"It's supposed to require a whole lot of math," Glaskowsky said of the audio chip. "Nvidia certainly has a whole lot of know-how to do that."
Nvidia also is doing the core logic for the Xbox--the technology that allows the Pentium III microprocessor to talk to the graphics chip and other components--although Huang indicated that the unknown chip goes beyond that function. The chip might provide additional power for video processing, Glaskowsky hypothesized.