Neowin.net

For a while now, we’ve been suggesting that ATI’s R300 would be called the Radeon 10000. We were close, but can be accused of jumping the gun a little, I guess. We learned today that the card that should be introduced as soon as the middle of this month and will be named differently.

The R300 will be called Radeon 9700, where the 9 stands for DirectX 9 support and the 700 could be memory speed, we imagine, or maybe 9700 simply sounds better than 4600, which Nvidia uses for their Geforce 4.

Radeon 10000 will be the label for the next R300, which will be introduced as soon as November and which will be produced using 0.13 micron technology. And it’s likely be faster as well.

So, the NV30 will have a 0.13 micron mate to compete with and we will bring you more on this as soon as this summer ends and we get more details.

News source: The Inquirer

Microsoft officials are mulling releasing some kind of new game machine sometime next year or in 2004, say people familiar with the matter. That timing could shake up the $20 billion global video-game market, breaking a long- established pattern of developing and releasing new systems in roughly five-year cycles. Sony, the undisputed leader in a three-way race with Microsoft and Nintendo Co ., isn't expected to release its next PlayStation system until 2005.

Microsoft officials won't comment on Freon. But the software titan has been playing catch-up to Sony since it introduced the Xbox last year. Though Microsoft hoped the introduction of a hard disk and other features would inspire developers to write more exciting games than for the PlayStation 2, Sony's hardware has retained an edge among consumers and programmers.