Update - 4/24/13 - 11:40 AM
Our mistake. The Xbox 720 does not have more RAM than the PS4. Both have 8GB.
The Xbox 720 specs sheet was leaked a few months back, revealing quite a bit about Microsoft's upcoming console, codenamed Durango. The Xbox 720 specs leak was obviously unofficial, but if you've been eagerly awaiting some kind of confirmation from Microsoft, it may have arrived in the form of a job posting on Microsoft's career web page, dated April 20.
The telling piece of info is that Microsoft is looking for an engineer with experience coding for x86 architecture. As you might recall from the leaked Xbox 720 specs sheet, Durango is slated to ship with an 8-core x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU - the same as Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 (PS4).
According to the leaked specs sheet, Xbox 720 will have twice the RAM of PS4, at 8GB. However the Xbox 720 GPU is slated to have only 12 cores, while the PS4's will have 18.
Here's the full job posting from Microsoft's website:
"Are you sick of cheaters and hackers ruining your experience on Xbox LIVE? Do you want to be one step ahead of them and stop them in their tracks?
Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business is revolutionizing entertainment. IEB has a rich set of entertainment products like Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE with a highly active, engaged, and expanding customer base. We are delivering experiences around social, casual and hardcore gaming, as well as advancing modern entertainment. We're fun. We're social. And, we're growing! We have opportunities within the IEB Security team to deliver on securing these gaming and entertainment experiences for our users worldwide.
The IEB Security Console team is looking for an experienced Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to join our core security engineering test team. A successful candidate will be responsible for testing the core of our low level security systems and several customer focused security features. In this position you will be working with teams ranging from hardware security to customer support and program management. Testing hardware/OS/Kernel security is a challenging and rewarding area, and will keep Xbox in the number one position in the world.
Successful candidates will have:
-Deep passion for system security
-Excellent working knowledge of C/C++
-Great problem solving skills and high intellectual horsepower
-Strong written and verbal communication skills
-Excellent cross group collaboration skills
-7+ years software development and testing experience
Additional Experience Desired:
-X86 / ARM assembly
-Kernel level debugging
-Secure boot understanding
-BA/BS or advanced degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering preferred"
To be clear, this does not represent an official confirmation of the previously leaked Xbox 720 specs sheet. With Holiday 2013 less than half a year away though, it's likely that Microsoft will finally put out an official Xbox 720 specs sheet in the not too distance future.
