In the interest of getting some news to you in a slow cycle, let's start Sunday with a chatter roundup. Here are three things that enough people are blabbing about in the video game blogosphere that I'm reasonably comfortable passing them along. These are other people's rumours, and other people's sources -- I've tried to put a sniff test on 'em. By itself I don't think one makes much of a post, but three are good to chew over with your Coco pops this a.m. Enjoy.

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The 360's latest - and safest - chipset is codenamed "Jasper". And has been on our radar for a while now. Well, if posters on xbox-scene are to be believed, Jasper 360s have finally gone on sale.

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Chip rumour time! Word is that Microsoft is moblising IBM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co to roll out the rumoured Jasper chipset for the Xbox 360. Compared to the current Falcon chip, Jasper uses less noise and simpler cooling systems. Not confirmed, but the chip apparently drops in August, the dead of summer. Fitting!
New Chips [X-bit labs via Videogaming247]

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According to The Mercury News' Dean Takahashi, having successfully unrolled the Falcon chipset in the Halo 3 Edition Xbox 360s, Microsoft is looking to further cut costs (and heat) from their console. The next project is codenamed "Jasper". And where the Falcon shrunk the Xbox CPU to 65nm, the Jasper will continue the shrinkage, miniaturising the graphics chip to 65nm to match. And memory chips will become smaller as well.

Takahashi also claims that Microsoft engineers feel like the heat problem is under control with both the recent Falcon's and older Zephyr's heat sink solutions, so buyers shouldn't beware when picking up new machines. While we're not waiting until the new chipset hits next August to buy a machine, we're not so certain the Microsoft has solved all their manufacturing issues just yet.

Xbox 360 secrets: After Falcon comes Jasper [via mcv]