60624-Xbox Technology (4)

The Xbox Velocity Architecture

The Xbox Velocity Architecture is Microsoft's combined hardware and software infrastructure that serves as the data transfer backbone in the Xbox Series X|S consoles. Microsoft itself describes it as the "soul" of the console. It is specifically designed to break traditional data storage bottlenecks, virtually eliminate load times, and enable gigantic, seamless game worlds. The architecture consists of four fundamental components that work closely together: 

• The Custom NVMe SSD
  This is the physical foundation. Instead of slow traditional hard drives (HDDs), Xbox uses a custom-made NVMe SSD. Speed: Delivers a raw transfer speed of 2.4 GB/s. This is over 40 times faster than the Xbox One.
• Durability:
  The SSD is designed for sustained performance. This means that the speed does not drop when the console gets hot or is under heavy stress. 
• Hardware-Accelerated Decompression
  Game files are enormous and are stored compressed to save space. Normally, the CPU has to unpack these files during gameplay, which consumes a lot of computing power.
• The chip:
  The Xbox has a specific chip (a decompression block) that completely takes over this task from the CPU.
• Result:
  This increases the effective throughput from 2.4 GB/s to a whopping 4.8 GB/s. It uses an algorithm developed specifically for textures called BCPack. 
• The DirectStorage API: 
  This is the software layer that manages communication between the game and the hardware.
  Modern protocols:
  Old software protocols secretly based on technology from decades ago transmitted data inefficiently. DirectStorage is specifically built for modern SSDs.
  Direct access: It gives the video card (GPU) direct access to the SSD, without the CPU having to act as a conduit. (This technology has since also spread to high-end Windows PCs). 
• Sampler Feedback Streaming (SFS):
  This is the most innovative software asset of the architecture. Textures (the "skin" of 3D objects in a game) consume by far the most memory. 
• Smart Selection: 
  Developers discovered that a GPU often uses less than 33% of the massive textures loaded into main memory (RAM). SFS ensures that only the specific sub-portions of a texture that are actually visible on screen at that moment are loaded. 
• Memory Multiplier:
  This makes texture flow up to 2.5 times more efficient. It behaves as if the console has much more usable RAM than is physically present. 

What does this mean for you as a gamer?
⚡ No or minimal loading times: Starting a game or using fast travel often takes only a few seconds.
🔄 Quick Resume: You can switch between multiple demanding games simultaneously. The console freezes your game's state, writes it directly to the SSD, and loads another game within approximately 5 to 8 seconds exactly where you left off.
🌐 No "Pop-in": In large open-world games (such as Flight Simulator), stuttering or the sudden appearance of trees and buildings disappears because objects are streamed smoothly and directly from storage.
📦 Smaller file codes: Thanks to advanced decompression, developers need less duplicating data on your disk, which helps limit game installation size.