When it comes to hardware, New Year’s Resolutions need to be made well in advance. TG Daily is reporting [via Gizmodo] that when Microsoft’s Taiwanese partners next shrink the die on the Xbox 360’s silicon processing units in 2009, there’s going to be a substantial redesign as well.
According to TG Daily, a chip called “Valhalla” will be at the core of an Xbox 360 refresh slated for Fall 2009:
A more dramatic and perhaps visible change will happen next year: 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. We learned that this new chip is apparently much more than a die-shrink and end up as a system-on-a-chip design. This change is likely to enable to redesign the Xbox 360 casing and go towards a slim-design, much like what Sony did with the Gen1 and Gen2 PS2. We believe that TSMC will use a 45 nm process for this Multi-Chip-Module package (CPU+GPU+eDRAM).
Mind you, it’s almost completely speculation at this point. The Taiwan Economic News article TG plays off of mentions Valhalla all of once, and only in that chipmaker TSMC is likely to get the contract; this isn’t the first we’ve heard of the system-on-a-chip design — that honor goes to 8bitjoystick; and the fact that TG cites no sources in particular makes us wary.
Even if the super-chip does exist, 8bitjoystick debates that this gives any indication that Slimline Xbox 360s are on the way.
While it’s probably meaningless to comment on rumors this far out, my two cents are as follows:
Nintendo and Sony have proven time and again that sexy and slim sell, sometimes even to those who already own equivalent hardware… and if they can get a chip small and cool enough to make slimline possible, they’d be foolish not to make it happen, accessories and even hard drive compatibility be damned. If Wii owners are willing to drop Jacksons left and right on plastic shells for their Wiimote, then Xbox 360 owners can probably be coerced into buying new accessories. Of course, Microsoft could just include a decent-sized hard drive and Wi-Fi this time…
UPDATE, 8:45 PM PST: Engadget reports that this rumor has been officially quashed by Microsoft. Keep on dreaming… I know I will.
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