IBM today released the specifications of the chip that’s at the heart of the new XBox 360 at the Fall Processor Forum in San Jose.

The chip is a customized version of IBM’s industry leading 64-bit PowerPC core. Some highlights include:

– 3 identical multi-threaded PowerPC-based CPU cores operating at 3.2 GHz enhanced with specialized function VMX acceleration for gaming applications and a high speed 128-bit vector unit

– 1 MByte Shared L2 Cache with custom logic for high-speed data streaming for graphics and system applications

– 5.4 Gb/s per-pin Front Side Bus (with an aggregated bandwidth of 21.6 GBs)

– Highly configurable and programmable utilizing eFUSE technology

The chips are being made at IBM’s fab in East Fishkill, NY, and at a plant in Singapore owned by Chartered Semiconductor, who was a partner in the chip’s development.

Dean Takahashi writes a great post that explains the significance of this announcement to IBM and the technology industry as a whole. Pay attention to his discussion of the close collaboration between Microsoft and IBM that occurred throught the development.

This was a remarkable development cycle. Microsoft was absolutely determined to get the XBox 360 on the shelves globally before Sony could do so with PlayStation 3. As a result, IBM had to accelerate the development process, shaving as much as 30% - 35% off the “normal” development time while holding to Microsoft’s exacting quality and performance standards.

For IBM, this chip - along with the forthcoming Cell processor for PS3 and the chip we’re building for Nintendo’s forthcoming Revolution console - is physical validation of its microelectronics strategy. The kind of computing power used by the NextGen consoles strongly foreshadows where IBM believes computing is headed. A whole generation of developers, raised on the intense visual interface offered by computer games, will look to harness these capabilities to solve real-world problems.

As Takahashi notes of the Microsoft-IBM partnership at the end of his blog, “Talk about strange bedfellows. It’s like the PC wars never happened. And there’s new enemies to fight.”

Indeed.

Tags: IBM, xbox, Microsoft