Microsoft confirms the X-Box

[03.01.00] » "It's not a PC, it's a console system. No, seriously." claims Gates.

    With the annual Game Developer's Conference underway as of this morning, Microsoft wasted no time in attempting to become the center of attention by officially confirming the X-Box. Bursting onto the console gaming scene with what seems to be a typical desktop PC (PC-based architecture, Windows OS, hard drive, etc.), Microsoft went straight to the attack, basing their press release on why the X-Box "will be better than the PS2."

    While Microsoft's immediate claims of victory over Sony's Playstation 2 are definitely premature (after all, the system is well over a year from release), they've certainly displayed high enough hardware statistics to give them bragging rights. Although the following stats could be considered vaporware at the moment, Microsoft has shown their intent to try and outpower every existing system:

• DirectX API
• Intel Pentium III processor technology with Streaming SIMD Extensions.
• Custom 3-D NVIDIA graphics processor
• 64 MB of RAM (unified memory architecture)
• Custom 3-D audio processor
• 8GB hard drive
• 4X DVD drive with movie playback
• Four game controller ports
• Expansion port
• Proprietary A/V connector
• 100 MBps Ethernet

• Micropolygons/particles per second: 300 million
• Transformed and lit polygons per second: 150 million

    While that stat list is indeed impressive, it has to be taken into consideration that the X-Box will have to donate some of its resources to running a Windows environment unless they develop a dual-boot mode to distinguish PC games from non-PC games.