G5 as Xbox 360 dev kit?

by Ben Zackheim { Apr 21st 2005 at 3:33PM }

dev kit

If Websters needs a new picture to put next to the word "irony", we have a candidate. Engadget gives their take on the supposed Xbox 360 dev kit. It's an Apple G5. It's certainly possible since, as Engadget points out, the Xbox 360 and the G5 share some specs, but take it with a grain of salt. If Woz were dead, he'd be turning in his grave.

[thanks Fady]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

nod @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM

Welcome to last year. Old, old, old news.

Ryun @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM

Didn't we know that the dev kits were on Macs like a year ago? I don't think that's news. I think the news is the fact that there's a (boring) picture of a sticker.

Brent @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM

I like this news, dont listen to them! That picture is rather exciting.

Oomph @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM

Once again, the bias from you guys. If this were a Sony or Nintendo Dev Kit, you'd be touting the relationship with Apple as an example of their innovation and flexibility.

Ben @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM

You make do with what's available, probably much cheaper than building custom prototypes.
It's not the first time Apple machines were used as console development kits. Apple IIGSes were used as dev boxes for Super Nintendos.

Dan Bedford @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM

What's with you guys? Do a Google on xbox+G5+development and look at all of the year-old articles you find that confirm G5's were used for Xbox 2 game development. Geebus.

mike @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM

umm this is old news. but nice picture.

also theres a spelling mistake on your post "as Engadegt points out,"

Eric Pobirs @ Dec 18th 2005 8:44PM

It's simply a matter of it being the most readily available platform based on the same or closely related architecture. (Apple's miserable IIGS was handy for Nintendo in that it also used the rather uncommon 65816. Several of my co-workers from the original Cinemaware were saved by the SNES after much wasted investment in IIGS work.) Both Xbox 360 and Sony's Cell deviate greatly in having in-order rather than out-of-order version of the PowerPC architecture. This means the transistor count is cut substantially, allowing a very fast and powerful CPU to go in a affordabel game console but the downside is that the coding requires vastly more optimization by the programmers since the CPU won't do it for them as they've become accustomed to on the PC and Mac as well as current gen consoles.

Microsoft and Apple have a long symbiotic relationship going back to the 70's. The first hardware product Microsoft ever produced was a Z80 card for the Apple II that allowed it to run CP/M software. This was a huge boost for making Apples acceptable in business environments before Visicalc started a revolution.