MS's next XBOX already looks to have several disadvantages in terms of cost

[mrstickball]

the2bears said:

mrstickball said:

Moores Law would state that a next-gen system will have about as many problems as the X360 did with running DVDs, since it's using a last-gen optical device.

I don't think Moore's Law states what you think it states.

From Wikipedia:

Moore's law describes an important trend in the history of computer hardware. Since the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958, the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling approximately every two years.^[1] The trend was first observed by Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore in a 1965 paper.^[2][3][4] It has continued for almost half of a century and is not expected to stop for another decade at least and perhaps much longer.^[5]

Almost every measure of the capabilities of digital electronic devices is linked to Moore's law: processing speed, memory capacity, even the number and size of pixels in digital cameras.^[6] All of these are improving at (roughly) exponential rates as well.^[7] This has dramatically increased the usefulness of digital electronics in nearly every segment of the world economy.^[8] Moore's law describes this driving force of technological and social change in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

My whole point was/is that if technology continues to improve by doubling every 18-24 months - the same pace when the Xbox 360 released - that if the next Xbox uses a last-gen optical device (such as the X360 using a DVD drive), which would be Blu-Ray in a X720, then the processing power of the X720 would easily be proper to exact all of the abilities that BR-DVD would allow, in the same way that the Xbox 360 has pretty much reached the limits of what can be done with 1 DVD drive in terms of graphical fidelity, and other components. What is wrong with using Moore's Law for that aspect of hardware?

What exactly is wrong with that statement? Moores law works for just about every electronic device: As technology gets better, faster and smaller, then said devices can do more. That includes the abilities of a next-gen system when it comes to compiling and playing a game on Blu-Ray. What may be a massive system like a Playstation 3 now, that can handle BR-DVD, today will be a meager device when the next-gen systems come. We aren't even quite in the "middle" of this generation, so attempting to make crazy assumptions that BR-DVD players, in 3-4 years won't be cheap is a crazy assumption.