Rumor: Microsoft’s Next Generation Console Could Have An AI NPU

gameranx.com:

We have some new speculation on what the next Xbox could be like.

This is a follow up to the rumor we reported last week, that that next Xbox will actually be the next generation of the console. Microsoft is allegedly taking an early jump to the next generation, like Nintendo did with the Switch, ditching leaked plans to make an all-digital mid-generation upgrade.

Now, since we brought it up again, we would be remiss not to point out that Jeff Grubb has clarified his discussion of the rumor. He was not corroborating Kepler_L2’s rumor about this next generation Xbox, but just made it a discussion point in his podcast. In his words, “we were just speculating.”

Now, as reported by TweakTown, the next generation of Xbox will likely to have an AI NPU, even if that console is arriving as soon as 2026. Now, let’s get this out of the way now; what is an NPU?

It’s short for neural processing unit, and a neural processing unit is a microprocessor designed particularly to facilitate machine learning. In plain English, TweakTown’s Derek Strickland is speculating that parent company Microsoft’s heavy investment in OpenAI (which led to some funnily dramatic news over the last month) will be applied almost immediately on their next games console.

But then, if you follow tech or are huge in Microsoft, this shouldn’t be so much of a mystery. Microsoft already put an NPU in the Surface Pro 9 and the Surface Laptop Studio 2, their Windows side of tech hardware. The company already plans to bring NPUs to the next generation of Surface devices.

In fact, if you were wondering if there was some sort of tech precedent to this, it would have actually been set by Sony, of all companies. The Cell processor in Sony’s PlayStation 3, though poorly