Xbox 540 coming in 2009? I know; already?!
by Steve Wysowski May 12th 2008 4:08 PM EDT4
Let's face it: the Xbox 360 can use an upgrade. Whether it's the RROD, the ever so frequent disk errors, or the fact that my box sounds like the monster from The Goonies; there is some work to be had here.
Well, the Taiwan Economic News is reporting that first wafers with 65 nm GPUs are leaving the production lines, joining the 65 nm Xenon CPU. It has been almost a year since Chartered has started working on bringing down Xbox 360 Xenon CPU from 90 nm to 65 nm and it was inevitible for companies to follow. TSMC has initiated first wafer starts of the 65 nm Xenos GPU and Northbridge. Microsoft apparently has ordered 10,000 300 mm wafers from TSMC at this time.
Such things as mentioned before can be eradicated with this update. If the 65 nm Xenos "v2" scales down linearly from 90 nm, the new die size should be around 125 mm2, while the eDRAM chip will remain at 70 mm2. The new production process should yield about 35% more GPUs per wafer than before (or in English: your new box will run alot faster and be a bit more powerful). You will probably see this box take the form of a new slimmed down version of the console this year; not a drastic change except for the lack of RRODS and a less noisy box.
But perhaps in 2009 a far more drastic change will occur. TSMC plans to begin producing the Valhalla chip, which will be the foundation of the mid-cycle refresh of the Xbox 360, thus called ‘Xbox 2.5' or simply ‘Xbox 540' (360+180), in fall of 2009. Apparently this isn't a standard upgrade to your Xbox 360, but Valhalla will actually be a chip for a whole new, more powerful, system. Details regarding specifications are generally unknown, but if you think about it, it does make some sense. It will have been four years since the Xbox 360 came out, and it's needless to say that it hasn't been the most reliable of consoles.
Still, to think of the Xbox 360 being replaced so early in it's lifespan is pretty disheartening. Just can't imagine starting the process of getting hyped for a new console all over again, especially with little time in between. We'll all have to see how it turns out I suppose. But with all these initiatives for even newer, faster, processors; an Xbox 540 may be inevitable.
