Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Developing Console Chips

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-i've-seen-everything dept.

The Cheesecake writes "The New York Times is running an article that says that Microsoft is looking into designing and developing microchips. These will primarily be for the next generation of the Xbox. They also mention it could be used for things like voice recognition. They look to be doing this through a process designed by UC Berkley which makes it possible to reconfigure computer designs without the cost of making finished chips."

1 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Microsoft Invents FPGA by Snotman · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Exactly. Has anyone heard of firmware or microcode? Hasn't anyone patched their motherboard with a newer firmware? What do you think that is doing but reprogramming a hardware chip? The strange thing about the article is that it doesn't specifically mention this breakthrough technology that Berkley has produced. I have no doubt they have done something significant in programmable chips, but the article is oddly vague about what it is. And it certainly is not some great new thing that Microsoft is doing. LOL. Here is an article on wikipedia to ASICs - the more general category that FPGA falls under: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application-specific_ integrated_circuit.