Xbox 720 Specs Leaked? AMD Files Lawsuit Against Former Employees
Leaked technical information for the highly anticipated Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 is at the center of a lawsuit against four former employees of the chip maker AMD who allegedly gave confidential data to rival company Nvidia.
Former Vice President of AMD's Strategic Division, Robert Feldstein, reportedly left the company and took with him important files about upcoming tech developments and business deals.
The suit also targeted managers Manoo Desai, Nicolas Kociuk and Richard Hagen in the same scheme.
"The volume of materials that these three defendants collectively transferred to storage devices, each of which is unaccounted for, as they left to work for AMD's competitor exceeds 100,000 electronic files," AMD stated, as reported by ZDNet on Wednesday.
Some of the files "include obviously confidential, proprietary, and/or trade secret materials relating to developing technology and/or highly confidential business strategy."
The confidential information allegedly discussed the plans for the new gaming devices that will use AMD technology, such as the Xbox 720.
Microsoft and Sony will use AMD's tech for the next-generation consoles that are soon to be released.
PS4 is expected to use custom silicon based on AMD's A8-series APU and HD 7670 GPU, according to a source for IGN. Meanwhile, Xbox 720 will supposedly combine an IBM PowerPC CPU and a custom version of AMD's 6670 GPU.
Microsoft is also busy developing the new Xbox 720, which reportedly will have an 8-core CPU, a customized AMD 8800 series GPU and pack 8 GB of RAM.
The PlayStation 4 is rumored to have Ultra High-definition resolution, four or eight processing cores, 4.0 gigahertz, an AMD's Radeon 8000 series of discreet graphics chip and at least 240 gigabytes internal storage.
The price for both the gaming consoles is rumored to be around $350 to $400.
Microsoft and Sony may also announce their console releases around the Game Developers Conference in March.
The February issue of Game Informer magazine stated that an "Apple-style press conference" will take place at the Game Developers Conference which will take place Mar. 25-29, according to a report by VideoGamer.com.
Tech analysts previously expected Microsoft and Sony to unveil their latest products at the E3 tech and gaming expo in Los Angeles on June 11.
