An anonymous Microsoft employee has allegedly spilled the beans on plans to introduce a re-engineered Xbox 360 featuring cooler-running CPUs, quieter DVD drives, and standard HDMI connections.

Ars Technica claims a Microsoft representative told them at E3 in early July, "HDMI will probably be standard moving forward."

According to the source, Microsoft hopes to sell through its current inventory of machines with their newly lowered prices and then "soft launch" a new version of the Core and Premium models in late August or September.

The rumored hardware is said to include HDMI, smaller 65nm processor chips that run cooler, and quieter DVD drives.

"The new hardware will ship in boxes very similar to what we saw on store shelves now, but there will be a small 'call out' on the box so you know you're getting a system with the HDMI connection," reports Ars Technica.

Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.

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