So I understand that for development and testing purposes there are often certain requirements that tie pieces of software to hardware, and so forth. Can anyone shed some light on the subject? How often is software made hardware specific? What is the difference with prototype units? How important is it to find the right machine for your needs? Sidecars? Any input is much appreciated!
The only hardware specific files referring only to the 360 development kits are XEX1 which will only play on an XeDK (Xenon Development Kit) which is the early prototype of the 360. Modern consoles play xex2 files. Prototype kits typically have different attributes. If it's an XeDK they will have much different hardware such as the Titan board, possibly a Lamprey connected outside of it if it's a stress test environment kit, black shell, etcetera. Modern "prototype" kits have yellow surface mount leds at the top of the kit and have extra pinouts and headers other standard XDK do not. With that being said, they basically do the same things (excluding XeDK) Now sidecars only deal with DVD emulation and PIX stuff. PIX = Performance Indicator for Xbox. DVD Emulation is a PC based application that'll allow the user to run development builds from the PC to XDK for testing purposes by connecting the sidecar port to a USB cable connected to the PC. Sidecars are rarely necessary outside the development environment.
Thanks for the help! So is it possible to transfer files from XDK to PC and vice versa? Is that something that would require a sidecar?
Yes and no. You can transfer anything from builds to music via the "Xbox Neighborhood" from PC to XDK but it would need some sort of memory device such as a standard HDD or a development sidecar. With a few modification xex's you can even access the flash memory to change things like the xshell (xdk launcher theme) and more albeit dangerous to meddle too much there. Now if you mean use dvd emulation to stream a build from your PC to the XDK, THAT does require a sidecar to be connected via usb cable directly from PC to XDKs sidecar.
Thanks. So were all XEX1 files developed before a certain date? Is there any way to determine if a piece of software is XEX1 or XEX2 without trying first?
There is not a great deal of xex1 stuff. I think the most interesting thing was an ancient build of crackdown if i remember right. If you wanted to check real quick though you can open the xex file in a hex editor. The very first thing is the xex2 flag.
Thanks. So I guess it would be reasonably safe to assume that anything post 2005-2006 is probably an XEX2?
Yes. Majority of XEX1 were going to be late 2004 into 2005. Right before launch the XEX2 was the standard.
