What was the Xbox 360's original processor architecture?

The Xbox 360 used a three-core PowerPC processor architecture.

IBM designed the Xbox 360's custom CPU, known as Xenon, with three PowerPC cores. Each core supported two hardware threads, allowing the processor to handle six simultaneous hardware threads. This was a major architectural change from the original Xbox's single Intel Pentium III-based CPU.

The processor ran at 3.2 GHz and was designed specifically for the fixed requirements of a game console. Its three-core structure let developers assign separate workloads such as game logic, audio, and system tasks while targeting identical hardware in every Xbox 360.

The architecture is sometimes confused with later Xbox consoles, which moved to x86-based AMD processors. The Xbox One used eight Jaguar cores, while the Xbox Series generation uses custom AMD Zen 2 CPU technology.