Some specifications for the next-generation of Xbox have been leaked, with those behind it claiming a world exclusive as this is no mere CPU info or GPU size - this is everything. While there is never going to be an official thumbs up from anyone at Microsoft that doesn't want to risk their job, we only have VGleaks word to go on. However a lot of the information matches up to info we've heard from trusted sources and industry analysts in the past, so it could well be genuine.
Breaking it down, this is what we're looking at:
- CPU: 8 Core X64 chip running at 1.6GHZ with 4MB of L2 cache.
- RAM: 8GB of DDR3 along with 32MB of "ESRAM", connected directly to the GPU.
- Graphics: Custom Direct3D graphics chip supporting DX11.1+, running at 800MHZ. 12 shader cores.
- Storage: SATA II HDD, presumably varied sizing options. Suggested default of 500GB.
- Optical Drive: 6x 50GB Blu Ray
- Networking: Gigabit ethernet and 802.11 a/b/n/g WiFi as standard
- Connectivity: USB 3.0, Kinect In, HDMI 1.4a in/out, SPDFI out
- Accelerators: These are still quite mysterious, but there are three, used for Data Move Engines, Video Codecs and Audio Codecs.
So if this all turns out to be true, we have a console with 16 times the memory capacity of the Xbox 360, a lot more storage space, better connectivity through USB 3.0 - though interestingly no SSD inclusion. Kinect gets its own input, alleviating problems found with using USB.
Most interestingly though are the accelerators, which could presumably improve performance for certain functions and perhaps even reduce energy consumption.
The only caveat to this whole thing is that the information appears to be about nine months old. I wonder if that means we'll see something more impressive by launch day?