To understand why Microsoft and Sony chose AMD, you need to start with content needs. Both brands were looking for a way to increase the console’s “footprint,” increase the number of applications, and reduce the software load. development. Xbox One and PS4 are designed to make more than just games. They designed consoles to be the long-term hub for all home entertainment, automation, and home control. To do this, they will need many complex programs that are undeniable for code. So, you want to start with an application processor architecture that supports this, and that’s not the Power architecture.
My resources showed me that Sony and Microsoft felt MIPS didn’t have the right length or ecosystem of developer strength to force new consoles. Then it was the ARM architecture rather than X86. Me they said there was a technical baking, where silicon prototypes were tested against each other through a myriad of artificial and application-based benchmarks. At the end of baking, ARM was thought to have the bad force and its 64-bit architecture was not in an early enough position. 64-bit was vital because it maximized memory addressing capacity and the next-generation console had to run multiple applications, operating systems, and hypervisors. ARM-based architectures are soon as resilient as AMD’s Jaguar cores, but not when Sony or Microsoft want them for their new consoles.
As far as tradition was concerned, Microsoft and Sony had other needs when it came to graphics, video processing, content security, and even memory. Sony and Microsoft may have tried to do it alone, but they simply didn’t have the expertise or IP to cram five to seven billion transistors into a single piece of silicon. They may have also hired a third party like Open Silicon, but, frankly, it’s too complex a task and there’s a lot at stake to happen with someone who hasn’t done cutting-edge design. And who can do it with Microsoft’s “red ring of death” that costs them billions and tarnishes the Xbox brand?The requirement for a traditional SOC has knocked Intel out of the race, along with its graphics. .
Each of the above contributed to AMD getting the green light. AMD won this case because they have the complex and intellectual ownership, knowledge, experience and commitment to make it happen. They have an IP address on CPU, GPU, memory, video, audio, and I/O. They also designed the first quad-core X86 SOC, and it’s not a huge leap to move to 8 cores. Eventually, AMD created an entire product department to help the effort that others were unwilling to undertake. It was a transparent victory.
That’s why Sony and Microsoft are already AMD.
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Disclosure: My Business, Moor Insights
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