4 ms·
This is a real thing. For game consoles, which run their chips pretty "hot" in order to meet the performance requirements for high-end gaming, the main SOCs hav
by kabdib 9y ago
This is a real thing. For game consoles, which run their chips pretty "hot" in order to meet the performance requirements for high-end gaming, the main SOCs have a design lifetime. There are deliberate trade-offs between performance and the expected lifetime of the part. This lifetime is difficult to estimate prior to ship.
One console made a firmware update about a year after its release that increased its clocks by about ten percent. I'm guessing they did this after seeing telemetry numbers indicating that the box's cooling system was doing a better job than expected, and that there was lifetime headroom available (probably other factors were involved, too, but heat is a major one).
- ethbro 9y agoI'd be charitable and say that gaming chips run hot because cooling systems are "optimized", not for performance reasons. And by optimized, I mean shoehorning the smallest / cheapest solution in there that barely meets cooling needs.
- kabdib 9y agoConsoles are pretty serious about effective cooling. There is definitely price pressure, but that's not a one-sided thing -- you need to make sure that the unit lasts long enough, and that its cooling system doesn't generate too much noise for the environment (typically a quiet living room). And then you need headroom for envrionmentals (e.g., being stuff into the back of an entertainment unit next to other equipment). The current generation of consoles are quiet compared to the last generation, and more powerful. Cooling "needs" have to take into account the whole product and user experience, not just keeping a single chip from melting down.
- lione 9y agoI think all the console makers learned a lesson from the Red Ring Of Death. No one wants to be having a massive portion of their systems become useless hunks of scrap because of poor thermal design not dissipating enough heat and causing the solder to crack.
- kabdib 9y agoRROD cost Microsoft a billion dollars, maybe two billion. That doesn't scream "Please shave the cooling system down to the absolute minimum cost on the next console" to the hardware team. The XBone cooler is a pretty decent one, because the alternative is a ton of warranty work, plus lawsuits and bad press. And worse, a bad customer experience.