EETimes reports the real reason behind the disastrous, $1B-dollar Xbox 360 recall last year. Unfortunately, it's all an all too familiar tune these days with unrelenting pressure on design engineers to cut costs and speed design cycle.
Writes editor Junko Yoshido in "The Truth About Last Year's Xbox 360 Recall": cut costs and speed design cycles:
"The Xbox 360 recall a year ago happened because "Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor," said Lewis [research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner]. "Microsoft designed the graphic chip on its own, cut a traditional ASIC vendor out of the process and went straight to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., he explained. "
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Comments (3)
This article seems a lot of guff to be honest, Microsoft have never issued a product recall of any form for the Xbox 360. They have only extended the Warranty from 1 year to 3 years.
The issues of overheating are more to do with the lack of air flow and heat dissipation between the DVD drive and the GPU rather than the GPU causing all of the problems.
Posted by Christopher Love | July 16, 2008 11:19 AM
I agree with Christopher. The GPU has never been an issue. Perhaps the article was written to promote ASICs over cheaper foreign alternatives?
Posted by Martin | July 22, 2008 10:34 AM
there isn't a problem, the console could have just been a little better designed!.
Posted by Jon | September 18, 2008 11:34 PM