The Register citeert uit een artikel van ene John D Dvorak, die in Forbes schrijft dat de Microsoft X-Box pas in de herfst van 2001 op de markt komt. Het doosje zal draaien op een 600MHz Athlon (maken ze die nog in 2001?) en een voor games geoptimaliseerde versie van Windows 2000:
Dvorak's deep throat trotted out the now standard line: high-speed x86 CPU (a 600MHz Athlon, according to the sources), 3D accelerator chip, DVD drive, game controller and hard disk.That's pretty much what we've read everywhere else. However, a couple of interesting points emerge. First, Dvorak's mole reckons the scheduled release date is Q3 2001, a year after the PlayStation 2's US launch, but right bang on target as far as Nintendo's Dolphin is due to hit the streets.
Second, the sources point to Windows 2000 -- or, rather, a cut down, game-optimised version of it -- as the host OS. Microsoft's began developing 'embedded NT' a little while back, and with products like X-Box in mind, that concept begins to make sense. Certainly more so than basing it on Win98-derived Millenium.
Either way, Dvorak is sure that the Mighty Microsoft will triumph over Sony, Nintendo and Sega. Sega, almost certainly, given the way Dreamcast sales have been going, but Nintendo remains a wildcard, at least until some solid details about Dolphin's capability leak out.