Microsoft's Second Coming of the Xbox 360 Revealed

[Anusha]

Source: Dailytech

Microsoft's "Zephyr" leaked to the press complete with HDMI, 120GB hard drive and 65nm processor

With Sony's PlayStation 3 knocking on the Xbox 360's door, it was only a matter of time before Microsoft made the move to make its year-old console even more competitive. DailyTech already reported that Microsoft has been able to successfully pare down its costs associated with producing the Xbox 360, so now is a more opportune time than ever to release an update.

According to Engadget, the Xbox 360 v2 (codenamed Zephyr) should result in a cooler console as the the 90nm IBM Xenon PowerPC processor was swapped out in favor of a 65nm revision. This has not been officially announced yet.

There is also a single HDMI port for full 1080p support -- no firmware trickery needed. Also on the way is a 120GB hard drive which would double the capacity of Sony's top-ranging PS3. There’s no word yet if Microsoft has seen fit to quiet the banshee-like DVD drive, but we can only hope that the answer is yes.

Engadget's "inside man" tells them that the new console will be available soon. We'll keep our ears and eyes open during Bill Gates' keynote on Sunday at CES to see if he has anything to say about the console.

Updated 1/6/2007. Xbox-Scene has posted new images and a video of the new HDMI-equipped Xbox 360. The images include a clearer shot of the back of the console along with motherboard shots which show off a new HANA scaler chip.

[chaminga_d]

The folks at Engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/05/the-second-xbox-360-revealed-codename-zephyr/) have gotten their hands on a picture of a purported second-generation Xbox 360 console.

Code Name - Zephyr
the console will supposedly feature HDMI output—just like Sony's PlayStation 3 consoles—as well as a cooler-running 65nm processor and a 120GB hard drive

[chaminga_d]

Confirmed video and pics!

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEylpyZkVpwzemjZKk.php

[chaminga_d]

I really don't know why people keep bashing products, you realize that the consumer wins when there is competition. I have personally seen both consoles and think there both very comparable. But as a pc builder the one thing that surprises me is why would sony put a gpu in there console that is very similer to a 7800gtx. Its common knowledge that untill the 8800 series came out nvidia's gpu's were a little behind in image quality and could not offer any aa with hdr lighting, also there video quality was behind, also kinda funny to combine that with a blu-ray player. where microsofts xbox 360 actually put a gpu that was ahead of its time with its unified shaders and on gpu memory to give aa for free. Everyone here knows you can take the fastest computer and if you throw a slow gpu in it well the system is a good as its weekest link.