all Xbox 360 titles at 720p resolution in 16:9 widescreen, with anti-aliasing for smooth, movie-like graphics and multi-channel surround sound.

Digital entertainment: Amplify your music, photos, video, and TV. Watch progressive-scan DVD movies right out of the box. Rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive and share your latest digital pictures with friends. Make the connection, and Xbox 360 instantly streams the digital media stored on your MP3 player, digital camera, Media Center PC, or any Microsoft Windows XP-based PC.
Xbox 360 System Performance Specifications
Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each
Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total
VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total
128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread
1 MB L2 cache
CPU Game Math Performance
9 billion dot product operations per second
Custom ATI Graphics ...

The guys over at DC France have posted 2 videos of the Amstrad emulator for the Dreamcast running, check them both out at DC France --> http://www.dc-france.com/ ...

Tonight, Microsoft officially stops refusing to comment on rumour and speculation and starts talking cold, hard fact about Xbox 360 - the next-generation Xbox console, which will launch later this year (possibly November) according to Bill Gates.

The console will be unveiled in a 30-minute broadcast on MTV in North America, taking place at 21:30 EDT, which, just to clarify, is around 02:30 British Summer Time and 03:30 CEST for anybody reading this from Europe who plans to stay up and follow the inevitable coverage of the show on the Internet.

Microsoft has already said that it will demonstrate "the Xbox vision for the next generation," which "ensures that the user experience is always connected, always personalised and always in high definition".

Xbox VP Peter Moore recently demystified that somewhat by stating: "We'll talk name. We'll show the hardware - as much as you can do in a television show." He then added: "You'll get a little glimpse of the games, but we're saving most of that for [specialist press] at E3."

Realistically, the video footage of games is likely to prove the most significant to avid followers of the console, who have been treated in recent weeks to leaked details of the name and even photographs of the console and its accessories. Microsoft has never officially commented on any of the leaks, but hasn't rushed to damn them either.

Microsoft's also said it will show insider footage of the making of the system.

The show is being given a glitzy edge, with actor Elijah Wood taking the role of presenter, and chart-topping band The Killers interjecting now and then with performances. We're also told to expect backstage celebrity interviews.

After the show, MTV.com will take over and supply extended coverage of the system including behind-the-scenes video, photos, and "other special extras".

Viewers outside America, meanwhile, will have to wait until tomorrow evening to catch the MTV show on TV. A full list of regional timings can be found at the bottom of this item.

The full list of regional timings for the show follows:


North America: Thursday, May 12, at 9:30 p.m. (21:30)

Japan/Asia: Friday, May 13, at 11:30

Europe: France: Friday, May 13, at 19:00

Germany: Friday, May 13, at 19:00

Italy: Friday, May 13, at 23:30

Netherlands: Friday, May 13, at 19:30

Poland: Friday, May 13, at 21:00

Portugal: Friday, May 13, at 20:00

Romania: Friday, May 13, at 20:00

Scandinavia: Friday, May 13, at 22:00

Spain: Friday, May 13, at 21:30

U.K.: Friday, May 13, at 20:00

Australia: Friday, May 13, at 19:00 ...

News from Lik Sang

We have received stock of two new products from Datel today, Action Replay Duo and MaxPower Battery for the PSP, while the UK peripheral maker also confirmed an upcoming edition of the famous Action Replay for the PSP.

The MaxPower Battery Pack is identical one-to-one in comparison with the original battery pack from Sony. Same voltage, same mA, same power, same time of charge and of consumption. Just plain same, but 33% cheaper. A great save for those in need of a second battery pack for long trips with their PlayStation Portable. Bulk discounts are granted for quantity orders.

We have to deliver bad news about the Action Replay Duo which we received earlier this week: it does not allow to use cheat-codes with Nintendo DS software. This might come as a surprise to you, as it was to us here. Instead, Action Replay Duo allows cheat-codes on GBA games only while it adds another feature for NDS games: MaxDrive saves. Check this CodeJunkies' page for detailed explanations. Sadly it appears like the upcoming Action Replay for PSP, freshly announced by Datel, is also a powersave tool and will also NOT support the classic cheat-code feature. It started with the Action Replay Xbox and it seems to become a new usual trend now at Datel to use the Action Replay brand name with non-cheat-code-based products, which might seem confusing to many gamers out there. For those who do indeed want a GAME SAVES MANAGER for their NDS or their PSP, orders are welcome for US$34.99 only.

...

Well it took them a very long time to get around to it but Nintendo wants some online action for their DS. Yes, we’ve been reading about it for months now, but they’ve gone and made it official. Let’s just say, it’s a great day for gamers. With all three console makers offering connectivity in their products we should start to see the same kind of multiplayer innovation we’ve enjoyed on the PC platform (which has, actually, been stagnant for far too long).

The Nintendo deal will, as previously speculated, utilize IGN’s matchmaking tools. It should make for a good experience, assuming you can find a hot spot near you. ...

Ubisoft has today announced that Splinter Cell Chaos Theory will be making its arrival on Nintendo's DS handheld sometime in June.

The game will make full use of the touch-screen and stylus, allowing players to quickly solve puzzles and check their inventory on the bottom screen as well as manipulate the game's camera position.

