Last week a couple of interesting rumors surfaced regarding Microsoft's future Xbox plans. The first rumor concerned the possibility that Microsoft may introduce a new 100 gigabyte hard drive for its Xbox 360 console. Apparently, during an X06 event in Korea Microsoft's presentation revealed a picture of a 360 HDD with 100 GB stamped/etched onto the silver colored top. It's not clear whether that was actually present in the PowerPoint presentation or if someone on the web photoshopped it later, and even a Microsoft spokesperson told us, "We're not sure."

The spokesperson did clarify, however, that MS currently has no plans to release a 100 GB HDD. "The reference to a 100 GB hard drive in a recent presentation in Korea has been misleading and in fact we have no plans to bring a 100GB hard drive to the market," the representative told GameDaily BIZ. "We apologize for any confusion this may have caused."

While Microsoft is not planning on bringing a 100 GB HDD to market now, we strongly suspect that a larger hard drive will eventually be released. With many demos on Xbox Live Marketplace easily reaching or surpassing 1 GB each in size, and with downloadable content and episodic content becoming increasingly popular, the standard 20 GB HDD just won't provide enough storage for many gamers. As it is right now, we've heard plenty of stories from gamers who only have a couple gigabytes of space left on their Xbox 360 HDD.

The other rumor, which is based on a report in The New York Times, is that Microsoft may design its own CPU for the next Xbox rather than partnering with a chip firm like Intel or IBM.

The Microsoft spokesperson that GameDaily BIZ spoke to confirmed, "Microsoft Research is starting up a research group to look broadly at hardware architecture issues." However, he then quickly added, "[The company] has no plans to design and test computer chips. This is research, not product development."

While Microsoft insists that their efforts in this field are purely for research, it doesn't take much (especially when you have Microsoft's cash) to make the leap from research to product development. We believe that Microsoft is starting its research in this area so that it can make a better educated decision in a few years on whether or not the company actually should make its own chips or if it would be better served to contine to partner with giants like Intel or IBM.