[Rumor] Next Xbox to have “six times” the processing power of Xbox 360

There was a whole lot of chatter regarding the next Xbox late last year, with multiple rumors popping up from a variety of sources, most of which indicated Microsoft is preparing to make the big reveal at some point this year.

Microsoft still hasn’t said anything, but that isn’t stopping the rumor mill from churning. A couple of new reports surfaced that once again suggests that Microsoft will be announcing their next-gen console this year, and it may have “six times” the processing power of the Xbox 360.

The rumors all started with a report from Fudzilla, which said that Microsoft has already begun production of the system’s GPU. The report claims that the chip, apparently called Oban, has a “PowerPC CPU that is married to an ATI Southern Islands GPU”, and will be equivalent to a 7-series ATI card.

Following up on Fudzilla’s report, IGN backed up several of the claims. According to IGN, mass production of the hardware is expected to begin by late 2012, but the next Xbox won’t be packing a 7-series GPU–instead, IGN’s sources say that Microsoft’s next-gen console will have a GPU equivalent to ATI’s Radeon HD 6670.

Early dev kits are said to already be in the hands of developers, and finalized builds are expected to be released by August. As expected, Microsoft declined to comment on the rumors.