No Xbox 2 revelations at GDC

Final hardware specs still undecided

By gamesindustry.biz • Get more from this author

Posted in Personal, 8th March 2004 15:09 GMT

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Reports suggest that Xbox Next's hardware will not be unveiled at the forthcoming Game Developers' Conference.

Microsoft's chief Xbox officer, Robbie Bach, will take to the stage at the GDC on 24 March to discuss the new console - but may limit himself to games and some technical aspects of its format.

The suggestion comes from Microsoft Japan's Asako Miyata in an interview with Bloomberg, who noted that a decision had not yet been taken to as to when the technical specifications of the system should be released.

Microsoft has already discussed its hardware plans with a number of key developers - leading to the leaking of information regarding the system's CPU and graphics configuration - but it's thought that certain vital aspects such as the quantity and type of RAM to be used have not yet been decided.

Some commentators have suggested that Microsoft is holding back from a final decision on the RAM, and possibly on the inclusion of a hard drive, until it finds out what Sony is planning to do with the PS3 - so that the spec for the Xbox Next can be adjusted to out-perform Sony's system, at least in these areas.

It's already known that Xbox Next will feature six next-generation IBM PowerPC processing cores, spread across three discrete CPUs, and an advanced graphics hardware solution provided by chipset manufacturer ATI. It's expected that the system will dispense with the hard disc drive in favour of a high capacity removable flash memory solution - effectively a large memory card.

Free research: Application platforms, the state of play