Microsoft’s gradual ramp-up to the full reveal of the Xbox Series X continues with Xbox chief Phil Spencer sharing the latest clue towards the technical makeup of the new console. On the face of it, updating a Twitter profile picture with a low quality shot of Project Scarlett silicon might not sound like a big deal – but when Microsoft’s stated aim is to deliver the most powerful console of the next generation, commentators (including us!) will grab every opportunity we can to learn more about the new machine. And the evidence does suggest that we’re looking at the largest console processor released by Sony or Microsoft to date, further solidifying expectations of extreme performance.
Actually getting any kind of meaningful measurement from this latest controlled leak from Microsoft isn’t easy. Perhaps purposefully so, the image is of a low resolution, taken at an angle and with a curious lens distortion effect. The measurement of silicon area is important though – we can safely assume that the Scarlett processor is fabricated with the same 7nm lithography as AMD’s latest Zen 2 and Navi chips – the core building blocks at the heart of this year’s wave of new consoles. Stacked up against AMD parts using the same production techniques, we can get some idea of the scale of its graphics core.
Ascertaining the size of Microsoft’s chip gives us some idea of its architectural makeup – but more than that, area on a microprocessor isn’t cheap. Every square millimetre adds to build cost and it has to count. Yes, comparisons against new AMD parts could be valuable, but comparing chip measurements with prior console generations also gives us some idea on just how much investment Microsoft is sinking into this new console – and by extension, how much it’ll cost to build and how much we may end up paying for it.
Since Phil Spencer’s initial tweet, senior director of Xbox hardware David Prien has also weighed in with a further shot of the new processor. Since Spencer himself is already in possession of a fully armed and operational Series X console, these processor samples are likely ‘wastage’ from the production line – chips with defects that didn’t pass QA. These aren’t much use in getting working consoles out of the door, but clearly they’re powerful conversation pieces! Again, the new photograph is taken from an angle but that hasn’t stopped online commentators including myself from taking a shot at getting an area measurement!
Prior attempts at doing so – from the Project Scarlett E3 2019 reveal trailer – revealed a processor with area in the region of 380mm2. Compared to Xbox One X, this would represent a 5.8 per cent increase in size which stacks up on top of the move from a 16nm to 7nm production process – so we have more transistors packed onto the die, and more area to play with on top of that. However, recent leaks and messaging from Microsoft (not to mention the sheer size of the Series X casing) suggest an absolute beast of a machine, with a mooted 12 teraflops of compute power. Fragments of specs from a recent AMD testing leak also suggest that the Series X chip features 56 compute units. While this leak is far from conclusive, again, it points towards a chip of unprecedented size.