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Originally Posted by TheChefO
The xb360 CPU and GPU have already been integrated ... is there really that much more to be saved power-wise that such an "achievement" would be news worthy?
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Any talk of next gen rumours will generate site hits even if it isn't actually the next gen we want to hear about. Apart from speculated commentary, the "mole's" information just sounds like another revision of 360.
What the mole said: IBM/CPU/PPC + ATI/GPU + edram SoC. Oban. Tapeout now.
The rest is speculation and commentary.
I see no good reason to believe next gen would be an SoC unless they were planning on a really shitty leap.
Blame journalism if they hear "the next xbox chip" then report it as "the xbox next chip" - world of difference in meaning, but the latter gets people excited for the implied meaning of next gen. Not saying that's what happened, but there's not much to the article aside from the above list of facts.
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Power-wise, there's probably not much worthwhile to brag about. However, I wouldn't underestimate the advantage of having a single chip over two. It's just simplification of the manufacturing. You have only one chip to test, only one manufacturing process. You don't have to wait for the second chip to arrive and be put on the package before testing it further.
There would be some changes on the mobo to reflect the new chip's characteristics.
Googling Oban, it seems the main result is some small town in Scotland. If it is on 28nm, a 360 evolution would be tiny indeed.