Xbox 360 Chips Production Boost, Future Techn...

Xbox 360 Chips Production Boost, Future Technology Upgrade

Microsoft plans to iron out at least two of the major probles it's been facing since the release of its wonder-platform back in November: the ever persistent stock shortages, and the Xbox 360's over-heating tendency resulting in *cough* "isolated cases" (as they called them) of errors and crashes. The company's Taiwan-based semiconductor partners were notified that chip orders will be seriously ramped up, and are expected to double those from the first quarter. One of Microsoft's partners (Winstron Corp) even announced that it aims to boost its production of Xbox 360 consoles up to 1 million units a month by the end of 2006. So preparations for the holiday season are well underway, while Sony's future PlayStation 3 is quite likely to be in short demand during that time of the year.

What's even worse for them, Microsoft also announced the signing of a new agreement with Singapore-based Chartered Semiconductor, to build the chips using its advanced Silicon-On-Insulator 65nm technology, instead of the current 90 nm process. Hopefully, this will reduce both heat and power consumption, as well as lowering manufacturing costs for the Xbox 360. The only catch is that production of the upgraded systems can only start in early 2007. So until then, "Burn baby burn"!

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)