Xbox 360 defects: an inside history of Microsoft’s video game console woes

[Final-Fan]

Squilliam said:

Final-Fan said:

Now this is coming from an insider who clearly has deep knowledge of what the situation was with MS both internally and strategically. He is very clear that (1) "bad luck" had little or nothing to do with the RRoD making it to customers; (2) RRoD would have been avoidable had MS not been rushing to market heedless of all danger; (3) The problem might have been exacerbated by particularly reckless management; (4) Sony was not "lucky" to avoid a similar fate (nor was Nintendo for that matter).

Unless you plan to attack the credibility of this guy I think you had better pack it in Squilliam ... after all, consider what I was responding when I started our exchange:
"OT: Nvidia recently fucked up and got a 40% failure rate on their GPUs. What does this mean? RROD could have happened to Sony just as easily. Its not that Microsoft is a screw up, its just that either Sony is Lucky or Microsoft is Unlucky depending on how you spin it. (Nvidia is the supplier of GPUs to Sony btw)"
(emphasis added)
It's clear that unless this guy is a complete liar this is just not true.

According to our sources, the failures are caused by a solderhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solder bump that connects the I/O termination of the silicon chip to the pad on the substrate. In Nvidia’s GPUs, this solder bump is created using high-lead. A thermal mismatch between the chip and the substrate has substantially grown in recent chip generations, apparently leading to fatigue cracking. Add into the equation a growing chip size (double the chip dimension, quadruple the stress on the bump) as well as generally hotter chips and you may have the perfect storm to take high lead beyond its limits. Apparently, problems arise at what Nvidia claims to be "extreme temperatures" and what we hear may be temperatures not too much above 70 degrees Celsiushttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celsius .

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Nvidia-GPU-failure,6248.html

What do the laptop failures have to do with RRoD?  Are the GPUs that similar?  And if so, is the implementation that similar in the 360 and those laptops?  In any case this has absolutely nothing to do with the quoted material.

What you SHOULD be quoting is this post.  Here, let me provide you with the crucial protion of it:
Well, I thank you for the refresher on recent developments in soldering, but all it means to me is "yes, MS rushed design and/or manufacturing (insufficient training on Pb-free) and or quality control".  I don't believe there was no way to compensate for having to go Pb-free unless I see highly reputable sources saying so. 

You said nothing about my NVidia point/question. 
You said nothing regarding my request for source(s) on your NVidia failure rate allegation.
You did not respond to my suggestion about schizophrenia within MS regarding possible early reports of RRoD. 
In fact, you did not even say anything that would support your suggestion that test units used Pb solder! 

All in all, I feel I have no choice but to wonder whether your post is just a red herring.

What's that?  I didn't put in the part about how solder wasn't the main issue?  Well, maybe that's because it's a side point that you're hyperfocusing on in either a conscious or subconscious effort to avoid the MAIN POINT we're discussing.  Which is MS fucking up quality control and letting the RRoD loose upon the world. 

Now, if you want to either drop or concede that debate, then TELL me and I'll be happy to refocus on whether or not Pb-free solder was a main factor in the RRoD.  Or, if you want to drop even THAT argument in favor of talking about NVidia's current woes with the 8400/8600m or whatever, then tell me THAT and I'll let you blather on to yourself, as I don't really care. 

But let me know what the deal is so you can stop wasting my time posting irrelevant data. 

P.S.  If you're trying to imply that Sony could have fallen victim to faulty hardware as easily as MS did, since Sony is using NVidia which is currently mired in faulty hardware issues:  (1) Please don't ask others to reverse-engineer your argument from your evidence; and (2) did you not read a fucking word of that interview?  MS had systemic quality control problems, including but not limited to bad management, critical understaffing, a hugely rushed timetable, and a software mentality (we can always patch it later).  Sony did not, and had the balls to delay the PS3's release when they had to to ensure a quality product.  Clearly MS was not willing to do the same. 

If that was not your argument, then that's why I said (1). 

P.P.S.  I thought you were blaming Pb-free solder?  And yet this latest article is about a GPU with a "solder bump [that] is created using high-lead."  Is there something I'm missing here?