Hardware Behind the Consoles - Part I: Microsoft's Xbox

PS2 vs. Xbox: Audio & I/O

Although the PS2 features an integrated toslink optical audio output on the console itself, it is only used for AC-3 and DTS passthrough as the console itself does not support any form of Dolby Digital encoding.  With the release of SSX Tricky and NHL 2002 both by EA Sports, the second vector unit of the EE has actually been put to use in generating DTS sound effects for in-game 5.1 audio.  This gives you an idea of the power of the VUs and now that EA has done it you can expect game developers to attempt to duplicate EA's success in future titles.  The unfortunate downside to this is that it takes a decent amount of power to enable DTS encoding through one of the VUs which is power taken away from physics, AI or a 3D setup engine. 

The Xbox's MCP-D has an extremely powerful DSP from Parthus that enables real-time Dolby Digital encoding which makes high quality DD5.1 gaming a reality provided that developers take advantage of it.  We've seen mediocre to decent support for 5.1 gaming on the currently shipping titles for Xbox but what we have seen makes it clear that 5.1 audio in games should not only be limited to Xbox but also available on PC games.  Gaming, after all, is about putting the gamer in the position of the character they're playing; true 5.1 audio tracks definitely help accomplish this.

From an I/O processing standpoint, Sony actually made a very good decision with the PS2's I/O processor in that the processor is capable of running any original Playstation (PSX) games because of its 2MB of embedded DRAM.  While the graphics of those original PSX titles are slightly improved the main benefit is that the PSX user base can easily migrate over to the new platform.

Upon the PS2's release Sony should have outfitted the system with a hard drive since the memory cards are not only very expensive but also very slow to access.  The PS2's expansion bay is actually the perfect size for a hard drive add-on which Sony has been planning for a while now but with the release of the Xbox and GameCube it may be too little, too late for the platform. 

The USB and i.Link (IEEE-1394) support of the PS2 has gone relatively unused and with online gaming as the clear future for consoles, the platform is in dire need of an Ethernet controller as well.  Luckily with USB support it shouldn't be too hard for Sony to release a 10BaseT Ethernet to USB adapter but judging by Sony's history of overcharging for accessories, you shouldn't expect to see something like that for under $50. 

Microsoft on the other hand has been very strict with what expansion options they wish to offer for the Xbox.  With the job of diffusing the public opinion that the Xbox is nothing more than a PC, Microsoft has been extra careful to remove any notion of its PC roots from the console including not releasing a keyboard/mouse for the console, as well as not including any ports outside of the A/V and Ethernet ports on the system itself.