Straight from the United States Patent website, someone found that a Microsoft-stamped patent application was curiously labeled as "multi-component gaming" and had ties to sharing not only digital resources, but physical resources as well. You heard us right the first time, folks: Microsoft thinks the future of gaming rests on the sharing of processing power as well as memory storage.

It's no wonder, really, how they would come up with such a suggestion. For years on end since the best industry leaders identified the serious roadblock for the silicon-based processor, researchers have been trying to avert grinding to a standstill in computer technology by figuring out solutions to the "more power, less heat" problem.

But because biotechnological (DNA) processors and quantum processors are still way past affordability, the industry has resorted to three solutions, which single out one characteristic: shared multiple processing.

Multi-core, multi-processor, and distributed computing all allow computers to utilize additional resources to provide more power to software. Just how Folding@Home used distributed computing to "fold" proteins that would normally require a supercomputer to be processed speedily, games could also be delegated to several computing platforms in order to be played.

Of course, the whole idea - having to require three consoles to do have one thing accomplished - isn't as welcomed by many. But the idea of having a handheld gaming device delegate processing and storage to your Xbox 360 is exciting. There's no doubt that this could be good news to many tech geeks out there who've always wanted to see something like that work.

It's highly unlikely we'll know what exactly the Redmond giant has in store for the gaming industry worldwide, however, with this idea. It just might be that the next Windows OS could be capable of handling such tasks, but no one knows for sure. Hopefully Microsoft could shed some light into this concept soon.