A few months back, many news outlets reported that Xbox One runs 3 Operating Systems. They further went on to claim that the one was a stripped down version of Windows 8, one was the Xbox One OS and the last was a switching layer between the two. Well they were wrong. Xbox One does indeed run three operating systems but the correct ones are: a full fledged windows 8, a stripped down windows 8 and a Host OS (RTOS). The implications for this are immediate and stunning and we will go upon each in this article.

Xbox One Games and Apps Actually run on Windows 8

We recently received the slides from Frank Savage’s presentation at Build 2014 along with the audio of the same. And we noticed something that many news outlets failed to report. The fact that Xbox One runs Windows 8. Not only that, but we realized that so many of the news outlets had gotten the initial leak completely wrong. Because if you run a game or an app on the Xbox One, it will either run in the full Windows 8 or  the stripped down version of Windows 8. Either way it runs on Windows 8. Let me start by explaining the three operating systems present in Xbox One.

The first tier ‘Host OS’ and the ‘to-the-metal- operating system present in Xbox One dubbed the ‘Host OS’ is an RTOS (Real Time Operating System) has complete control over the entire Xbox One hardware and resources. In Frank Savage’s words “… owns where everything and how everything works…. owns CPU…GPU”. This is your basic Xbox One Operating System. However the thing is , this particular OS only handles tasking and the security layer. It does not run any game or application. It does however host (in a non – hyper-v form) the ‘OS’ and the ‘Exclusive OS’, which is Windows 8 and the stripped down Windows 8. 

The second tier ‘Shared Partition’ is occupied by Windows 8. This Operating System is “virtually indistinguishable” from the Windows 8 we know (and love?) , code wise. This particular Windows 8 handles all the basic functions of the Xbox One  including the shell. Shared Apps are run here. It handles some major features of games such as networking and some audio.

The third tier ‘Exclusive Partition’ is the Exclusive OS, which in Frank Savage’s words is a “windows 8 that has gone on a massive massive diet…… lean and mean windows 8″. It has been hand tuned to remove any and all bottlenecks as well as bloatware. However this is the part which defines it as a ‘partition’ and not a virtual machine. All the Direct X draw calls go straight from the Exclusive OS down to the Host OS. It does not go through the full windows 8 ‘ shared partition’.

Basically the Xbox One is a true X86, X86-64 machine. As Frank Savage said, “any game I made ran equally well on Windows 8 (desktop) and Xbox One”. The porting capability this implies is very powerful, infact, if Frank Savage is to be believed, port-lag is non existent. Just convince the devs, and you shall have the game.

Read more: http://wccftech.com/xbox-one-architecture-explained-runs-windows-8-virtually-indistinguishable/#ixzz2zSJay5fJ

Who else is fapping to this, besides me?

Already did. You're too slow.

I wonder if that means that there will be more games coming from PC to X1 or the other way around?

Interesting...

Is not as cool as it looks... And i don't know if it is a right choice because Xbox 360 with 512MB RAM (god knows how few for OS) works better than XOne with 3 fucking gb and 2 of 8 cores reserved for the OS.

Needs two more. Why limit it with only three? A windows 7 for people who doesn't like Windows 8 would be great.

The source article isn't exactly correct.

Microsoft directly described each of the OSes and their origin and purpose. If that information was incorrect, it was incorrect because Microsoft didn't provide entirely accurate information.

However, the only thing new learned is that the games OS, which was described as the Xbox OS, is in fact based on the Windows 8 kernel and not the same as the Xbox 360's OS.

The apps OS was always known to be a Windows 8-based OS.

The Xbox One OS is far more capable than the Xbox 360's OS.  Don't judge an OS by the UI.

First and foremost, the Xbox 360 wasn't capable of multi-tasking.  The Xbox One allows up to four apps and a game to run at the same time.  If you wanted to purchase DLC, you had to exit the game, enter the dashboard, then enter the game store to make a purchase.  With the Xbox One, you can pull up the dashboard, open the game store, purchase the DLC than switch back to the game without losing your place.

Second, the Xbox 360's OS, because it ran both games and applications, was a completely closed off system that required scrutiny of every game and app before it was implemented.  The two virtual machines that make up the Games and Apps portion of the Xbox One allow greater flexibility and freedom for developers.

Finally, by all accounts the Xbox One is far more flexible and capable than the PS4, and the PS4 uses the same amount of memory and the same number of cores for non-gaming functions. 

If thats true, why isnt it PS4 thats getting lower resolutions? why are developers not complaining about PS4's memory?