Remember the rumor about the Xbox 360 Blu-ray console that's set to ship this year? If you do, don't  buy into it anymore. Recently, Microsoft has spoken words that have dispelled this particular hearsay circulating. Find out what the company said in the full article.

Microsoft has previously denied that they were going to put a Blu-Ray drive into the Xbox 360. However, the latest rumors are saying that the company has already placed orders for a Blu-Ray Xbox 360. For more on this, check out the full article.

Rumors were spreading that Lite-On will be manufacturing Blu-ray drives for the Xbox 360. Regarding this, Microsoft has just released an official statement dispelling this particular rumor. Find out the details  of their announcement after the jump!

True, or April Fool's Joke? According to DigiTimes, Lite-On is currently producing Blu-ray  drives for the Xbox 360 gaming consoles, despite Microsoft's previous comments about not having any plans of using Blu-ray technology in its gaming console. Quite a sudden turn of events, and nicely timed, too. Hit the full article for more details on this intriguing piece of news.

It has been said that both Microsoft and Sony are looking to utilize the 65nm graphics processing unit (GPU) to be able to reduce production costs. Focusing now on the MS side of things, fans speculated that the Elite could already be sporting this technology but after a thorough inspection of the new SKU, it was found that the 65nm core is still not in use.

Anyway, online site DigiTimes just reported that chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has sent out an engineering version of the 65nm-made Xenos. The report mentioned as well that production of SKUs will begin in May and they will be available by Fall 2007.

It should be remembered that back in December 2006, it was reported that these 65nm chips will be available by mid-2007. Despite these delays, TSMC is still projecting that sales contribution from 65nm would amount to 5% during the said period.

Last March, it introduced 65nm-made embedded DRAM - one of the two dies that comprise the Xenos.

 

Microsoft and Sony are both aggressively preparing to migrate chief components of their latest consoles to 65nm silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology production in order to help shrink the gap between retail prices and production costs.

iSuppli's research shows that at present, manufacturing costs of the 20GB and 60GB PS3 are around US$ 306.85 and US$ 241.35 more than current retail prices. iSuppli also notes of Microsoft's situation saying that the Xbox 360 Premium package priced at $US 399 actually costs the company US$ 525 to produce. The DigiTimes reports that:

during a recent Sony investor conference, the company said that it has already started production of various sized chipsets on 65nm node and noted that die-size could be shrunk by 40% in comparison to 90nm process, indicating that corresponding costs could be reduced along with the reduction in die size.

On the Microsoft side of things, they've announced last April that they would start producing Xbox 360 CPUs on 65nm SOI technology in the first quarter of 2007. However, DigiTimes does note that rumors suggest that the move to 65nm might be delayed to mid-2007.

A recent Chinese-language Commercial Times report comments that if 65nm manufacturing is introduced, three key Xbox 360 components - the CPU, northbridge, and graphics chip - may see their prices reduced by 30% to 40%.

On the Sony side, they add that they also plan to reduce the number of parts in the PS3 in an attempt to see "drastic" cost reductions.

When Microsoft's Senior Program Manager Kevin Collins showed off the HD-DVD Drive to the the DVD Forum attendees, he played Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. And as if a foreboding, the "phantom" can also be correlated to details surrounding the HD-DVD.

As is in the movie, everything or at least most of what is known about the phantom are rumors, much like the price of the add-on HD-DVD for the Xbox 360. DigiTimes Systems has just reported that it will have a retail price of $200 and will be available for consumption this holiday season. Alas! The phantom has been unmasked... or has it?