An image of what is believed to be a forthcoming Xbox 360 chipset revision has been leaked onto the Internet.
The board, pictured below, is said to be the successor to the
current chipset - codenamed Jasper - and features both the Xbox 360 GPU
and CPU on a single die.
The combination of the two is believed to have been made possible by a die shrink, presumably to 45nm.
Thought to be codenamed Valhalla, the chipset appears to be a
drastic redesign from current Xbox 360 boards. The Valhalla PCB
(printed circuit board) appears to be smaller than all previous
iterations, and a shuffle of I/O port positioning suggests that the
board will surface in a new Xbox 360 chassis.
It could just as easily be an early prototype - or even a fake - but
speculation regarding the fabled Xbox 360 Slim is now likely to pick up
pace.
Judging by the image, it seems Microsoft's process shrink could pave
the way for multiple developments. We could see a smaller, trimmed-down
Xbox 360 console ala the PlayStation 3 Slim,
or we could see Microsoft retain its current chassis and squeeze
external components into its existing design - the power supply comes
to mind.
Looking ahead, the introduction of a new Xbox 360 model could be
timed to debut alongside Project Natal late in 2010. Conjecturing
somewhat, could Microsoft be developing a console with Natal built in?
It isn't outside the realms of possibility, we reckon.
Want to know what came before Valhalla and Jasper? Here's a brief outline of past, present and future Xbox 360 chipsets:
An image has sprung up on the Internet apparently showing, what appears to be, a new Xbox 360 dashboard update.
The image doesn’t show what the new update will look like (if this
is real), but it does show a new version number under “Current
Settings”.
It’s been said the new version number came to be after the owner of
the console sent back the Xbox 360 for repairs at Microsoft. It appears
that Microsoft made a mistake somewhere during the process.
It’s also been rumoured that Microsoft are literally scrambling to find the console they sent back.
It was announced earlier in the week at X10 that Halo Reach BETA would be launched on May 3rd. Microsoft had also ruled out rumours that Natal support would be present, however they filled us in with a few details of the multiplayer map that we will be playing on.
Bungie described "Powerhouse," the
multiplayer map that would be available in the beta, saying that,
"Utility and economy spurred industry amidst these isolated and
unforgiving badlands, but like all infrastructure facilities on Reach,
this hydroelectric site is under the purview of the UNSC war machine.
All threats to the continued, predictable operation of humanity's final
line of defense must be met with swift and decisive force."
There was also an actual showcasing of the map at X10, so, as soon as
word travels, and it will do so insanely fast, you can expect a few
impressions about it, but, right now, these are all the details
available. Bungie promised to add mode information to Reach's portfolio
in the coming months, but also that a new ViDoc would be added "very,
very soon."
Remeber that you can download the BETA through your ODST Disc when it's available to us all.
Keio University and Toshiba ready tiny 1TB SSDs for 2012
Japan's Keio University claims to have developed, in conjunction with Toshiba, the technology to shrink the size of SSDs by a spectacular 90 percent
while also cutting energy consumption by 70 percent. If that's not
enough mind-boggling numbers for you, the final product of this
partnership is expected to yield 1TB drives with 2Gbps throughput. The
details of this are still somewhat unclear, but we're told researchers
stacked 128 NAND flash chips atop one another, with the breakthrough
being in the way they communicate -- using short-range magnetic signals
--- which results in less wiring complexity and reduced production
costs. We'll take some convincing to believe they can really put these
to practical use by 2012 as promised, but if they do make it to any
sort of commercial launch, you can bet we'll be queuing up through the
night to get one. Note: Nikkei source link requires a paid subscription
to access.
