Purchasing a Microsoft Xbox 360 without the risk of breakdown? Surely not! Yep, it could soon be a reality. Reports suggest that thanks to a deal with a Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturing company (imaginatively named the Taiwan Semiconductor Company), a new 90nm chip that's been in production since early 2006 and is now being slotted into new machines and could bring Xbox 360 gaming woes to an end.

But how, we hear you cry? Well, TSNC explains that the chips consume less power and therefore run at a cooler temperature to the old 60nm component. The news coincides with another Microsoft strategy involving the use of smaller processors to reduce the overall amount of heat produced by the console, in the hope of halting the continuing Red Rings of Death epidemic that has killed off so many of the consoles to date - including our own.

The Xbox 360's hardware has been criticised in many gaming circles as a piece of kit rushed out to beat the Sony PlayStation 3 to retail shelves. Although, given the current market share Microsoft enjoys in North America and Europe, we'd be inclined to think that the firm would say all the trouble has been worth it - including the $1 billion USD it has set aside to sort out the trail of consumer destruction left in the 360's wake.

So, is the Xbox 360 finally leaving its glitch-ridden history behind? Hopefully so. Just don't mention those scratched discs, eh?