RSSSony Reportedly Selling Cell BE Chip Fab to Toshiba
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published September 18, 2007, 11:25 AM
Just days after two Sony spokespersons flatly told Bloomberg News that no such deal had been reached, Asian press sources are saying today the company has agreed to sell its Kyushu Semiconductor facility - which produces the Cell BE CPU for Sony's PlayStation 3 - to its STI partner Toshiba for about 100 billion yen (about $863.5 million).
The deal would help scale down Sony's ongoing investment in semiconductor technology, while at the same time keeping the Cell chip in the family. Sony, Toshiba, and IBM have been partnering in the Cell's development since its inception.
The fact that the company is considering selling the manufacturing operation for the PlayStation 3's central processor was publicly pronounced last February. If the deal went as Executive Deputy President Yutaka Nakagawa indicated it should at that time, Sony will have held on to the intellectual property rights for the Cell. In other words, it did not sell the processor as some have reported, just the facility in which it's built.
It isn't so much the cash that Sony needs right now. The deal - if officially confirmed - would reduce Sony's capital expenditures for Kyushu's upkeep, which BusinessWeek reported last week have already totaled $1.7 billion. It would also free up Sony to pursue an "asset light" strategy, in which it continues to research and develop the intellectual property for processors while it licenses that IP to others.
For Cell, though, that wouldn't be the case, as any deal would likely have Sony outsourcing its production to what would presumably be called "Toshiba Kyushu" for a nominal sum.
According to the Kyushu plant's Web site, you wouldn't think Sony was tooling it up for a possible sale. At the start of the month, the plant's parent had moved over a key Sony Device Technology official from Thailand to run its quality control. Quite likely, any sale of the plant would involve its key officers as well.
2:10 pm ET September 18, 2007 - An Associated Press report this afternoon cites sources as having denied Sony has made a decision regarding whether to finally sell the Kyushu plant to Toshiba.
However, the information and quotes from today's AP report comes from a Bloomberg News story - the same story we linked to in the first paragraph above - which was originally dated last Thursday...prior to the apparent news of Sony's confirmation. The latest information from Asian sources (those not quoting the AP) continue to say the deal is on. We'll keep you posted.
Maybe Toshiba will be better predisposed than Sony to port Cell to personal computers... Linux already ported to it... could give wintel a run for its money.
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|I doubt it.
Despite my appreciation for the Cell processor and just as Power creams x86 (and anyone who doubts tis is simply ignorat of the full Power line, and their focus is NOT on the desktop!), the lack of economies of scale and active development on the lower level desktop architectures simply cannot compete with the commodity x86 platform based on cost.
Its the very same reason that the PowerPC chipset was not economical for IBM to invest significant development costs to downsize chips based upon a 2-generation old processor architecture. Hence it made lots of sense for Apple to s*** to the commodity x86 platform where active R&D is being driven within the appropriate market segment.
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|LOL...
I scroll down to see some of the user comments regarding this sony issue and guess what, yet again it's a desperate dave drama...
Whoever this dave is he's gotta be lov'n all the attention that you guys can't help but dish his way.
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|Any story with the word Sony is a desperate Dave Peterson drama.
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|Hey look it's Steve Austin instead of fake Hollywood or DaveBG. It's been a while since you logged in with Steve, Dave.
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|Grow up FFS, not everyone is Dave, as you seem to think. You seem to have a serious paranonia issue here.
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|Yeah Dave, he sure is paranoid... sheesh... (joke!)
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|Yeah Dave, you've done such a great job of covering your tracks.
Or should I call you Dave Peterson? Jackass. I'd STFU if I were you, someone may post your home phone, address, and IP if they were pissed off enough.
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|Be my guest, as it's not me, i don't give a ****.
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|That was addressed to Dave, not you Steve. But I guess it'a all the same to Dave Peterson.
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|Hello Welch's err..., MinuteMaid err..., Dave.
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|Dave?
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|Perhaps I am reading the wrong article, or perhaps Betanews are at their usual Sony bashing.
In my book:
"``We are considering various options for our advanced chip production,'' said Tomio Takizawa, a Sony spokesman, today in a telephone interview. ``Nothing specific has been decided.''"
Does not equal:
"Just days after two Sony spokespersons flatly told Bloomberg News that no such deal had been reached"
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|Yes it does...no such deal has been reached...and withing days suddenly a deal has been reached...how is this sony bashing, I don't think I understand your paranoid fanboy attitude.
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|when sony says "i'm not doing this" that means "i'm doing this and i'll announce it tomorrow"
you'd think they'd catch on that it adds to the bad image they have, but they don't.
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|The man has a point for once.
Article link:
http://www.bloomberg.com...80&sid=a5cHnSCeMdBA
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|"We are considering various options for our advanced chip production"
Means that something is going on, wait for an official announcement, it is not denying anything at all.
I think Betanews need to understand how to interpret the English language better.
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|Bloomberg:
``Nothing specific has been decided.''"
Betanews:
"no such deal had been reached"
Hm...sounds very similar...I think you new to relax a little about your beloved company...
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