Let's face it: Xbox One as it currently exists is a big, hulking monolith of a machine, comparable in size to the first PlayStation 3 model. It could stand to shed a few pounds.Before it can do that, however, its internals would need a good reworking to become smaller and more efficient. That seems to be exactly what's happening, as Eurogamer reports.
According to the LinkedIn page of Daniel McConnell, AMD's Senior SOC Physical Design Manager, he has "[s]uccessfully planned and executed the first APU for Microsoft's XBOX One Game Console in 28nm technology and a cost-reduced derivative in 20nm technology." In other words, he has managed to shrink the size of the console's main processor by 8 nanometers, which may not sound like much at first, although it will definitely improve hardware performance and lower power consumption once it's finally implemented. With smaller, more efficient guts that run less of a risk of overheating, Microsoft could then build a new chassis and present a "slim" Xbox One variant.
It's no secret that Microsoft would want to offer a hardware revision for Xbox One down the road just as it did for 360, but it's nice to find evidence of work being doing. On a related note, PS4 also sports a 28nm processor developed by AMD. If AMD has successfully reduced the size of Xbox One's chip, it doesn't seem farfetched that similar work has been done or is currently being done for Sony's console.
