Microsoft designed the graphics chips that caused the red rings of death

[ssrattus]

June 11, 2008 |
Microsoft cost-cutting to blame for Xbox 360 Red Ring Of Death
By Dave Parrack

The Red Ring of Death problem which has plagued Microsoft and loyal Xbox 360 owners since its release back in November 2005 has not only cost the company $1 billion, it has also harmed the company’s reputation for customer service, which was already rock bottom anyway. However, who to blame for the RRoD overheating problem was never really revealed, at least until now.

The cause of the Red Ring of Death was already known to be related to the graphics chip set, and overheating, but until now, Microsoft hadn’t revealed which company was to blame. It turns out that rather than being a chip manufacturer, it was Microsoft itself, and it only happened due to an attempt at cost-cutting.

EETimes reports how Bryan Lewis, research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner, discussed the problem at the recent Design Automation Conference. He offhandedly revealed when and how the problem happened, and the way Microsoft basically initiated the problem itself.

It seems that Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor in the manufacture of the first batch of Xbox 360s. So the company designed the graphic chip itself, taking a basic build from ATI, and adding some of its own bits and pieces, then sending it out for manufacture with fingers well and truly crossed.

According to Register, when the Xbox 360 was first released, some gadget loving freaks took the thing apart, and did indeed find that both the GPU and CPU inside the console were stamped with the Microsoft logo.

This was done in an attempt to save millions of dollars, but as we all know, when the problem came to light, Microsoft had to spend $1 billion on a worldwide recall campaign.

The problem has since been fixed, at least on new consoles, after Microsoft went back to a chip manufacturer in the US, thought to be ATI, with its tail between its legs and asked the experts to do the job that they should have been charged with in the first place.

The Red Ring of Death has been a major blow for Microsoft this generation, as I hate to think how many gamers were put off buying an Xbox 360 after seeing their friends having to return their consoles for a replacement, again, and again, and again. Reliability is definitely an issue that bothers gamers, and Microsoft’s cost-cutting ensured that the Xbox is forever to be known as the most unreliable console ever produced.

Although the new chipsets, including the current Falcon, and the future Jasper and Valhalla builds should ensure the problem never rears its ugly head in the future, gamers are still experiencing problems with system resource heavy games such as Grand Theft Auto IV.

[Bagman]

...sounds like they havent learnt from there experience with there software.

[best4less]

But would you really expect anything less from Microsoft LOL