It has been revealed that Microsoft is planning a revision to the CPU in its Xbox 360 console, with its production partner, Singaporean Chartered Semiconductor, announcing a cheaper, thinner, faster and cooler central processing unit scheduled for early 2007.
The CPU will be manufactured using 65 nanometre technology, a jump from the current 90nm employed. Chartered states it will run 'considerably cooler' than the unit used today, as well as consume less power, though the most interesting news is the increase of speed it will afford.
CS did not outline the benchmarks it is working to, nor is it expected that the new chip will be maxed out, as having two CPU speeds would be a veritable nightmare for developers. It was hinted at that the unit will be 'detuned' in order to reduce power usage and subsequent heat issues, overheating being the key manufacture problem faced by Microsoft since launch.
"We look forward to working with Chartered on the production of such an important component of our Xbox 360 system," said Larry Yang, General Manager of Xbox Console Development at Microsoft. "Chartered's ability to demonstrate the manufacturability of IBM's advanced SOI technology in Fab 7 was key to our selection. We plan to continue with our strategy of dual sourcing from Chartered and IBM's labs, which are operationally aligned and compatible, to give us the consistent product quality and flexibility we will need."
"We are excited to expand our manufacturing relationship with Microsoft and leverage the innovative 65nm SOI technology made available to us through our agreement with IBM," said Kay Chai "KC" Ang, senior vice president of fab operations at Chartered. "This is both a recognition of Chartered's 300mm manufacturing excellence and increasing customer confidence in our ability to enable cutting-edge technologies as products transition to 65nm. By working closely with IBM to enable manufacturing compatibility and dual-sourcing capability, our goal is to continue to be a reliable manufacturing source to Microsoft."
"Together, Chartered and IBM offer a unique dual source capability that delivers superior redundancy and flexibility," said Jim Comfort, vice president, Microsoft Client Executive, IBM. "Chartered's decision to adopt our advanced Silicon on Insulator technology at 65nm is further evidence of the success of the IBM/Chartered Common Platform strategy."
Of course, this news has been seen as Microsoft tinkering with its new Xbox, with some parties claiming that evidence of a two-tier ownership group is emerging. However, every games console since the PlayStation has undergone major revisions as hardware manufacture routines improve and in-market testing throws up issues.
The CPU will be manufactured using 65 nanometre technology, a jump from the current 90nm employed. Chartered states it will run 'considerably cooler' than the unit used today, as well as consume less power, though the most interesting news is the increase of speed it will afford.
CS did not outline the benchmarks it is working to, nor is it expected that the new chip will be maxed out, as having two CPU speeds would be a veritable nightmare for developers. It was hinted at that the unit will be 'detuned' in order to reduce power usage and subsequent heat issues, overheating being the key manufacture problem faced by Microsoft since launch.
"We look forward to working with Chartered on the production of such an important component of our Xbox 360 system," said Larry Yang, General Manager of Xbox Console Development at Microsoft. "Chartered's ability to demonstrate the manufacturability of IBM's advanced SOI technology in Fab 7 was key to our selection. We plan to continue with our strategy of dual sourcing from Chartered and IBM's labs, which are operationally aligned and compatible, to give us the consistent product quality and flexibility we will need."
"We are excited to expand our manufacturing relationship with Microsoft and leverage the innovative 65nm SOI technology made available to us through our agreement with IBM," said Kay Chai "KC" Ang, senior vice president of fab operations at Chartered. "This is both a recognition of Chartered's 300mm manufacturing excellence and increasing customer confidence in our ability to enable cutting-edge technologies as products transition to 65nm. By working closely with IBM to enable manufacturing compatibility and dual-sourcing capability, our goal is to continue to be a reliable manufacturing source to Microsoft."
"Together, Chartered and IBM offer a unique dual source capability that delivers superior redundancy and flexibility," said Jim Comfort, vice president, Microsoft Client Executive, IBM. "Chartered's decision to adopt our advanced Silicon on Insulator technology at 65nm is further evidence of the success of the IBM/Chartered Common Platform strategy."
Of course, this news has been seen as Microsoft tinkering with its new Xbox, with some parties claiming that evidence of a two-tier ownership group is emerging. However, every games console since the PlayStation has undergone major revisions as hardware manufacture routines improve and in-market testing throws up issues.
