The Curious Case of the Durango Devkit Leak

Remember the guy claiming to sell the Durango devkit a few months ago? Turns out the devkit was real according to digitalfoundry's sources.

Beyond that, further information is sketchy and unreliable. DaE reckons that the current devkits were dispatched to studios in February, and feature Intel CPUs and a graphics card that carries the NVIDIA brand - but he doesn't identify either part more specifically. He also claims that the Durango kit features more than 8GB of memory (other sources have suggested 12GB), and that it is 64-bit in nature - at this point it's worth bearing in mind that dev hardware typically features double the RAM of retail kit in order to accommodate debugging tools and other systems. DaE also says that Microsoft is targeting an eight-core CPU for the final retail hardware - if true, this must surely be based around Atom architecture to fit inside the thermal envelope. The hardware configuration seems difficult to believe as it is so divorced from the technological make-up of the current Xbox 360, and we could find no corroborative sources to establish the Intel/NVIDIA hook-up, let alone the eight-core CPU.

However, another source, speaking in the wake of the Durango developer meet-up that took place in London just before GDC this year, corroborates that the system is 64-bit in nature, adding that current DirectX 11 engines developed on PC can be ported to 64-bit and that they will run with no problem on Microsoft's new console. The platform holder achieved immense success by basing the Xbox 360 workflow closely on existing PC development tools and the DirectX API and it looks as though it aims to continue that recipe for success with its next-gen offering.

In an effort to prove the authenticity of his devkit leak, DaE also leaked a screenshot of Microsoft's Visual Studio coding tool, apparently set-up for Durango. None of the developers we spoke to disputed what they were seeing. "As an aside it's got my favourite MS return code in there: ERROR_SUCCESS," chuckled one source.

The presence on this screen of the "immintrin" element strongly suggests that the Durango coding environment is built around x86 CPU architecture, supporting the AVX (advanced vector extensions) instruction set that was added in last year's Sandy Bridge revision. However, AVX is now supported on some of the most recent AMD processors too. 
Of course, this anonymous-looking PC box is not the machine Microsoft will be selling at retail next year - it's alpha kit, assembled from existing parts to best emulate the hardware configuration of the console and actual silicon will be in the closing phases of development as we speak. In a world where games typically take two years or more to develop, these units are lashed together to give game-makers a headstart in the absence of final hardware - Xbox 360 alpha kits were little more than PowerMacs with ATI graphics cards installed, and were still being used to demo code as late as E3 2005, mere months before the retail launch.

It's the mooted choice of hardware partners that is perhaps the most surprising element of this new twist in the Durango story, and the most crucial element that we could not double-source. Microsoft negotiated poor licensing deals with Intel and NVIDIA on the original Xbox that made the console uneconomical to produce in later years - thought to be one of the major reasons that the platform holder shifted to IBM for the 360's Xenon CPU and ATI (subsequently bought by AMD) for the Xenos graphics core. Unarguably, it is this graphics core that gave Microsoft its advantage over the PlayStation 3 in multi-platform games, and a shift back to NVIDIA would not only be surprising, but it would also outright contradict most of the rumours that have emerged about Durango to date.

At the very least, the x86 nature of the leaked Visual Studio shot is intriguing - in combination with the AMD rumours swirling around PlayStation 4, there's the very strong suggestion that the era of custom console hardware is now very much a thing of the past. Licensing revised versions of existing architecture - exactly as Sony did with PlayStation Vita - appears to be the most efficient way of getting the most powerful consoles without breaking the bank in terms of R&D. In a world where many blame consoles for the decline in PC gaming, it would be richly ironic if the next-gen platforms from Microsoft and Sony were based almost exclusively on PC technology...

I cant wait!

While the specs sound good, the Nvidia part sounds unlikely to say the least.

I agree with Millenium that the Nvidia part is the most surprising part given how their first venture went, but when there is money involved, everything is possible. And unfortunately that would also mean bad/poor backwards compatibility with 360 games.

About Atom. I know the old Atoms were quite meh in terms of power, are that the new ones (which I suppose will be the ones used unless they are mad) are better, but are they 'that' better to make them a viable option?

Huh.. Sounds like a powerful machine to be honest...maybe except the atom processor unit, although my current knowledge of computer hardware is quite lacking. I keep wondering what the prices will be for MS's and Sony's products when they come out.

im guessing 450euros

It is possible that Microsoft learned their lessons and negotiated a far better contract.

Also, nVidia probably want back in on the home console pie, there's 10s of millions of units to be shipped, and they're old price-screwing policy has already cost them one generation.

?

The PS3 uses an Nvidia chip.

A powerful machine indeed.

But Nvidia tecnology inside it, is very surprising and strange. Does anyone remember the Nvidia x Microsoft dispute over chip prices for the original Xbox ?

Hmm that's expensive to be honest. Although i wouldn't be suprised if MS made it even more expensive.

MS make a killing from XBL subs, so a powerful console isn't out of the question. I can see a $199 subscription based model being a reality for the 720.