Over the last week rumors have been flying around about a potential “slim” version of the Xbox 360.
The existing 360 m
odel sold is much the same as the original from four years ago, although now it does run with more fan capacity and is a mite louder!
But with the black Wii and a PS3 Slim as competition, I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft was looking in the direction of reinvigorating their Xbox 360 console.
The images that have been showing up on blogs and gaming sites around the world are allegedly showing a completely redesigned model that combines the console’s CPU and GPU in a single, small chip for the first time. Their website of origin claims that testing of the new model was recently completed in China, according to Kotaku.
Although Microsoft has categorically said that it doesn’t “comment on rumor and speculation” and the validity of these images is in doubt, it reminds me of roughly the same time last year when leaked Chinese PS3 Slim images emerged months before the new slimmed down model was officially announced.
CEO Steve Ballmer, who’s well known for letting ambiguous comments fly almost every time he speaks, started the rumor mill running last week, by saying that any new xbox 360 console models would be available in the future with different “form factors.”
Plus with Microsoft hiring a new motherboard engineer for the 360 development team and the job ad going up last week, there is a lot of wild assumptions flying!
Here is the full job ad (make of it what you will… )
Job Category: Hardware Engineering
Location: United States, CA, Mountain View
Job IDJ : 714897
Product: Xbox Home
Division: Entertainment & Devices Division
Motherboard Design Engineer
Job Description:
The Xbox 360 Console development team is seeking qualified candidates for an Electrical Engineer. The responsibilities of this position are focused on specifying, designing (schematic capture, PCB layout, BOM, cost analysis), implementing and verifying the mother-board and other various sub-system boards that make up the XBOX 360 product line. This work includes development of requirements and evaluating different solution for functionality, cost, and risk. The subsystems on the XBOX 360 mother board include (but are not limited to): High speed busses (front side bus, memory bus, PCIe bus, SATA bus, USB bus, I2S, etc.), memory, Ethernet, audio/video, system clocking, power and thermal management, and misc. analog/digital circuitry.
The XBOX 360 Console Development team is responsible for aggressive cost reduction of the console throughout the life of the product as well as expanding the market for the console in derivative products. The position involves working closely with industrial designers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, software engineers, test engineers, component engineers, and program managers.
Qualifications:
Minimum BS/MS in Electrical Engineering
Minimum of 4 years experience contributing to the design and production of complex products in the consumer PC or consumer electronic industry.
A solid understanding of core engineering principles, fundamental circuit design, and analytical techniques is required.
Familiarity with PC, embedded system architectures hardware and software, experience with implementation of high speed serial busses (SATA, PCIe, USB) and/or high speed parallel busses such as: memory bus (DDR2, GDDR3, etc.), CPU front side bus, Hyper transport, and/or voltage regulator/power delivery design a plus.
Design for manufacturing and test experience is required.
Strong bench evaluation and in-lab debugging skills are required.
Strong communication skills required. Including the ability to clearly express technical concepts in verbal and written forms.
Must be able to plan work, and work to a plan adapting as necessary in a rapidly evolving environment.
The ability to comprehend and assimilate technical concepts across multiple disciplines is a plus.
Enthusiastic, motivated and self driven.
Domestic and international travel may be required.
Have any of you applied for this job?
Please leave a comment below and let me know how you rate the Job Description…
