Microsoft promotes ATI as Nvidia Xbox 2 replacement

ANALYSTS AT THE Dundee Securities Corporation said today that Canadian company ATI was "well positioned" to pick up future Xbox business.

(See also Will Microsoft call the next Xbox, XboxNext?)

Obviously, Microsoft is trying to lever Nvidia and ATI against each other - both of them being suppliers, or would be suppliers.

It's sort of a Sendo thing, or maybe a Zsoft thing, all over again, we suspect.

David Hodgson, a senior analyst at ATI, reports that the Vole will do "everything possible" to compete against the Playstation 3, although Microsoft is not well known for designing chips in the past.

Dundee said it believed the GPU supplier to Microsoft's next console - the Xbox 2, right? - will be compensated through some kind of Byzantine licensing deal.

According to Hodgson, Microsoft is trying to drive down the BOM (bill of materials) so it can sell its future product cheaper.

But we wonder who is playing hardball here. Nvidia faced off Microsoft before. Will ATI crumble for the extra revenues the next Xbox will bring?

We suspect Microsoft thinks its power is as it was before. Tell its suppliers what to do, and wait for the fallout... µ

* LET DUNDEE not forget that ArtX now belongs to ATI. It was instrumental in the Nintendo Gamecube's genesis, and know how to design ideal console software, allegedly.

See Also
Playstation 3 architecture revealed