Sony selling Cell chip facilities to Toshiba for $835 million
By Paul Miller 
posted Feb 20th 2008 9:46AM
posted Feb 20th 2008 9:46AM
We're pretty sure there's a load of irony here somewhere, but we just can't put our finger on it. Sony is selling its chip manufacturing facilities -- including ones that build the Cell and RSX chips that go into the PS3 -- to Toshiba, and the $835 million deal goes down April 1. (No, this is not some April fool's joke, just really awkward timing.) Toshiba's also in a $16 billion partnership with SanDisk to produce flash memory, so it's looking like with the inclusion of Sony's chip capacity we're looking at quite the chip giant. We had wind of this Sony deal last year, but it looks like things finally got official just as all this "HD DVD losing the format war" stuff went down. No hard feelings, right Toshiba?
Same is true for Sony PS3 and Microsoft Xbox 360. They are competiting but the Vaio is a contradiction of that competition, it being Sony Hardware and Microsoft Software.
Its called coopetition.
JAmerican
Why do you sign off like that? Your name is already at the top of your post, it's like you think you've done me a favour or something.
Toshiba's consolation prize..
A-HA!
I'm sure Toshiba will find a way to sabotage new PS3's Blu-Ray drives (hm... and maybe rig new PS3's to remotely disable old PS3's?). In the meantime it will have covertly continued HD-DVD player production and will show up to save the day when millions lose their HD video players.
GO TOSHIBA! VIVE LA RESISTANCE!
I dont think there is much 'resistance' left in old toshi, they've got a fair old amount of 'investment' to recoup, but they are a quality company and I expect they'll turn themselves around soon.
No hard feelings.... or some backroom dealings?
hmmmm.
my tin hat is buzzing.
Sounds like a conspiracy to me! LOL
Sony to Toshiba : Lets all have a big hug. Sorry about screwing you over in that format war.
Or maybe - Hey, give it up now, and you will get THIS as a consolation prize :)
Ding ding ding! Neal gets the prize!
It's a conspiracy, Sony bought off Toshiba by giving them a fab for way
under what they should have paid.
Just to make it ABSOLUTELY clear, Sony is not selling the Cell chip but the manufacturing plants.
Why am I pointing this out? Because already I've seen blog comments on Johnny Interweb insisting that Sony have sold the Cell chip. Sony (with IBM as partners) retain ownership of the design and all the rights to sell and develop it.
Yeah, Sony, IBM as well as with Toshiba... that's why the coalition that manufactures Cell is called STI. They just dancing among themselves.
Maybe a love-hate relationship?
Love-hate? You mean business? :p
Here is the deal Toshiba. I know you are looking at buying these chip plants and we need alittle help. Kill off HDDVD even though you have more stand alone players sold since we have 10 times more players over all and we will sell you the plants. What do you think?
toshiba making game console?
toshiba making supercomputer?
toshiba just making the old RSX processor that made an inferior console?
wow... true ignorance. RSX is made by nVidia.
...sigh
They might, I repeat, might be contracted by Sony to make them chips for the PS3. But they'll have bought the plant to make more generic chips. Stuff that might end up in DAPs, phones, anything like that.
Nvidia designed the GPU that is known as the RSX- otherwise known as the NV47 or G70...
Nvidia doesn't produce the GPU for Sony, Sony makes the GPU themselves, just like any partnering company, such as EVGA, BFG, ASUS, XFX, and so on. They produce the RSX GPU in their own manufacturing plants.
The only thing on the PS3 that is likely to not be produced by them is the motherboard, which is of ASUS branding.
Tom, how does it feel to have a "Lowest Ranked" comment? I've never had any of my remarks ranked lowest and would like to know if devastation/excitement/indifference sets occurs. Is seeing the red text next to your comment as bad as reading the the replies highlighting your FAIL?
