XBOX2 SDK seeded - on a Mac!

[stone_axe]

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=14407

This story has been out for a few days. The Inquirer is usually pretty solid and not known to post hype or vaporware - so it's likely true.

It makes sense really, if you think about it. A dual G5 Mac with a Radeon 9800 Pro and a 1 gHz bus is the closest thing currently available to the XBOX2 architecture. It would be brutally expensive and time consuming for Microsoft to mock up a provisional early prototype of the XBOX2 hardware and debug it enough to use it as a SDK box.

A few interestings inferences can be made too:

1) The XBOX2 SDK is out way before the PS3 SDK

2) The Mac is running a modified NT Kernel - this bodes well for XBOX2 to be backwards compatible with the XBOX, which MS has publicly stated it may not be.

3) Microsoft buying 'Virtual PC' (a Wintel emulator for Macs) makes more sense now and may have just been to make the XBOX2 SDK.

4) The Mac/G5 is not a dead platform and the old Wintel hardware may not be inherently superior after all.

Food for thought,

David

'Stop it already - you are boring me!' - me