Sony To Outsource Cell CPU Production
February 13th, 2007 by Matt Stone in Articles, Business
As any other company, Sony is looking to reduce the manufacturing costs of its products as much as possible. Considering the PS3, a cut in manufacturing costs is badly needed at this point, as it costs them over $850 to make a console. Sony is now looking to outsource the production of the Cell processor, which powers the PS3 and is one of the most expensive parts of the console. Sony boss Yataka Nakagawa said:
“When we first offered the PS2, there were no semiconductor companies that were able to make chips for the machine, so we did it ourselves. But now, there are companies that specialize in chip production.”
Sony spent $3.8 billion on chip design an manufacturing since April 2004, spending they are looking to cut significantly. Sony will soon begin producing the Cell ship using cheaper 65nm technology, and plan to use even smaller 45nm silicon in 2009.
Read (Reuters)
Tags: Articles, Business
February 13th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
45nm??!?! That is freakishly small.
February 13th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Intel is already doing 45nm chips, the first prototypes are already being tested. I heard we’ll seee consumer 45nm chips later this year/early next year, with brand new architechtures and a whopping 6 MB cahce per CPU, 12 MB for the Quad cores.
September 16th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Sony is bypassing 45nm and going straight to 32nm! But Jim2k, when you say Intel is already at 45nm, you’re wrong. No 45nm chips are being put into any devices as yet. Although Intel recently claimed they will have 45nm Penryn Chips rolling off in 45days. But word is that this is an inferior chip just meant to beat IBM/AMD to market.
IBM were the first to 65nm and will most likely be the first to produce high performance 45nm market chips with SOI (low heat/low energy use). Intel only has a test line running with their version of SOI (silicone on transitor insulator) at the moment. It’s not even close to being honed in yet. That’s the technology they are frantically working to take from concept to production line. Unlike IBM who has had it for years.
Remember IBM is building chips for Intel, LOLz not the other way around. IBM is still “BIG BLUE” doing things the R&D guys at Intel are still dreaming of. Asysmetrical Multicore Cell for one and SOI for the other!!!
Intel? They will be lucky to get to 32nm by 2011, because as we see they failed to get to 45nm like they promised 2yrs ago (because of heat and energy use). Let alone Asysmetrical Multicore Cell like chips, they say they won’t reach till 2012!
Now over 2 years ago IBM and AMD signed a deal to take SOI and Chip production technology to 32nm by 2009 and 22nm by 2011. That’s a fact spelled out in this news tidbit:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/01/amd_ibm_chip_deal/
IBM and Intel released information on the same day about “High K” technology. So who’s really the winner there? Some will say Intel because they are rushing a pre-silicone insulator “High K” chip to production in less than 45days. But those in the “KNOW” say it will be a heat monster requiring high energy usage and massive cooling or under clocking to do it!