Xbox chips ordered, despite slack sales
Published: 21 May 2003 09:23 BST
Focus Enhancements, a small chipmaker specialising in video-related products, has received its first order from Microsoft to supply chips for the Xbox video game console. Focus signed a deal with Microsoft last year to become a supplier of TV-encoding processors, which convert PC code into signals suitable for display on a TV set.
The company joined larger Conexant Systems as one of two providers of the chips, a critical but relatively inexpensive and low-profile part of the Xbox.
The move is one of several cost-cutting measures Microsoft has taken to trim production costs for the heavily subsidized Xbox, including shifting production to China for units sold outside the US.
Microsoft last week announced that it was trimming the price of the Xbox by $20, despite fresh evidence that the loss-making division that produces the console was taking a heavy hit on company profits.
Focus said on Tuesday it has received an initial production order from Microsoft for its FS454 chip and expects to begin shipping the chips in the third quarter of this year.
Early this year, Focus announced that initial orders from Microsoft had been delayed, raising doubts about whether Microsoft would meet sales forecasts for the Xbox.
To find out more about the computers and hardware that these chips are being used in, see ZDNet UK's Hardware News Section.
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