Microsoft appears to have surreptitiously upped the internal memory in new Xbox 360 Arcade units by a multiple of two, if findings from curious types over at the XboxHacker forums are any indication.

Pictured above, the revised unit is said to sport the cooler and energy efficient Jasper motherboard, first spotted late last year, but with 512MB of on-board flash memory instead of the usual 256MB. This particular unit is stamped with a April 2009 manufacture date, meaning it is a fairly recent revision and we should hopefully start to see more of these making rounds on retail shelves soon.

Microsoft originally put 256MB of flash in Arcade units to allow for the installation of New Xbox Experience without a hard drive or external memory unit. We’re willing to wager a guess that increasingly falling memory prices led to the increase. After all, if you can offer more value to consumers at the same price, why not?

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