A real reason for the Xbox 360 shortage
The San Jose Mercury News breaks Microsoft’s public relations wall and pinpoints a malfunctioning chip that could be to blame.
FULL STORY:
Pretty much every newspaper in the country is lighting up with the scoop that part of the Xbox 360 shortage has been caused by a German chipmaker called Infineon, which, along with Samsung, produces the graphics memory chips for Xbox 360.
Turns out those chips (called GDDR3, or graphics double data rate) have been running into some speed problems. Some of them work, but some of them run below the desired speed, which in turn slows down the whole system. Microsoft has had to spend time weeding out the slow chips from the good ones, which has slowed things down. And since there are fewer good chips than there should be, that reduces the number of 360s they can produce.
Microsoft officially won’t point any fingers at a particular manufacturer, and it’s possible that this isn’t the only reason the 360 has been in short supply. But it’s a good start. Check out the full story for all the dirty details, as well as some analyst chime-ins.
• Xbox 360 delivery slowed by a chip [Mercury News]