Xbox One Update January 2015: DRAM To Be Boosted?

Will Microsoft improve the DRAM performance of its very own Xbox One? This is the question posted by Gaming Bolt on its report. This came after it discovered that Microsoft is looking for a "Console Memory Validation Engineer."

"We are looking for a Console Memory Validation Engineer on the Xbox game console development team. The position involves the development, test and qualification of DRAM memory products functioning within Microsoft products. The role will work closely with electrical engineers, product engineers, software engineers, test engineers, component engineers, and program managers," the job listing posted on the official Microsoft website said.

The job listing said that the position requires applicants to have experience in "debugging, validating and bringing up DRAM memory subsystems, utilizing high speed lab equipment with an emphasis on signal integrity and measurement techniques."

Could this job posting indeed mean that Microsoft is planning to boost the DRAM of the Xbox One? Well, it is possible but so far, Microsoft has not yet made any announcements regarding this so this still remains as a speculation. However, note that the current Xbox One has 8GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive.

Gaming Bolt indeed explained in detail how the Xbox One's DRAM works. It said that the console's Memory Management Unit has three memory units. Each memory unit has its own task and works on its own. There's the coherent DRAM and its opposite non-coherent DRAM. The first accesses CPU Cache Coherence at 30GB per second while the other accesses the Non-CPU Cache Coherence at 68GB per second. Lastly, there's the eSRAM which is composed of four blocks of 8MB. The report notes that eSRAM has lower latency than the DRAM and has a bandwidth of 204GB per second.

Transparent tiles?

Aside from this possible DRAM improvement, the Xbox One is also speculated to get transparent tiles. According to Neowin, Xbox One dashboard with transparent tiles was recently spotted on Major Nelson's (also known as Larry Hryb, Microsoft's Xbox Live programming leader) gaming stream. Here's a screenshot showing the dashboard with transparent tiles from Reddit user "mkmkd."

Neowin said that although the transparent tiles gave a "more modern" look to the console's user interface, it seems that it has not provided any added functionality to the console. Windows Central notes that, "since he works on the Xbox team, Hryb likely has a preview version of the Xbox One UI that is not yet available even for people who have signed up to beta test upcoming features for the game console. Keep in mind that even if Microsoft is testing transparent tiles for the Xbox One, it may take a while before that feature is released to the public." Aside from this, it is also expected that the console will get another new feature which can enable owners to take screenshots directly from the Xbox One.

Microsoft has yet to issue a comment or statement regarding these rumors.