Flash-based HD for Xbox 2, according to Albrecht

Alex Abrecht, fry cook of all things Xbox 2 rumor, claims he spoke to a Microsoft employee over the weekend who confirmed that the Xbox 2 will sport a flash-based hard drive.  While this could be cool and all, and allow for some fast level-loading, we'll take this rumor with a big grain of salt.  And some ketchup.  The ex-TechTV guy may talk to people, but saying you talked to a Microsoft employee could mean the dude was a coder for a division on the other side of MS campus responsible for Windows widgets.  Albrecht also claims the guy told him the Xbox 2 will play DVDs out of the box and will be seen this week at CES.  Yay DVDs.  We'll be there and report back for ya.

[dante @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I don't believe that Alex says anything about the Xbox 2 @ CES. However he does say:

"4) Xbox II at E3... Hell Yes!!! There will be an Xbox II maybe more at E3 this year...

5) Xbox II release date announced at E3... another Hell Yes!!! MS will be announcing a release date for Xbox II..."

-dante

[jason @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

The flash HD thing was basically confirmed a year ago when Microsoft announced that they had signed M-systems to create a flash drive:

http://news.com.com/2100-1043-5164992.html?tag=nefd_hed

"Ronit Maor, chief financial officer at Israel-based M-Systems, said the company could not discuss details of the contract. But Maor said the devices under development would be of significantly higher capacity than the 8MB Xbox memory units Microsoft currently sells to save game and user data. "What we're going to offer for the Xbox doesn't currently exist," Maor said."

[Jeff Croft @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

If it's flash memory, can it really be a hard drive? :)

[Jay M. @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I can confirm that it'll play DVD's out of the box as well. Microsoft is now part of the DVD consortium so they don't have to pay extra (as they did for each DVD add-on pack) to have the rights to display the DVD logo, playback, etc.

[anonymous hooha! @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

Upon encountering the word "Microsoft" in the headling, my brain rewrote the sentence to read: "FlEsh-based HD..."

I wonder why that is?

[deftones @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

What is this i even begin to hear about an Xbox 2? Does anyone have a website i can clearify this query?

[deftones @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

What is this i even begin to hear about an Xbox 2? Does anyone have a website i can clearify this query?

[Dean @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

Thats cool I guess, yay for faster load times :)
Any Idea what the size will be?

P.S. Is that the design for the Xbox 2? I havent been looking at any info on XB2 so be nice :)

P.P.S. Anyone have any good sites for info on the Xbox 2?

[Slaven @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I doubt you'd get faster load times: flash memory can't really compete with a hard drive on speed, even the really fast flash.

[Dean @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

arnt Gameboy games and Nintendo 64 games Flash memory? They have no load times?

Even on the new DS.

[tom @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

I doubt you'd get faster load times: flash memory can't really compete with a hard drive on speed, even the really fast flash.

Hey, guess who's wrong? Yup, it's you.

http://www.dansdata.com/gz020.htm

[Colin @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

[quote]I doubt you'd get faster load times: flash memory can't really compete with a hard drive on speed, even the really fast flash.[/quote]

wtf are you talking about. hd is the slowest piece of equipment in most computers. the bottleneck. flash memory is much, much faster.

[Aonic @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

Wow. Vicious.

The only thing that really sucks in terms of load time is CDs. Once you get up in the flash/hard drive department, it really doesn't matter anymore. I don't see why microsoft would unnecessarily bump the price of their console by using flash instead of a hard drive when there is so little benefit to be gained.

[mike @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

What the fuck are Windows Widgets.. don't tell me they have Dashboard..

[John @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

hd vs. flash all depends on the flash memory. My Lexar Jump drive Pro has 80X speed flash. 200MB in about 20 seconds. Still most new hard drives can transfer 40MB per second... let's see 40MB x 20 seconds... that's 800MB in 20 seconds.

[fubenkyou @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

#12 tom
#13 Colin

you both are confusing ram (sd, ddr, ddr2, rd) with flash memory (sd, cf, mem stick, mmc, etc.)
ram is indeed much faster then hds, but flash memory isn't.

[Morgan @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

If it will play DVDs OOTB does it mean that MS will criple DVD playback via RGB like Sony did to the PS2?

I still refuse to buy the PS2 because they sell it as a home entertainment system (Console/DVD Player) but it isn't a true DVD player until it has RGB output. It has Opical built in ffs, why can't they add RGB, or at least enable RGB with the sale of the DVD remote. Stupid Sony, I really hope MS don't make this mistake!

[rommel @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

flash memory is slower than ddr memory and hard drives because they write data in a random non sequential order so as not to waste any space. you cannot reorganize/optimize data in a flash drive unlike a regular hard drive. so the more information is stored in a flash drive the slower the access/seek time. also imagine how inefficient the FAT file system in flash memory is compared to NTFS of windows xp.

[Slaven @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

"#12 tom
#13 Colin

you both are confusing ram (sd, ddr, ddr2, rd) with flash memory (sd, cf, mem stick, mmc, etc.)
ram is indeed much faster then hds, but flash memory isn't."

Word, couldn't have said it better! Wrong I ain't. :)

[Joker961 @ Dec 19th 2005 2:10AM]

But will it have a flipping keyboard and mouse this time? Inquiring minds definitely want to know...