R500 in Xbox 2?

Just recently, ATI won the bid to design the graphics processor to be used in the next generation of Microsoft’s Xbox, called Xbox 2.

Just recently, ATI won the bid to design the graphics processor to be used in the next generation of Microsoft's Xbox, called Xbox 2. Although this isn't exactly fresh news, details on the chip itself are.

According to a source, the new chip will be based on the R500, which will supercede the R450 to be shown at Compudex this year. The chip will be custom silicon designed to take advantage of the next version of DirectX, named DirectX\LH (for Longhorn, Microsoft's next operating system).

While specifications are scarce, the memory capabilities of the graphics chip are impressive. It will apparently work in concert with Samsung GDDR-II RAM running at 1,600MHz, providing around 25GB of bandwidth with a 128-bit memory setup, and 52GB theoretically with a 256-bit setup.

Also of note -- a source made it clear that pixel shader support (particularly PS 3.0) would be an important part of Xbox 2, and that as far as performance is concerned, ATI was the best choice to provide the GPU for Microsoft's next console.

Source: TeamXbox