Companies:
Microsoft
Read More Like This
Comments
king skins 24 Apr 2006 08:43
1/9
cool...
tg0006 25 Apr 2006 01:59
2/9
not cool, microsoft yet again divides its hardware base.
more comments below our sponsor's message
LUPOS 25 Apr 2006 02:52
3/9
tg0006 wrote:
not cool, microsoft yet again divides its hardware base.
or microsoft just a year after the initial release of the system is already going to impliment a more power friendly and heat friendly chip that could run faster and by running it at the same speed as the origianl chip alow it to use even less power and produce less heat... or they could be retarded as you claim, however i assume the converse.
_______
king skins 25 Apr 2006 08:07
4/9
LUPOS wrote:
tg0006 wrote:
not cool, microsoft yet again divides its hardware base.
or microsoft just a year after the initial release of the system is already going to impliment a more power friendly and heat friendly chip that could run faster and by running it at the same speed as the origianl chip alow it to use even less power and produce less heat... or they could be retarded as you claim, however i assume the converse.
Totally agree, people really should think before they type
tyrion 25 Apr 2006 08:49
5/9
LUPOS wrote:
heat friendly chip that could run faster and by running it at the same speed as the origianl chip alow it to use even less power and produce less heat
As far as I hear it, they should be trying to get the GPU cooler since that seems to chuck out more heat than the CPU.
Plus the issues the X360 had at launch seemed to be the power supply over heating. The only way to stop that is to reduce the power draw the console makes on the power supply. This new CPU may help with that, but again, the GPU is also a huge factor.
king skins 25 Apr 2006 09:53
6/9
tyrion wrote:
LUPOS wrote:
heat friendly chip that could run faster and by running it at the same speed as the origianl chip alow it to use even less power and produce less heat
As far as I hear it, they should be trying to get the GPU cooler since that seems to chuck out more heat than the CPU.
Plus the issues the X360 had at launch seemed to be the power supply over heating. The only way to stop that is to reduce the power draw the console makes on the power supply. This new CPU may help with that, but again, the GPU is also a huge factor.
This article seams to say the opposite: http://www.x360central.com/?n=582
Although I would imagine they would also be working on reducing the GPU as well.
tyrion 25 Apr 2006 13:13
7/9
king skins wrote:
This article seams to say the opposite: http://www.x360central.com/?n=582
What I'd heard was that it was more susceptible to overheating and since it's passively cooled (no fan on the GPU heatsink) it is more prone to it too. Afraid I don't have any links for the info, so I may have mis-remembered.
king skins wrote:
Although I would imagine they would also be working on reducing the GPU as well.
I imagine so, and the rest of the components. It's an ongoing thing with consoles, chips get reduced in size and merged to bring down power consumption. It's how the PS2 went from "full fat" to "slimline" after all.
tg0006 26 Apr 2006 02:40
8/9
king skins wrote:
LUPOS wrote:
tg0006 wrote:
not cool, microsoft yet again divides its hardware base.
or microsoft just a year after the initial release of the system is already going to impliment a more power friendly and heat friendly chip that could run faster and by running it at the same speed as the origianl chip alow it to use even less power and produce less heat... or they could be retarded as you claim, however i assume the converse.
Totally agree, people really should think before they type
I did think before i typed. I can see the advantages of a cpu that makes less heat but they should have thought about that before they did the origional release and fixed it in the first place. Because of this change, everyone that bought the 360 at launch is going to be pissed off because the people who buy them later get better hardware.
LUPOS 26 Apr 2006 03:47
9/9
tg0006 wrote:
Because of this change, everyone that bought the 360 at launch is going to be pissed off because the people who buy them later get better hardware.
yea but that is the case with ANY thing manufactured ever. toys, video games, dvd players, cars... anythign that is continualy manufactured is going to be made better over time... this isnt a microsoft specific issue liek you are implying its just the nature of the beast. and it should be considered that ms is probably spending more to make these smaller faster chips than they woudl just makeng the same ones they have been. so they are cuttign into potential profits in order to provide a better product to consumers. this doesnt mean that the current one is bad, it just means they are already workign to make it better.
admitedly i cant prove one way or the other i am just assuming but it seems to me having all the factories refited to manufacture these new chips isnt cheap.
_______