Ever since the new, slimmer (and also cheaper, plus a bit more powerful) version of the PS3 appeared on the market back in the second half of 2009, pretty much everyone's been scrutinizing Microsoft and Nintendo, in the hope of seeing at least a sign of the companies' plans to come up with fresh, improved videogame consoles.

And while Nintendo can still take its sweet time about it, since the Wii has only been around since late 2006, things are quite different in the case of Microsoft, whose Xbox 360 gaming console is turning five this year, which is quite a venerable age for such a product, especially since the only upgrades carried out over time were related to the hardware and weren't particularly impressive (no major improvements in computing power).

However, it would seem that things might change, at least if the photo you can see attached to the article is genuine. And if you're wondering what this is all about, the answer is relatively simple: this might be the motherboard of the next-generation Xbox 360 gaming console.

So, as Kotaku reports, this photo has managed to pop up on a Chinese blog, and was supposedly taken during the testing process for the new console's chips, which occurred in some Chinese facility. In other words, the source of the photo might be sketchy at best.

While we can't really tell that much from the picture (apart from the obvious Cooler Master cooler), one interesting detail pops up, namely the fact that the GPU and CPU seem to be combined in a single chip, which would sort of explain the reduced size. Sadly, no additional info on the hardware solution used is available.

Naturally, you should take all of this with a grain of salt, but the truth of the matter is that the development and imminent launch of a brand-new Xbox is quite a logical step for Microsoft, especially taking into account the fact that their fresh Natal control system is due this fall and, regardless of the company's statements, it will certainly require a bit more power.


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