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There is not one but two secret Xbox cats that Microsoft has kept in the bag. Currently there are three more Xbox 360 motherboards in the works right now. They are.. dun dun dun.. Jasper, Opus and Valhalla.
If you are skeptical about this keep in mind that I've been early and correct about this stuff before.
The original Xbox 360 motherboard is called the Xenon with both a 90 nm CPU and 90 nm GPU, there has been system cooling revisions to it. Next was Zephyr motherboard with HDMI that was introduced with the Xbox 360 Elite and and some had newer "heat pumps". Currently on the market is Falcon with a cooler 65 nm CPU but still the same hot GPU as the Xenon.
It's well known that the next Xbox 360 motherboard is going to be Jasper and it going to have both a 65 nm CPU and a 65 nm GPU. Jasper is going to be a major advancement in reliability since it is going to run much quieter than previous Xbox 360 systems. Jasper's reliability is in part to the fact that there is no place on the motherboard that is going to be running as hot or as much power as previous Xbox 360 systems, also it might run a lot quieter since it will not need as much power. When Microsoft hired IBM and ATI to provide the original Xbox 360 CPU and GPU Microsoft put it in the contract so that the Xbox team will own the technology for the chips and can make subsequent reduced cost revisions to the chips. The Xbox one had leased technology from Intel and Nvidia and that is one of the main reasons for the change in CPU and GPU venders. Jasper is very real and they are testing prototypes right now. Word from Redmond is that progress on Jasper is going well and on schedule and you can expect it fall of 2008. My birthday is in October and I am probably going to upgrade to a Jasper Xbox 360 if my Xenon lasts that long.
Now on to the big news. Are you ready... cue dramatic music..
The next two Xbox 360 motherboard names are "Opus" and "Valhalla"!!!
The Opus project is a "Falcon" generation motherboard designed to fit in a Xenon case. You can expect an 90 nm GPU but a 65 nm CPU. Opus solves a major hardware recycling and inventory problem since Microsoft currently has millions of used Xenon cases from RRODed dead systems and this lets them use most of the good parts from the millions of dead Xenons but with a newer tested more reliable motherboard.
There is no HDMI on Opus since the Xenon cases don't have openings for the port. Opus is a third generation Xbox 360 in the case of a first.
I would trust an Opus Xbox much more than a "zombie repaired" Xenon since you are getting a fresh motherboard. These will probably never be boxed and sold directly to the public in stores so the only way to get an Opus motherboard is to turn in a RRODed dead Xenon in late 2008 and you might get one returned. Opus is the "Zombie Xbox" killer. It's the recycle repair special and is the sort of repair and refurbished Xbox 360 that they should have had done in the first place.
Now they are also in the very early stages of designing the fourth generation Xbox 360 called Valhalla. Think Technoviking cool, we are your overlords.
At the heart of a Valhalla Xbox 360 is a combined 65nm CPU and 65nm GPU on a unified super chip. This also would only need one cooling system and be much quieter and hopefully more reliable than previous Xbox systems (if they include hardware JTAG testing reporting into the design).
It is really early in the design process but there are engineers at Microsoft working on it as you are reading this. Heck they are probably reading this since this is the first that you are going to hear about Opus and Valhalla.
You can probably expect a price cut for Valhalla since it is going to be a major cost reduction.
Valhalla might be the final Xbox 360 motherboard design but that all might depend of the future progress of the third generation Xbox team (the Xbox 720 or whatever they call it) and the overall market success of the Xbox 360 platform.
Microsoft has planned on near annual changes to the Xbox 360 motherboard generation designs.
First was the Xenon motherboard from 2005-06, then followed by the Zephyr motherboard 2006-2007, then the Falcon Motherboard 2007-now. Probably later on this year we will see the Jasper Motherboard 2008-2009. Then then comes Valhalla the year four motherboard in late 2009 or mid 2010.
Oh yeah third generation Zunes are totally confirmed. Be on the look out for Orion.
Around 2011-2012 we might expect a third generation Post 360 Xbox but all I know is that it's being worked on.
I wonder if they have started tapping my Xbox Live account after I started posting this stuff.
