Sony confirms Toshiba Cell chip plant buy-back

SlashGear: Sony has confirmed that it is buying back the Nagasaki Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (NSM) Cell production facility from Toshiba, as rumored earlier this week. The plant was sold to Toshiba back in 2008 and then leased to NSM, a joint venture in Cell chip production between Toshiba, Sony and SCEI; once Sony has purchased the plant, the NSM partnership will also be terminated

[Matthew94]

they must be stepping up production of ps3s then or maybe they are making more cell equipped tvs.

[Iamback]

prob psp2 will use some sort of cell

[dredgewalker]

If they bought back the factory at a lower price then the PS3 price cut is definitely not going to be a rumor.

[ComboBreaker]

Cell in Sony Walkman and cameras coming next.

Imagine that, the power of the PS3, inside a Sony Walkman...

[Masterchef2007]

Or maybe they are thinking about the next cell for the PS4

[Ripyealip]

if they get a cheap cell for PS4 than expect it to be at a lower launch price than the PS3 unless they want money.
Lower launch price = Jump Start!

[Masterchef2007]

Could they use cell in a gpu? Be cool to have a console with a cell CPU and a Cell GPU. Devs had plenty of time to work with cell so they know how to code for it.

[Ju]

You'd need a lot of SPUs to really replace a GPU. 6 SPUs can perform about what 24 shader processors can do. But todays top cards have 100s of shader processors. You'd need maybe 50 spus or something (in that range) - not feasible.

In an embedded environment, that's a different story, though.

[Computersaysno]

Cell is not a GPU, nothing as fast nor like dedicated rasterisation hardware and never will be. Dont expect the next playstation to use a cell processor apart from for backwards compatability....

[dragonelite]

Uuh they are making a camera chip factory from it if im not mistaken.

[SnakeMustDie]

This will make the cell cheaper to develop thus a price drop will be inevitable in the future.

[Clarence]

Well said. This is a big. With Sony controlling this they will be able to set the price lower for the PS3. $199.99 PS3 checkmate.

[Rush]

Actually the owned the Cell production plant beforehand they simply bought back what they had already sold at a cheaper price.

[Masterchef2007]

That makes a lot of sense. The more parts sony produces themselves the cheaper they can produce the PS3

[Ju]

This could have various reasons. Often, inhouse only makes sense if you use a lot of those chips internally, you want to secure your IP or sell overproduction to 3rd party.

In that case, however, none of those reasons really apply. I would rather say, Sony had no other choice. With Toshiba pulling out of CELL production and not really a lot of 3rd party customers using it, Sony might have pulled it inhouse to make sure they are not completely dependent on Toshiba shutting down the factory - or simply prioritize other products; thus raising prices eventually.

It sure can have something to do that Sony might use the CELL for other products, too. But loosing control over CELL production is most likely the primary reason for doing this. And - it made sense to sell the factory when Sony needed money. They seem to recover now.

[hardmetal]

Well written.

Yousef

[acky1]

yay Sony!
______________
Sony 'til I die

[blumatt]

Yeah, Sony til you die. lol :) haha But yeah, this looks like a great move by Sony. A $200 PS3 would really do wonders for sales. Of course, MS would counter it by making a $99 360 with little to no harddrive or something like that, which make it look more appealing even though the PS3 offers a lot more value out of the box.

[NYC_Gamer]

price drop is around the corner

[remanutd55]

PSP 2 using some sort of cell integration ?

[the_best_player]

I think it will

[Ju]

I think this is a possibility.

[Moentjers]

The 2 casual consoles will have a hard time when a PS3 price drop hits the stores...

[C0MPUT3R]

I've seen TV's with the cell chip built in and it's quite impressive.
.
PSP2 & possibly PS4 might be using cell, but it has to be other devices than just the PS3 for this purchase to make sense.
.
So I wonder what SONY has up it's sleeve?

[Moentjers]

jummie: Sony Bravia with built-in PS4 (and hdd slot)

[dredgewalker]

If Sony's is able to use the Cell in other hardware then I guess it was definitely a good investment considering how many years it's been out.

[Ruggadagod]

the more ps3s being used out there, the better.

[numberonepain]

The Cell chip is not old tech yet. They can still use a combo of 2 of those in the next PS home console. Maybe and most likely they will be using the chip in the next PSP. Sony is gearing up for something though that is the truth. They will now be doing somethings at cost. This will reap some benefits in the future.

[DJMarty]

The Plant is gonna be for upgradeing production for CMOS chips for Sony camera range.

Sony is out sourcing Cell production and has been for over a year now.

[the_best_player]

link?
or I call BS

[bligmerk]

Why are there so many ignorant people in the world that choose to believe the misconception over the facts. Sony sold that plant in 2008 because it was a 90nm and it would be too expensive to upgrade it for the 65nm out at the time and to move on to the 45nm which is what is in the Slim right now. That plant was manufacturing Spurs engines, which are really scaled down Cell processors. Toshiba is outsourcing to Samsung. Sony is buying the plant, at bargain prices, to manufacture image sensors. This news has nothing to do with the Cell.

http://translate.google.com... http://www.nikkei.com/news/...

Sony, Toshiba semiconductor plant buyback smartphones

2010/12/23 2:04 Electronic version of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun

Sony to buy Toshiba's semiconductor plant in Nagasaki Prefecture. Get essential for the production line and a digital camera image sensors, to double production capacity. The price is expected to be 500 billion yen. Sensor for shooting high-definition video and photos, Smartphone (advanced phones) to sharp rises in demand worldwide and is also included. Established a system to produce low-cost, proprietary high-performance sensors, and urged the United States and pursue leading Samsung Electronics.

[Ju]

They probably will. But hard to outsource the CELL/RSX when you actually buy back the factory you outsourced that in the first place.

They can build all kind of SoC in that factory though. Even if they convert it, doesn't mean they won't build any CELLs there any more. Its a 300mm high performance waver factory. These don't grow on trees.

[hiredhelp]

nano's is the future. the ps3 cell. is awsome in maNy respects.
the only down side is the cach. however im sure no i know the next cell will have more memory built in. but the way inhaouse devs for sony and first party devs for sony are useing this cell. is a huge change from the start of the ps3 games. yes this cell is still new. in terms of consoles but has been in telly's and other electronics for i beleave longer than the ps3.
i quite simply love the way the jap's always are like generations ahead of us. i say if these cell's get cheaper can reduce manufatory costs. then good on them .great on us. i love the system. wish it had bit more memory than having to share 256. twice. with the cell and ram. but useing the ps3 the right way. games like uncharted 2 loks jaw dropping compared to he first.
the future is bright with sony.MERRY XMAS ALL.

[yewles1]

Maybe they can make a modified SpursEngine for gaming and put it in the PSP2.