DS's wireless capabilities will be put to good use, enabling two-player cooperative play spread over five levels, and a versus mode supporting either two or four-player matches, with seven maps available.

The single-player game will feature eight levels, one of which will be exclusive to the DS version.

"We are thrilled to release Splinter Cell Chaos Theory for the very first time in full 3D on a handheld console," said John Parkes, EMEA marketing director at Ubisoft. "The game will take full advantage of the Nintendo DS technology, with extensive use of the two screens and wireless communication for multiplayer games.

"With the addition of an exclusive solo mission and move, this shows our commitment and confidence in making Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory DS a strong release for this summer." ...

A solid indication of the timeline for the launch of Nintendo's next home console has emerged from memory firm MoSys Inc, which has revealed that it will supply memory for the system, with "mid-2006" touted as the launch date.

MoSys previously provided the 1T-SRAM memory technology used by NEC for the GameCube's memory, and speaking in a live conference call following the announcement of the firm's Q1 earnings, CEO and CFO Mark Voll said that it would again be fulfilling this role for Revolution.

"During the quarter we announced that NEC Electronics will now use our 1T-SRAM embedded memory technologies on their advanced 90nm process, and that the initial designs to be incorporated in SoCs will be used in Nintendo's next-generation game console, codenamed Revolution," he said.

The most interesting part came next, however, when Voll commented that: "We are excited to be a participating member of the Nintendo team once again as Nintendo will roll out its successor game console to the GameCube in mid-2006."

This is the first solid evidence that the Revolution platform is still on track for a mid-2006 launch. The console is expected to debut at a pre-E3 conference next Tuesday, but it's still not known just how much will be on display - with sources close to Nintendo suggesting that only a pre-recorded video of "next-gen footage" may be shown.

MoSys didn't reveal how much RAM would be going into each Revolution console - but in an unrelated story also doing the rounds about Revolution today, Chinese website Unika.com claims to have seen an actual specification for the hardware.

According to the site, the console will boast four 2.5Ghz IBM G5 Custom cores, with 128KB of level 1 cache and a 512KB shared level 2 cache, while the graphics will be powered by a dual core ATI RN520 chipset, with 16MB of on-board eDRAM for the frame buffer.

While both of those specifications seem eminently possible - not least because IBM and ATI are confirmed as Nintendo's hardware partners for the console - we've been unable to find any confirmation or denial of the figures, simply because no developers outside of Nintendo's tightly sewn up inner circle actually have Revolution details, let alone devkits, as yet. ...

Electronic Arts is making sure Nintendo DS owners can take their portable on the road--the digital road at least. The publisher today announced that Need for Speed Underground 2 for the DS has made its way on to the handheld. The DS edition, developed by EA Canada in Vancouver, is the sixth version of the game, which was previously released in November on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, and Game Boy Advance.

DS owners will use the unit's touch screen for a number of features. Using the stylus, drivers can control how much nitrous they want to use for an added speed boost. Car customization goes a step further on the DS, letting gamers create unique vinyl designs for their ride.

Like other versions of Need for Speed Underground, the game focuses on illegal street racing and tuner culture. Gamers will ride around a number of tracks, accumulating cash to trick out their cars both functionally and cosmetically. A selection of minigames will also keep gamers busy when they're not tearing up the city streets. ...

Less than a week after an MTV listing revealed that the Xbox 360 will ship in November, another outside party has apparently pegged the release window of a rival next-generation console.

As part of its quarterly earnings call yesterday, Monolithic System Technology Inc. had its executives field the customary inquires from analysts. In a statement before he began fielding calls, interim chief executive officer and chief financial officer Mark Voll made a statement about the memory-technology firm's plans for the coming year--plans that involve a certain major Japanese game company.

While there are dozens of such calls every day, the Nintendophiles at GameCube Advanced noticed Voll's remarks contained a nugget of game-info gold. "During the quarter, we announced that NEC electronics will now use our 1T-SRAM embedded memory technologies on their advanced 90-nanometer process," said Voll, "and that the initial designs to be incorporated will be used in Nintendo's next-generation game console, code name 'Revolution.'"

Then, according to a transcript of the call, Voll said, "We are excited to be a participating member of the Nintendo team once again, as Nintendo will roll out and success game console to the GameCube in mid-2006." (Emphasis added.) Presuming that the transcriber misquoted Voll saying "a successor game console" as "and success console," it means that Nintendo's next-gen console will arrive just over a year from now.

As of press time, US Nintendo reps said they were waiting for an official response to Voll's comments. However, the executive's statements seem to confirm widespread speculation that the Revolution will arrive well into 2006, roughly the same time the PlayStation 3 is expected to launch. Sony has indicated it will begin mass production of the Cell processor, which will power the PlayStation, at the beginning of next year.

Monolithic System Technology--more commonly known as MoSys--developed the 1T-SRAM to offer "a combination of high density, low power consumption, high speed and low cost that other available memory technologies do not match," according to the company's Web site. In March, it announced it was extending its existing partnership with NEC to the chip-maker's new 90nm process generation of chips. MoSys has offices in Sunnyvale, California, and Yokohama, Japan. ...