Official: Xbox 2 Powered by ATI

ATI and Microsoft announce what most analysts already knew - ATI will be at the heart of Xbox 2 graphics technology. New details inside.

This week, ATI Technologies announced it has entered into a technology development agreement with Microsoft, to develop custom graphics technologies for use in "future Xbox products and services".

Xbox 2: Good things will come.

After a long period of speculation, which culminated with respected news site Spong breaking concrete news of the deal some time ago, it's now totally official and Xbox 2 will be powered by ATI. However, the firm does not expect its relationship with Nintendo and the possibility of N5 (GameCube 2) development to suffer as a result.

Chief Xbox Officer Robbie Bach told the world, "We selected ATI after reviewing the top graphics technologies in development and determining that ATI's technical vision fits perfectly with the future direction of Xbox.

"We're combining...to create innovative future Xbox products and services that meet the lifestyle needs of consumers in the Digital Decade." However, it was all but confirmed that a decision was made back in June, after ATI declared receipt of $18 million in "deferred revenue associated with an unannounced contract."

ATI's CEO offered, "Microsoft shares our passion for cutting-edge innovation. Our success working with Microsoft in the past gives us great confidence as we move forward, and our broad experience and wealth of engineering resources will ensure that we deliver. This agreement cements ATI's position as the prime graphics supplier for the future of the games industry."

Now, the latest rumours suggest that Xbox 2 will use an enhanced version of Intel's Pentium M mobile CPU processor. If this is true, we'd have to ask why - since the main advantage of Intel's mobile processors is their power-saving compared to regular Intel CPUs.

As the Xbox 2 project continues apace, it seems all is on track with this latest big announcement - and if we're lucky, we could find out more about the next machine at the massive X03 trade event, which takes place in Souhern France next month. Stay tuned!

Kikizo Staff
Bring on those green crabs.