Gates May Discuss Microsoft X-box

Next week at the Game Developers Forum in San Jose, CA, Bill Gates may divulge information regarding the new Microsoft gaming console the X-box. Gates is expected to reveal plans for the console during his keynote address, mainly to cull the recent tidal wave of excitement over Sony's Playstation2, set to release next week in Japan.

Microsoft began seeking support for their latest efforts to focus on the entertainment industry last October, when they began talking to game and hardware developers. Critics say the X-box is merely a mirage to guide users away from the Sony Playstation2, as it is expected to sell millions in the first days of its release, receiving as much as half a million online pre-orders per minute last week.

The major components of the X-box include a hard drive, a modified DVD-ROM drive, and a modified version of Windows. The console, run on a chipset designed by Gigapixel, and manufactured by AMD, is expected to outperform the Playstation2 as much as 8 times over.

The X-box is not expected to hit the market until sometime in 2001.