In my comments, I strive to best express my opinions, good or bad, popular or detestable. Sometimes people dislike my ideas. With you, however, it seems that people generally despise anything that you type. Engadget is hardly a stage for public demonstration against the FAILed, but real people with honest opinions rate your comment.
Let's not get carried away though. I'm just trying to make you feel bad for being such a douche. Don't ever forget that being ranked low means people hate you and your ideas. Being lowest ranked means everyone agrees that you are the most hated in all areas. Make no mistake, a "Lowest Rank" comment does not have to exist. People must go out of their way to change the status of a comment from neutral to low. Surely trolls contribute to the status, but you can't blame everything on short people.
P.S. Please don't rank me lowly. I'm trying to keep a good thing going here. Yes, I would like to know how Tom feels about his "Lowest Ranked" comment. No, I would not like to feel what Tom feels in reaction to his "Lowest Ranked" comment.
umm.. to be honest i've never really stopped to rate people's comments, i see it as a pointless system. as there are only 3 possible levels of ranking.. number's would be allot better.
so yeah, as you can tell i'm pretty distraught about the whole thing and engadget will hear from my lawyers.
@Andir3.0
Actually... not entirely true
Nvidia did the design yes, but the production rights are held by Sony which means Sony can decide to manufacture where it wants to instead of buying the chips from Nvidia....
and in this case, RSX was manufactured by Toshiba for Sony. Same with Cell actually, Sony was insourcing only about 60% of chips internally; rest came from IBM. Toshiba used a different process tech. for manufacturing cell's to put it in their HDTV's
@Andir3.0
Actually... not entirely true
Nvidia did the design yes, but the production rights are held by Sony which means Sony can decide to manufacture where it wants to instead of buying the chips from Nvidia....
and in this case, RSX was manufactured by Toshiba for Sony. Same with Cell actually, Sony was insourcing only about 60% of chips internally; rest came from IBM. Toshiba used a different process tech. for manufacturing cell's to put it in their HDTV's
You do realize this deal was made months ago but they are only now finalizing it, right? There is no big huge "conspiracy" or irony.
You do realize Toshiba has been in STI since the beginning?
I love all the ingorant people that browse the Engadget commenting sections... I got a good laugh from a few of these.
Yeah, okay, Sony paid Toshiba LESS THEN THE ORIGINALLY REPORTED PRICE for the Cell fab in exchange for Toshiba's exit from HD-DVD. You know, because that's plausible.
This deal was orginally reported in September, and the price then was $865 million. http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/15/sony-plans-to-sell-ps3-chip-production-facilities-to-toshiba/
But either way, this is non-news. Toshiba, IBM, and Sony all own the intellectual property that went into Cell. Sony laid out millions to create the chip fab because it was cheaper for them (at the time), because they knew that they would need a massive and guaranteed supply of the chips for their PS3 consoles. Whatever chips Toshiba needed would be purchased from Sony. They are merely switching roles, likely because this fab (though it hasn't been confirmed that I've seen) won't be able to make the new 45nm chips, which is where Sony wants to take the PS3.
Moving on...
Ok 3 times really fast "Sony selling Cell chip Smelters"
Payback is a beatch.
This is what I've been saying for all this time they lost but didn't loose and they were the engineers of their own distruction but in a good way
Oh... I finally get it engadget! That's cold bro - ice cold! With all that we've been through, I would think that you would be able to look past our previous differences. No need to hold a grudge...
"Admit defeat and maybe there might be a chip factory in it for you."
"Ok. I'll take the factory, but HD-DVD is still better."
"SHUTUP AND GET TO WORK!"
totally called this a few months ago. everyone knows that toshiba and sony have a technology alliance so its no surprise that while toshiba "lost" the format war, they gain business from sony due to increased demand for the "winning" format.
The next "Bluray killer" Toshiba will work on is the SpursEngine. With this in every laptop and upscaling DVD player, you may never feel the need to switch to next generation format.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/20/toshibas-cell-derived-spursengine-chip-to-process-video/
SpursEngine is Toshiba's version of CELL.....