Infineon to provide 360 DRAM, Wireless gamepad controler chip, and security chip

[Acert93]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/08/29/news_6132197.html

During Infineon's analysts' day here, executives with the German-owned company said it will be supplying a removable solid-state dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM, unit, as well as two other key components: a single integrated chip to power a wireless gamepad controller and an advanced security chip.

Also, some MS and analyst projections:

Microsoft expects to sell more than 10 million units of the console in the first 12 to 16 months. Kagan Research out of Monterey, Calif., is a little more conservative, forecasting that Microsoft will sell about 11 million of its Xbox 360 consoles by 2007.

If "by" they mean "by the time 2007 starts" then their forcast is basically the same and the "conservative" commentary from GS makes no sense; if they mean "by the end of 2007" then Kagan Research is expecting about it to take 8mo more to hit the 11M range than MS is expecting.

If MS sells 3M this fall, I could see them breaking 10M total units by Jan 1st 2007 if they offer a stream of high quality games that differential this generation from last generation.

 

[one]

'DRAM', or more specifically, 64MB Memory Unit.

I recall a company called M-systems had something, was it just a bluff?

 

[Acert93]

I recall a company called M-systems had something, was it just a bluff?

I am not sure it was a bluff. Who would they be trying to bluff?

I get the feeling that maybe MS was aiming for a solid state Mass Storage medium due to the fact they scale in production over time (whereas a HDD does not). And I think that is where M-Systems came in, but appearantly has not been able to deliver any tangible product at this time.

I know that sounds far fetched, but flash memory drops ~40% yearly in cost and Samsung is talking about dropping the price on 4GB memory packages to Apple to replace the HDD on the iPod Mini.

I am not saying that was the plan, but I would not be surprised if there was something similar in the works and it just did not pan out.

Interestingly, by the time the next-next-gen consoles roll around we will be seeing 16 - 32GB flash memory at retail for under $50 if the current pace continues.

While larger storage mediums may server better at that time (and Xbox 360/PS3 owners theoretically could use their OLD HDD in the new systems as they are replacable!) the idea that the next systems could have 32GB of storage out of the box that would scale down in price over time sounds like a nice idea Kind of like what Nintendo is doing with the Revolution with the 512MB flash memory.

In some ways I wish MS and Sony had at least included a small but of flash memory (or a free small memory card... they are cheap enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so there could be some basic saves without paying $40/$100 for the option to save game data.

 

[one]

In some ways I wish MS and Sony had at least included a small but of flash memory (or a free small memory card... they are cheap enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so there could be some basic saves without paying $40/$100 for the option to save game data.

Ah, after I wrote about M-systems, it came to my mind that Xbox 360 will have some flash in it to store its OS one way or the other just like PSP (32MB flash) though it's not clear if M-systems offer it or not...

 

[Acert93]

Ah, after I wrote about M-systems, it came to my mind that Xbox 360 will have some flash in it to store its OS one way or the other just like PSP (32MB flash) though it's not clear if M-systems offer it or not...

I did not know that one. Thanks for that info