It's a widely known fact that the Red Ring or Death has been early Xbox 360 owners' nemesis for a while now. A problem initially addressed by Microsoft by giving every user 3 years of warranty for related problems for every console out there, and money refund for those who ever paid for RROD problems.
These problems have decreased dramatically with the new models though, which have been reported to include modifications on their cooling systems such as new heat sinks and better ventilation but most important, the inclusion of a smaller, cooler 65nm CPU. While the common belief was that the GPU (Graphic Chip) was still unmodified from its original design, this article reveals that this is not the case. In fact, both dies of the Xbox 360 Graphic Chip have been reduced in size, resulting in a considerable power consumption decrease and heat reduction:
"Microsoft never released die sizes for the Xbox's chips so we had to break out the trusty ruler and measure both the old and new chips, to get an idea of how things have changed. The table below shows our findings:
Chip Old Die Size New Die Size % of Old Die CPU 176 mm^2 133 mm ^2 75.5% GPU 182 mm^2 156 mm^2 85.7% eDRAM 80 mm^2 68 mm^2 85%
Here's what's interesting: the CPU, GPU and eDRAM die all seem to have gotten smaller, but at different rates. The CPU sees the biggest reduction in size, the new core being about 75% the size of the old one, while both GPU components are around 85% the size of their predecessors.
It's possible that all three chips are now 65nm, or a mixture of 65nm and 80nm (TSMC's 80nm half-node process was used in ATI's R600 GPU). Needless to say, the chips are all smaller, which should yield some nice power savings."
