RUMOR: ATI already WON Nex-GEN Xbox deal (Xbox 720)...2012!!

[Alby_da_Wolf]

HappySqurriel said:

Alby_da_Wolf said:

heruamon said:
It's a good move for M$ if true, since ATI/AMD needs to money, and will therefore be more willing to offer a better deal, but I'm curious as to the CPU...is it going to be the same, or is it going to shift to AMD or Intel.

In the times of Win 9x and before, x86 legacy was synergic with MS legacy to tie users, but now, with much more complex OS', providing a strong tie by themselves, CPU legacy is only a burden, MS wouldn't be wise to come back to x86 where it managed to get rid of. Current top end of POWER architecture, that will be mainstream in a few years, goes far beyond top end x86. Not mentioning the fact that Intel did a huge leap just when it managed to put its grubby paws on Alpha abandoned projects: those in the drawers went up to 2010 for the furthest and less detailed, who knows whether it will still be able to have a development so fast when that reserve of pure genius will be exhausted.

Only a very small portion of existing OS code is actually tied to the hardware, and Microsoft has been moving more and more towards running all applications on a virtual machine rather than on physical hardware for some time now; and it is highly likely that for a small cost (in OS development terms) Microsoft could have the newest version of Windows running on a different architecture. With that said, I don't think hardware performance is really going to push anyone away from the X86 architecture being that more and more people are finding the processing power of inexpensive hardware like the Intel Atom adequate.

Right. For PC's we have a choice so vast of CPU's, motherboards and other components, that abandoning x86 wouldn't be appealing. But in consoles, where each one has a custom designed and built mobo, adopting x86 wouldn't be so attractive, particularly if we consider that sticking to Power architecture, 100% back compatibility with XB360 would come almost for free.