Microsoft beats Intel, AMD to market with CPU/GPU combo chip

At Hot Chips today, Microsoft's Xbox team unveiled details of the system-on-a-chip (SoC) that powers the newer, slimmer Xbox 360 250GB model. Produced on the IBM/GlobalFoundries 45nm process, it's fair to say that the new SoC (pictured above) is the first mass-market, desktop-class processor to combine a CPU, GPU, memory, and I/O logic onto a single piece of silicon. The goal of the consolidation was, of course, to lower the cost of making the console by reducing the number of different chips needed for the system, shrinking the motherboard, and reducing the number of expensive fans and heatsinks.

The SoC also makes the new Xbox design more power efficient, which is nice for consumers, but the real motivation behind boosting the console's efficiency is to reduce the size and cost of the power supply unit, and to realize the aforementioned savings on cooling apparatus.

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Age of Empires, Microsoft Flight return, with trailers

Microsoft is showing a newfound enthusiasm for its Games for Windows brand, and has announced the return of two major franchises: Age of Empires and Microsoft Flight Simulator. Of course, the "Simulator" bit has been removed, so now it's just Flight. Let's take a look at the trailers, and discuss what little we know about these games.

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Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7: looks cool, but is it enough?

Ever since it was first shown off, we've known that Windows Phone 7 would include a games hub that integrated with Microsoft's Xbox Live and offer a range of games using Microsoft's XNA game development framework. At the Gamescom 2010 conference this week, Microsoft announced the first wave of games that would ship for the platform at launch or soon after.

Fifty games were named, with titles aimed at both hardcore and casual gamers, and a mix of free and paid titles. All the paid games will have free demo modes, and purchases will use Windows Phone's billing options—credit card or carrier billing via Marketplace—rather than the Microsoft Points used for the Xbox Live Marketplace. Microsoft announced both first- and third-party games. Among them are ports of already popular games like UNO, and PopCap's Bejeweled, a range of new casual card and board games branded "Game Chest," and new takes on existing Xbox game franchises.

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Liveblog: Microsoft FY2010 Q4 Earnings

Demand for new PCs is on the upswing, and most new PCs sold run Windows. How will that impact Microsoft's earnings? Tune into our live coverage of Microsoft's fourth quarter FY 2010 earnings call, which will begin on July 22, 2010 at 2:30pm PDT/5:30pm EDT (see it in your timezone).

Sign up below to receive an e-mail as the event begins or simply bookmark this page and come back at the time above. 

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