Rumor: Microsoft’s Next Generation Console Could Have An AI NPU

We have some new speculation on what the next Xbox could be like.

This is a follow up to the rumor we reported last week, that that next Xbox will actually be the next generation of the console. Microsoft is allegedly taking an early jump to the next generation, like Nintendo did with the Switch, ditching leaked plans to make an all-digital mid-generation upgrade.

Now, since we brought it up again, we would be remiss not to point out that Jeff Grubb has clarified his discussion of the rumor. He was not corroborating Kepler_L2’s rumor about this next generation Xbox, but just made it a discussion point in his podcast. In his words, “we were just speculating.”

Now, as reported by TweakTown, the next generation of Xbox will likely to have an AI NPU, even if that console is arriving as soon as 2026. Now, let’s get this out of the way now; what is an NPU?

It’s short for neural processing unit, and a neural processing unit is a microprocessor designed particularly to facilitate machine learning. In plain English, TweakTown’s Derek Strickland is speculating that parent company Microsoft’s heavy investment in OpenAI (which led to some funnily dramatic news over the last month) will be applied almost immediately on their next games console.

But then, if you follow tech or are huge in Microsoft, this shouldn’t be so much of a mystery. Microsoft already put an NPU in the Surface Pro 9 and the Surface Laptop Studio 2, their Windows side of tech hardware. The company already plans to bring NPUs to the next generation of Surface devices.

In fact, if you were wondering if there was some sort of tech precedent to this, it would have actually been set by Sony, of all companies. The Cell processor in Sony’s PlayStation 3, though poorly utilized in the console’s games for a long time, was advanced enough that the Pentagon used it to make a supercomputer called the Condor Cluster. PS3 owners may also remember keeping their consoles on standby to participate in the Folding@home medical research project.

Getting back to the next Xbox, Derek speculates that it will be used with a custom SoC, and that Microsoft will switch over to ARM architecture. Why? Because ARM is better suited for cloud compute.

Derek also describes potential applications such as smart advertising, or user created content, but one wonders how that AI can be used for the video games themselves. Will we see a new generation of games that were designed around ARM and AI technology? Will AI improve Microsoft’s already impressive Quick Resume or other technologies? Can an AI NPU do the work of a GPU supersampler?

If Microsoft would make such a dramatic step in this direction, they will surely have to see the upside to it to make it worthwhile. That would involve coming up with technology that rivals like Sony, Apple, and Google haven’t even heard of yet. This would all definitely be interesting if it all comes to pass.