Sony selling Cell chip facilities to Toshiba for $835 million

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?

[JAmerican @ Feb 20th 2008 9:52AM]

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

[johnnychipface @ Feb 20th 2008 3:19PM]

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.

[daemonios @ Feb 20th 2008 9:53AM]

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!

[Harbo @ Feb 20th 2008 2:49PM]

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.

[Wes @ Feb 20th 2008 9:58AM]

No hard feelings.... or some backroom dealings?

hmmmm.

my tin hat is buzzing.

[Izzy @ Feb 20th 2008 10:22AM]

Sounds like a conspiracy to me! LOL

[LaughingMan @ Feb 20th 2008 9:58AM]

Sony to Toshiba : Lets all have a big hug. Sorry about screwing you over in that format war.

[Neal @ Feb 20th 2008 10:01AM]

Or maybe - Hey, give it up now, and you will get THIS as a consolation prize :)

[Ryan Trevisol @ Feb 20th 2008 10:02AM]

Ding ding ding! Neal gets the prize!

[James @ Feb 20th 2008 10:03AM]

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.

[Yubastard @ Feb 20th 2008 10:25AM]

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?

[Andir3.0 @ Feb 20th 2008 10:40AM]

Love-hate? You mean business? :p

[rcappo @ Feb 20th 2008 10:03AM]

It's a conspiracy, Sony bought off Toshiba by giving them a fab for way
under what they should have paid.

[jason w @ Feb 20th 2008 10:18AM]

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?

[_man1c_ @ Feb 20th 2008 10:32AM]

Toshiba's consolation prize..

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 20th 2008 10:33AM]

toshiba making game console?

toshiba making supercomputer?

toshiba just making the old RSX processor that made an inferior console?

[Andir3.0 @ Feb 20th 2008 10:50AM]

wow... true ignorance. RSX is made by nVidia.

[Liam @ Feb 20th 2008 10:56AM]

...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.

[Zeus.:God @ Feb 20th 2008 11:18AM]

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.

[Hung @ Feb 20th 2008 9:26PM]

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.

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 21st 2008 12:21AM]

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.

[Nitin Kumar @ Feb 21st 2008 12:25AM]

@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

[Nitin Kumar @ Feb 21st 2008 12:25AM]

@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

[Kris @ Feb 20th 2008 10:45AM]

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.

[Rob @ Feb 20th 2008 10:55AM]

You do realize Toshiba has been in STI since the beginning?

[Zeus.:God @ Feb 20th 2008 11:20AM]

I love all the ingorant people that browse the Engadget commenting sections... I got a good laugh from a few of these.

[Jake @ Feb 20th 2008 11:32AM]

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...

[whatishalo? @ Feb 20th 2008 11:45AM]

Ok 3 times really fast "Sony selling Cell chip Smelters"

[Joel Stephen @ Feb 20th 2008 12:28PM]

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

[Gremlin @ Feb 20th 2008 1:13PM]

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...

[gshb @ Feb 20th 2008 1:27PM]

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.

[vincewilcox @ Feb 20th 2008 2:07PM]

"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!"

[Steve @ Feb 20th 2008 3:37PM]

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/

[Nitin Kumar @ Feb 21st 2008 12:34AM]

SpursEngine is Toshiba's version of CELL.....

[Rick @ Feb 20th 2008 7:27PM]

Payback is a beatch.