http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171556

Last month, reports began circulating that the latest “Jasper” models of the Xbox 360 had begun selling at retail. Why is a new model of the Xbox 360 so important? Because, as VentureBeat explains in a report on the Jasper's improvements, the changes made to this model could finally mean the end of the dreaded Red Ring of Death fiasco.

The biggest improvement made to the Jasper model is that it uses a smaller 65-nanometer graphics chip, which will consume less power than previous Xbox 360 chips and fit more securely in its motherboard socket. That means it's far less likely to overheat and come lose from the motherboard, which is the main cause of the ubiquitous “Red Ring of Death” system failures. So, at least in theory, that problem should finally no longer plague those with Jasper model 360s.

But that's not the only change Microsoft made to their new hardware. The other big addition is an increase of the system's internal flash memory from 16 megabytes to 256, which will be used to store the New Xbox Experience. That means even Arcade units without hard drives will be able to have the NXE, without needing to circumvent the storage problems that earlier Arcade units faced. The last big difference is the Jasper model uses a 150-watt power supply, as opposed to the earlier 175-watt power supply.

So for those keeping score, that's approximately 1,060 days that it took for Microsoft to finally build a model of the Xbox 360 that doesn't have an unreasonably high probability of self-destructing. So… good on them? Let's just hope these Jasper models do finally fix the problem for good.