Chatered and Microsoft Sign 65-nm Manufacturing Agreement for Xbox360 Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Chatered and Microsoft Sign 65-nm Manufacturing Agreement for Xbox360 CPU -- Posted by XanTium on April 21 09:55 EST
From the pressrelease:
[QUOTE]
Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, one of the world's top dedicated semiconductor foundries, has signed an agreement with Microsoft for the manufacturing of CPU products-using 65-nanometer (nm) Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) semiconductor technology -for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game consoles. Production is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2007, and will support the Xbox 360's growing demand and expanding market reach. The announcement follows Chartered's successful manufacturing of 90nm SOI CPU products for the Xbox 360 console's launch, through an agreement with IBM.

"We look forward to working with Chartered on the production of such an important component of our Xbox 360 system," said Larry Yang, General Manager of Xbox Console Development at Microsoft. "Chartered's ability to demonstrate the manufacturability of IBM's advanced SOI technology in Fab 7 was key to our selection. We plan to continue with our strategy of dual sourcing from Chartered and IBM's fabs, which are operationally aligned and compatible, to give us the consistent product quality and flexibility we will need."

"We are excited to expand our manufacturing relationship with Microsoft and leverage the innovative 65nm SOI technology made available to us through our agreement with IBM," said Kay Chai "KC" Ang, senior vice president of fab operations at Chartered. "This is both a recognition of Chartered's 300mm manufacturing excellence and increasing customer confidence in our ability to enable cutting-edge technologies as products transition to 65nm. By working closely with IBM to enable manufacturing compatibility and dual-sourcing capability, our goal is to continue to be a reliable manufacturing source to Microsoft."
[/QUOTE]

Read the whole pressrelease on charteredsemi.com

[KASPERS]

What are the advantages of this new 65nm cpu ?
Does this cpu needs less power or something ?

[bucko]

yup & less heat.

[DaddyO21]

then MS needs to replace my 360 free of charge.

[fghjj]

I was going to wait with buying one until they switched over to 65nm, but Q1 2007, damn that's still far away.

[sweetbrett]

this is great news for me, because I don't plan on buying a 360 for at least a year 1) because of price and 2) i don't want to alienate my beloved original xbox quite yet.

[krims0n]

I by no means expect them to replace existing consoles, that's ludicrous. However if they are admitting the current cpu they are using is prone to issues they should at least extend the warranty.

[incognegro]

does it also make it cheaper to manufacture? I would expect this to be the one of the main reasons theyre doing this. could be a sign of a possible price drop.......

This post has been edited by incognegro: Apr 21 2006, 05:05 PM

[Itcouldbeyou]

With 65nm you can get more CPUs from your wafer, so yes they will be cheaper to manufactor. But of course they have to invest first into the new fab.
I don't think that will make a reasonable retail price. Remember, theyre still selling them at a loss...

[KAGE360]

i looked but didnt find this in the hardware section..

In a joint announcement, MS and the manufacturer of the Xbox 360's CPU, Chartered Semiconductor, have announced that the console's processor will receive an upgrade in 2007. The upgrade will move the chip's design to a 65nm manufacturing process (the existing CPU is based on 90nm technology) which will provide lower power consumption and a smaller heat output. It's expected that the upgrade will not alter the processor's performance as this could cause compatibility issues with games already released or currently under development for the Xbox 360

rest of the article:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/21/xbox-360...pgrade-in-2007/

good to see that they are working to improve an already great system this fast. although i dont think this is really needed, wouldnt this also help reduce the cost to make the system as well? if so then this could be a win win situation.

[Math1]

It has nothing to do with heat problems. It has everything to do with cost reduction. Lower power requirement means they can design the system to be simpler and cheaper. Smaller chip size means more chips per wafer, which means lower cost. Its not like they all of a sudden decided to do this. I am sure they have a road map completely specced out for cost reductions and tech improvements that spans the life of the console.

[FiveSix]

Well I sure am glad I got the extended warranty with mine (2 years). If these new chips cause less overheating and, as I read online, increase speeds maginaly I think towards the end of those 2 years I might have to develop some sort of "concern" so that I can swap this one for a new one....

The I returned my last one because it was making a weird PC beep. Sent it in without the HDD, the replacement came back with a new one. Sweet 'eh.

So maybe there is something to this warranty thing. Of course, I am hooped for doing any cool mods to it until it runs out.

-Cougar Bait

[twistedsymphony]

While moving to a smaller size has lots of benifits (as you mentioned) typically it also decreases they chip yeild. If they can move to the 65nm process while keeping the yeild about the same (or better) then it's all good news

[pepe2004]

this is great news for me, because I don't plan on buying a 360 for at least a year 1) because of price and 2) i don't want to alienate my beloved original xbox quite yet.

AMEN, but I will wait more until I see Ninja Gaiden 2

[johnnyrico]

* hopes to see overheat problems, too large PSU and energy consumption be gone in next version, and see the price drop too.*