@Seehund:
Somewhere around $100-$300 for low volumes, depending on what you buy, I'd speculate. This is decidedly cheaper than other 64bit processor solutions, and on par with the high performance 32bit solutions (but with greater performance per Mhz and per Watt)
Obviously in bulk (many thousands..) or extreme production runs (games consoles can run into the many millions within 6 months of launch) it gets significantly cheaper.
As for assumptions: EVERYONE makes them here.
The assumption that a PowerPC is more expensive than an equivalent x86 processor is downright misplaced. Of any bit-count.
If Microsoft have chosen the PowerPC as the core of the XBox 2 (and IBM sources have confirmed they HAVE - but it's most likely a G5+ and some other chips, not 3 CPUs) then it may be significantly cheaper than the XBox to both produce and sell.
As such, XBox can launch at a wildly low price, perhaps competing with the current consoles in that area: imagine a $150 XBox 2 positioned against the $99 Gamecube and $160 Playstation II, and for Microsoft to be profiting or breaking even from day one.
The days of haemorraging money on console hardware are over.
=Neko=
