News
News Categories

Overheard: Next Gen Xbox to Feature AMD Samara Mobile APU

By Wong Chung Wee - on 10 Apr 2013, 11:55am

Overheard: Next Gen Xbox to Feature AMD Samara Mobile APU

According to a Bloomberg report, Microsoft has signed a deal with AMD such that the former's next generation Xbox will feature AMD's Samara mobile APU. This development comes in the wake of our earlier report of a possible unveiling of Microsoft's next generation Xbox on 21 May.

(Image Source: 3DCenter Forum)

This report also confirms an earlier rumor that the upcoming Xbox may contain an AMD graphical processor. The new Xbox will feature an AMD Samara mobile APU that sports Jaguar CPU cores, together with a Fusion graphics engine. The current Xbox 360 features an IBM-designed 64-bit Power PC chip, and with Microsoft's alleged move towards AMD's x86-64 APUs may lead to incompatibility with current Xbox 360 titles. Despite such issues, Microsoft's drastic decision stems from the company's claims that game studios will have an easier time developing cross-platform games for its next generation Xbox.

AMD seem to be making good progress in cornering the game console market as the new PlayStation 4 will also feature its Samara APU while the Wii U features an AMD Radeon-based graphics chip. Even the upcoming Valve Steam Box is alleged to feature an AMD graphics chip. In February last year at the AMD Financial Analyst Day, the company shared its strategy that would place more emphasis on mobile processors and less on desktop ones. With its recent inroad made with major game consoles, its strategy seems to be panning out according to plan, even its competitor NVIDIA was reported going on record to state that they were content to let AMD corner the console market.

(Source: Bloomberg, 3DCenter Forum, Nintendo)

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.