Analyst : believes an Xbox 360 Slim is inevitable

[Destroyer_of_knights]

that's a given, the question should be 'When'.

Last time I read something in regards to CPU/GPU shrink was that Microsoft and it's partners wanted to forego simply shrinking both to 45nm, and go directly to merging both CPU and GPU into one chip, if memory serves me correct they wanted to be at 32nm with the new chip, it was either that or 45nm but still merged, this of course would be an excellent move to make a slimed down version.

The question now is, have they modified the road map to also include scaling both CPU and GPU to 45nm in the interim as a way to lower manufacturing cost until they have successfully merged the CPU/GPU into a single chip, because so far merging the 2 processors into one is very tough and time consuming process mainly because the tech is not were it needs to be to make it happen any fast, this is why sony road map has in between stages intill they too are able merge them into one chip, but doing it Sony's way allows them to save money at each stage in the road map till they reach that final goal. Microsoft method means they have to take a hit since there missing out on each stage, but there hope is that they can get it up and running sooner.

Well see soon enough if Microsoft yeilds some fruit from their efforts, because a 360 slim along with natal will do wonders for their sales as it would be a relaunch of the machine, hell they could even have money to spare for a price drop as well...but of course it has yet to be seen what they can do since their not a hardware company like Sony, it should at least be interesting to see what happens in the next 12 months.