You sometimes need to shake your head at the code names given to technical devices. First we had Zephyr (Elite) then we had the Falcon (65nm CPU) and now we have Jasper… I liked the first two but this code name is just silly.
Anyway back to the point, Jasper is expected to be rolling of the manufacturing lines around next year August and will be fitted with a 65nm graphics chip. The graphics chip is the piece of the 360 that has caused the most headaches in connection with overheating.
What I don’t understand is why it is taking so long to make these obvious improvements, not only will it be a great cost saver but it will also improve the notorious reliability greatly.
So can we expect yet another $50 price cut next year August? Unless Sony’s PS3 starts selling well I would say yes, don’t expect anything else before then.
Xbox 360 secrets: After Falcon comes Jasper – A+E Interactive: Your Bay Area hangout for gaming, music, movies, culture –
Last Updated: October 10, 2007
XennoX
October 10, 2007 at 13:22
Well the reason why it takes so long, is because Microsoft is not a CPU/GPU producing facility. They have to order batches of these chips from companies like TSMC & UMC (or is it USC?), that produce these chips. Now Microsoft has to wait for these companies to upgrade their production lines to the the 65nm fabrication process. These upgrades cost millions. Hence the reason you have to wait.
Now the question that will be posed here will be: “Sure, but Microsoft has billions, why can’t they just fund the companies?”
Your answer: AMD/ATI & Nvidia also use these two companies. The second part of the answer would be those companies have to carry on producing the 90nm chips whilst upgrading to the 65nm variants. This causes headaches, plus they need to import the equipment to upgrade to a 65nm facility. The next piece is that they also need to train their staff in the 65nm fabrication process.