The following is a very interesting translation of a German website we've come across today:

Right now the dual-firmware mods coming out for the Xbox 360 DVD drives are 30+ wire solutions. These points are not only very hard to solder, but it also requires a lot of known-how to extract the FW from the drive, extract the key, patch, encrypt, write back, install external switch on Xbox 360 so you can switch between the 2 firmwares, etc ...

We received interesting information about a new DVD mod named NME-360, that will be released soon. This chip will be a universal chip for all Xbox360 DVD drives. It will patch the firmware of the drive on-the-fly. The original firmware on the flash of the drive remains untouched.

The chip will recognize independently whether an original or a backup was inserted and switches itself to the corresponding mode (patched FW (on-the-fly) for backups and the normal unpatched FW for originals). That also means you will not have to install an external switch on your Xbox 360 to put the chip off.

For the Toshiba-Samsung drive you will have to solder only 4 wires, the Hitachi-LG drive will require 11 wires. The official website of the team, named 'Team Underdog', will be launched early next week."

Even the bad translation from German to English didn't stop Xbox enthusiasts to take notice of this modchip. A lot of gamers are calling it a worthy rival to the Devil 360. But of course something like this will indeed be very controversial. So this early on, two sides with opposing views have already formed. One side claiming that modchips are for homebrew and not for backups or pirated games, while the other side welcomes the idea especially excited that it can disable Xbox Live when you have the backup inserted. If you're interested, it's available from Team Underdog's online shop for EUR 39.95 inclusive VAT.

Via Gamefreax