It's been quite a while since we've grabbed hold of word about the Microsoft Xbox 360's upcoming versions. We've all read stories about new units codenamed Jasper and Valhalla before, and now we're hearing some reports about who'll be manufacturing the new chips.

According to Xbitlabs, IBM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) got orders from Microsoft to produce new 65nm chips for the Jasper. The new Xbox 360 version will reportedly use ATI Xenos graphics and memory controller hub (GMCH) made using 65nm process at TSMC.

This will put the graphics unit of the Jasper to the same size of the 65nm CPU employed by the Falcon version of the Xbox 360 released late last year. If you can recall, the GPU stayed at the 90nm scale in that version of the console.

The Xbitlabs report also suggests that the successor to Jasper codenamed Valhalla will shrink the chips even more, perhaps to the 45nm scale in the years to come. It's assumed that this will result in less electricity consumed, less noise produced, and less complex cooling systems for the Xbox 360.

Microsoft, as expected, did not comment on this rumor. Still, it's good to see some hope that the reduced failure rate of the Xbox 360 will go even lower. We'll give you more updates as they come.