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Sony ready to spend big on PS3 technology


SCE readies "cell" chip plants, says it will begin production earlier than previously stated.

TOKYO--Sony announced today that it will be investing 120 billion yen ($1.14 billion) towards prepping production facilities to mass produce its next-generation microprocessor. This will be their second capital investment allocated toward these facilities, following a substantial investment made last year.

Almost half of the investment will be spent on Sony Computer Entertainment's production line in Nagasaki, Japan. The factory is dedicated to creating chips such as the "cell" chip, which adopt a 65-nanometer processing technology on 300-millimeter silicon wafers. About $340 million will be invested in IBM's factory located in New York. That factory will be dedicated to the same microprocessor production as SCE's line in Japan. Known to be the microprocessor chip that Sony intends to use in the next PlayStation iteration, the "cell" chip and attendant technology has been under development by Sony, IBM, and Toshiba since the spring of 2001.

The remaining $290 million will be spent on building a new plant in Oita, Japan. Unlike the other two plants that are mainly focused in creating the "cell" chip, this plant, adjacent to an existing Toshiba operation, will be dedicated towards creating 65-nanometer system chips with embedded DRAM that Toshiba and Sony developed in 2002 to delivers high-performance in broadband data processing.

The three manufacturing plants are scheduled to have a total production capacity of 15,000 chips per month. While the companies originally announced that production would begin in late 2005, the schedule has been pushed forward to early 2005.

By Hirohiko Niizumi, GameSpot [POSTED: 02/02/04 06:10 PM]