Is Microsoft building a new Xbox ? Microsoft's recently filed 'multi-component gaming' patent might suggest as much. Like most patents, the content is heavy-going and open to interpretation.

Yes, this patent might suggest a new console system or it might hint at an Xbox or Zune handheld (again). The patent might also be a dreamy evolution of Microsoft's 'Live Anywhere' initiative that plans to link together Xbox 360 and Windows Vista gamers later this year.

What's not in doubt is that the patent suggests some sort of consumer-friendly distributed computing system. There's more to this than being able to play Geometry Wars on a Zune; more than the ability to use one gaming ID (with its associated high score tables and achievements) across different game-capable platforms. Although both are good places to start.

Microsoft's ideas are bigger. Not only will you be able to use, say, a PDA to access the functions of your Xbox (like the PSP can access the PS3 ), but the PDA will be able to grab a slice of the Xbox's processing muscle to supplement its own. Each device would be viewed as a single component in the distributed computing system.

And by adding more components, you increase the available power of the network. Alongside an Xbox 360,a PDA or gaming handheld becomes an "adjunct" device, donating its processing power and any available storage to whatever application is being run across the network.

New Xbox incoming?

Does this vision require a refresh of the Xbox 360? Maybe. Maybe not.

Despite the fact that the Xbox 360 is only just over a year old, the patent suggests that "the various techniques described herein can be implemented in connection with hardware or software" and that the apparatus for this distributed or componentised system "can take the form of program code."

"When implemented on a general-purpose processor," says the patent, "the program code combines with the processor to provide a unique apparatus that operates to invoke the functionality of a multi-component gaming system."

If the distributed computing functionality is handled through software, rather than new hardware, then Microsoft's patent could easily be referring to the networking of the Xbox 360, Zune, Vista PCs, and Windows Mobile-powered PDAs and phones. It will fuse the current platforms together rather than create a whole new architecture.

From a Digital Home perspective, using a distributed computing network any video stored on a handheld device could conceivably be processed and rendered by a more powerful connected device. Or you could hook your handheld up to your home cinema system, taking advantage of a big screen display and surround sound system.

Microsoft will obviously continue to use its PC heritage to get ahead of Sony's PlayStation 3. Gaming is one battleground; the digital home is another. The computing side of Microsoft's business has extensive experience in distributed applications, master/slave device networking and remote access. So the contents of patent 20070087830 might not be as far-flung as some might think.