It's another week and another set of rumors have spread across the Internet about Microsoft's next game console, Xbox 2. Although Microsoft hasn't yet determined an exact name for the next Xbox console, we'll just call it Xbox 2 until Microsoft says otherwise. The latest set of rumors swirl around the box's specifications and whether the console will be backwards compatible with original Xbox games. An online report said Microsoft executives had decided against providing backwards compatibility, claiming that an internal study determined that only 10 percent of PlayStation 2 users were interested in the console's backwards compatibility with the original PlayStation. However, Microsoft has publicly denied making any decision about the feature. If the company chooses to provide the backwards compatibility, it might be difficult considering the new console's radically different architecture. Xbox 2 will use ATI Technology graphics chips and an IBM PowerPC microprocessor—the original Xbox uses NVIDIA graphics chips and an Intel x86 microprocessor. A recent report based on supposedly leaked development documents says the console will include a 3.5GHz IBM PowerPC microprocessor, a 500MHz ATI Technology graphics processor, and 256MB of unified memory running a special version of Windows NT and DirectX 9.0. According to the documents, the company has yet to decide whether the console will include a hard disk. Microsoft could easily put a lot of the rumors to rest, but we're sure the company enjoys all the speculation and free press. Microsoft is expected to release Xbox 2 in late 2005
