Toshiba plans on beating Sony to the living room with Cell

Where is Sony landing those PS3s? Kitchens? The rivalry between Sony and Toshiba has been quite the visible one of late in the HD movies space, with Sony backing up Blu-ray and Toshiba firmly ensconced behind its HD DVD format, so it's easy to forget that the two companies recently partnered with IBM to build that much-ballyhooed Cell processor which Sony has powering its new PS3. Neither company has specified exact plans for the chip beyond Sony's obvious gaming push, but both are racing to squeeze Cell into home entertainment products, with the first likely to hit in 2008. When asked recently if Toshiba would have Cell-based consumer products to market first, Toshiba digital media CEO, Yoshihide Fujii, responded with an emphatic "yes," apparently forgetting the fact that Sony has been shipping just such a product for about a month now. According to Sony, "The first priority is the PlayStation and nothing beyond that has been decided yet," so it makes sense that Toshiba will get a jump on them in the non-gaming space, but either way we're excited to see what these two Tokyo-based tech giants will have in store for us in 2008 with that ultra-touted power under the hood.

[Raj @ Dec 22nd 2006 4:40PM]

I think by the time Toshiba will come up with their class of product, Sony will have their own offering ready and shipped. Toshiba may only seek an advantage in non-gaming platform where Sony may not be the sole leader as of today.

- Raj - http://bloghash.com

[Smoke_Dawg_187 @ Dec 22nd 2006 5:29PM]

I think the cell is really designed to handle video processing. I'm sure we'll see this chip incorporated into TV's, HD-DVD players and camcorders if Toshiba even makes one.

[some person @ Dec 22nd 2006 5:42PM]

too late! i'm sure someone has a PS3 in there living room, anyways, didn't they help make the PS2 (emotion engine?)?

[Ian Jardine @ Dec 22nd 2006 6:14PM]

2008 Crikey neither of these 2 companies sees any urgency.

They will be left in the dust my almost everyone else in the HTPC dept. IMHO.

[tekdroid @ Dec 22nd 2006 7:42PM]

2008. Sounds to me there's quite a bit of cost-cutting and efficiencies to be made first.

[Phil @ Dec 23rd 2006 7:41AM]

lol, would be pretty funny to see a Cell powered HD DVD standalone player.

[Orlando @ Dec 23rd 2006 11:19PM]

About the HD media, I already jumped on the HD-DVD camp. I think when Sony's blu-ray players come down to $500 toshiba will be half that price. Plus the HD-DVD to DVD combo is sweet.

[Edward @ Dec 25th 2006 1:21PM]

I would like to see a cell processor in a PC. WOn't happen oo much work probabily.