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Sony Considers Outsourcing Cell Production

Posted by Zonk on from the get-on-up-get-on-out dept.

Gamasutra reports on comments from the Sony home office, where executives are considering plans to outsource production of the expensive/complicated Cell chips that power the PS3. Executive deputy president Yutaka Nakagawa is quoted in a Reuters report, saying that when the PS2 launched there just weren't other companies to turn to. With the chip market better-developed in 2007, there are third parties Sony is now considering to take on the task of advancing/producing the Cell. Outsourcing could also help financially with their beleaguered semiconductor division. The next move for the Cell is to 45 nanometer manufacturing, from the 90/65 the company is currently using. This scale change could not only help with profits, but may eventually make dropping the price on the PlayStation 3 an easier pill to swallow.

2 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Re:90/65nm? by GiovanniZero · · Score: 5, Informative

    The 90nm was the first version and they started doing 65nm production. You can read about it on wikipedia's entry on cell processors

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  2. Re:IBM? by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Some Cells are made by IBM and some are made by Sony/Toshiba.