It is mating season for the singing moles of Redmond, fresh off their migration back from Mountain View, and they are singing about the XBox Next chip. What’s more, they have a name and a date.

The moles are cooing the name softly while they think up new ways to transition Microsoft’s business model from monopoly abuse to patent trolling. The name they are singing in their tunnels sounds like “Obed”, but the spelling might be a bit off due to echoing in the tunnels.

Obed it seems is SoC, CPU + GPU, and of course eDRAM, it sounds an awful lot like an evolutionary version of the current XBox 360 chip. Some say it is an x86/Bulldozer part, but everything we have been hearing for a long time says that the chip is going to be a PPC variant. In any case, the GPU is definitely made by AMD/ATI, and IBM has a big hand in the SoC design.

The moles all say that production is set for late 2012, possibly the early days of 2013. basically once the moles get settled in to Mountain View for the winter. They will give the thumps up or down on silicon based on parts they get back in Q1 of 2012. If all goes well that is. That puts production of the XBox Next in the late spring or early summer of 2013, just in time for singing mole mating season. Nothing gets a sow’s attention like a new SoC.S|A

http://semiaccurate.com/2011/08/15/next-gen-xbox-chip-gets-a-name-and-date/

Hmm a SoC right from the start ? Thats a little weird. Would that mean, we wont get the latest technology so gpu and cpu can fit on one wafer ??

Nintendo better watch out. If WiiU is drastically under powered compared to the Nex-Box and the Nex-Box comes out in 2013. Nintendo could be in major trouble here in the west and Europe. Of course until Sony announces something Nintendo is safe in Japan. However Sony is bound to have something in the works to counter Microsoft.

Not looking good for Nintendo, under powered again. Will consumers buy it especially if MS can price the Nex-Box competitively with WiiU?

well written. has the nature type we are all in the known vibe to it. sounds cool.

IBM has a new chip that mimics the brain? now that sounds way cooler if its a schizophrenia genius brain and not the brain of a dum ass.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112459-IBMs-New-Chip-Replicates-Your-Brain

That's true, but if they are really going with a SoC strategy then the GPU will not be a lot more powerful than that of the WiiU (if WiiU rumors are true), as SoC are usually done with consumption in mind.

Think about it, if this is true we may end with 2 different scenarios:

1-All 3 home consoles focus on consumption and low costs and end up with about the same power, just like the GC-Ps2-Xbox era. Developers won't have (real) excuses not to develop for everyone.

2-We end with 2 "low power" consoles, Nexbox and WiiU that may be 2-3x more powerful than this generation, and a very powerful console from Sony. What will developers do? Choose the same route than this gen and go with the PS4 or change and develop for all of them?

The next XBox and PS4 will have more cell processors(6/16 or 12/24 cells instead of 3/8 cells), 4GB of GPU(only 512MB at the moment), more and more DLC, include Blu Ray, full motion controls, fully synched with smart phones/tablets/PC/notebook/netbook full HD 1920*1080p as natural resolution as a bare minimum. All will be revealed at E3 2012 or E3 2013.

Do you also expect them to be able to shoot lasers and fly?

What I type there doesn't want to show up.

I said:

This is probably just the next xbox360 chip as the last one didn't include the edram.

Seems fairly natural. We know that the graphics and processing chips being used in a console isn't what determines its success, so going for a setup that is reminescent of the 360 should be natural to Microsoft. It might be two or three times more powerful, but the focus will be on Kinect and how to interact with the games, and not the raw processing power in the machine.