Rumors have started appearing today that the chip for the next xbox is now in engineers hands... apparently fabbed by big blue and GF so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say 6-9 core PPC with a GCN GPU...

Hmm, 6-9 cores is interesting, but I think the more interesting part will be what they're going to be clocked at. Most games tend to benefit more from clockspeed than multicore these days.

slower than bulldozer apparently so what 2.6 max?

When M$ came up with the Xbox 360 CPU, they made it 3 cores because they decided 3 cores was optimal for the way they wanted to program it. I figure they will do likewise this time around, letting software drive hardware, and I doubt any more than 6 cores. The GPU will also probably be something unusual, with features they can directly take advantage of. What they won't do is put hardware they don't have immediate plans to use on board.

What they understand is that the CPU is not a general-purpose CPU. It does not have to be anything like a Sandy Bridge or a Bulldozer, and it probably will not be comparable to anything in the general market.

The GPU is known to be AMD designed and since GCN is AMD's first DX11.1 chip (windows 8 and the next xboxs DX) it's a good bet it's a GCN based chip... As for the core count with Unreal engine 4 being supposedly parallel ready I'd expect atleast multiples of 3 cores for it (going on the theory they want easy Xbox 360 compatability)

There were some rumors that it is ARM-based, but I really doubt those rumors are true.

It's been rumored a while that it was being made. This could just be a natural progression of the rumor than a confirming of the product. But, at the moment Sony's the only company taking a 10 year approach, while Microsoft seems like they'll hit 7. So yeah, it's likely we'll at least hear a little something at this year's E3, if not a usable console.

I think if they do make an arm system it will be the Xbox TV and only run arcade stuff (which ties in with the rumored lack of disc drive)

in other news:
First order is apparently 10k waffers with 100ish candidates a wafer according to semi accurate.

If true thats a LOT of dev consoles...

When they did the Xbox 360 GPU, they also went with an AMD chip, and it was similar to the then-current 24xx series, but they added features to it like the eDRAM that made it very different to program. I'd expect something similar this time; they will start with GCN but get AMD to add something their developers really want.

Wish they added keyboard + mouse support.

Most multiplatform sufferers on the PC will wish they added more RAM.

There are lots of rumors (and the general belief is that) floating around that Windows Phone 8 will be based on the same kernel as Windows 8.

That could be true for Xbox's operating system too, making more real Microsoft's dream of 'Windows Everywhere'.

I don't see why not, it would be great if that is the case. Developers will surely LOVE that thing. :)

I'm hoping that they make it just as goddamn sturdy as the original Xbox. No massive core failures due to overheating, no disc drive failures due to derpish design flaws, etc.

Hopefully, the amount of money they lost on replacing units will teach them that quality > quantity.

Other than that, I'll definitely be looking forward to this, as well as seeing what Sony has in store this time around.

Other way round it was the test chip for the 2400 series shaders even though 2400 hit consumers earlier it taped out later