While officially Microsoft isn"t saying anything about plans for a next generation version of its Xbox game console, that isn"t stopping the rumor mill from generating what might be inside the third iteration of its best selling game hardware. The latest rumor comes from PC hardware site HardOCP who earlier this month said that it was hearing from unnamed sources that chip maker AMD was likely to provide the graphics chips for Sony and Microsoft"s next game console (AMD is already confirmed as the graphics chip provider for Nintendo"s Wii U console planned for release in 2012). That same article, however, stated that in Microsoft"s case the CPU was likely to be a version of IBM"s cell processor although that was not certain.
In the web site"s latest article, HardOCP has now apparently gotten some different info, claiming via unnamed sources "that AMD has very likely locked up the whole shebang with a Fusion Bulldozer variant APU." Bulldozer is the code name for AMD"s next generation CPU. The first PCs with the Bulldozer design are supposed to be released sometime before the end of 2011. A Fusion variant means that both the CPU and GPU will be on one chip. If this is true this has to be considered a huge win for AMD.
Recently many have speculated on what games will look like while running on next generation consoles. Recently an AMD rep said that the level of graphics in next generation console games could look like the visual effects seen in the movie Avatar.