It appears that the preparation for the arrival of XBox 2 has started as Microsoft has released the Software Development Kit (SDK) for its upcoming console to developers.
According to the latest news, the SDK has been shipped on dual Apple Power Mac G5 systems running a specially made Windows NT Kernel. The choice of the Power Mac G5 is no great surprise as it uses two IBM 64-bit Power PC processors, units which are similar to the processor that the actual MS console will use when launched. The Mac is also a good choice as it also uses ATI for its graphics (RADEON 9800 Pro), XBox 2 will also use ATI, although the chip will differ since ATI will use a post-R420 chip. MS plans call for the graphics hardware on the Macs to be updated as the boards become available from ATI.
It is not yet clear if the Windows NT kernel used is a 64-bit version or a 32-bit one. It is very likely that the current version will only be 32-bit as ATI is not yet ready with its driver support for 64-bit.
This SDK is a work in progress and its specs are sure to change as time goes by but the good news for developers is that they can now truly begin the creative process for bringing their games to the upcoming platform.
