XBox 360 to get CPU upgrade Paul Hales: Friday 21 April 2006, 17:33
Die shrink to cut costs
MICROSOFT’S Xbox 360 games console will get a new CPU early next year.
Chip fab Chartered Semiconductor of Singapore says it will move the IBM-designed chippery to a 65 nanometre technology starting in the first quarter of 2007. The existing chip uses 90nm technology.
The smaller process means more chips per wafer and therefore more chips per buck. The smaller, thinner chip should also draw less power and generate less heat.
The console currently sports a pair of fans, together with an arrangement of heat pipes, to cool the three-core chip at its heart. Use of a new chip will allow the Vole to re-design the console, should it choose. Certainly, it will strip out redundant components to reduce the loss it currently makes on each box sold.
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