Toshiba moves to back the PS3 and the Cell

No, we're not kicking Toshiba while they're down. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite. When you read up on Toshiba's purchasing of some Cell manufacturing plants, you might start to imagine Sony and Toshiba have been in talks for quite some time. See, right after Toshiba announced its plans to drop HD DVD, they turned around and finalized a major business deal with Sony -- buying microchip processing facilities in western Japan for the advantageous price of $835 million USD.

Basically, starting in April, Toshiba is going to assist Sony in producing Cell and RSX chips. Take note that in days past, Toshiba didn't really sing praise to either of these technologies and wouldn't put them in their own products. Now they sing a different tune. Sony and Toshiba were in talks since last October about these facilities but couldn't agree on a price -- the fall of HD DVD may have led both to find a resolution and we're glad to have Toshiba on board.

Reader Comments (17)

This deal has been in the works for months, even in the original article they said the deal would be finalized around March. Pretty sure this has nothing to do the HD-DVD thing.

You're right that this deal has been going on for months now, but I don't think it has nothing to do with hd-dvd. I'm sure they realized hd-dvd was going down back around November or so when they made this deal.

thats crazy:)
im glad but i wish sony had put something better then an rsx and more ram....

Can't beat 'em, join 'em.

I wouldn't be surprised if they bet on it while eating doo-doo egg omelets on top of golden toilets. If HD-DVD wins, you have to sell me the plant for 500 mill and mow my lawn in your wifes Sunday dress. and Visa Versa.
Toshiba quit out early on an agreement to sell in the middle.
Now they both have to do it.
Also Eddie Murphay, Dan Akroid and Jammie Lee Curtis were involved and hilarity ensued.

Hope there's some savings to be had in production because of this. Sony commented that price drops would follow reduced production costs. (duh)

Aaaahhh, and so begins the fall of the MS empire. I see it coming and so shall all, as the mighty crushing wheel that is Sony gains it's momentum towards total victory! Yes!!! I am a fanboy and proud of it!

This has been getting a lot of press, but the bottom line is that Toshiba was talking about partnering up with Sony and the Cell architecture even before the PS3 was released. I know a lot of people are crying conspiracy about this, but this is just execution of talks they had before. Also, as for Toshiba dropping HD-DVD, when pretty much all of Hollywood stated they have switched to Blu-ray, it doesn't take a genius to realize that if your the one making HD-DVD equipment its time to get out of the game. There is no foul play at work here and neither is Toshiba jumping the bandwagon.

Yeah, didnt Tosh have a hand with IBM and Sony in Developing the Cell chip anyways..

And BTW PS3fanboy, they had announced this last week and Sony is handing over All the Cell plants in Japan from the sounds of the article, which is prob all the Cell plants seein its and almost 1 billion dollar deal..

With 45nm cell chips coming soon and Toshiba and Sony both being television manufacturers I would not be surprised to see the "PS3" being built into future TV sets. Sony mentioned before the PS3 was released that the cell would make its way into TVs. Now news that Sharp and Sony will be making LCDs together as well and Samsung working with Sony on OLEDs we could see a new standard in TV. Just think a slot load Blu-ray drive in your TV, bluetooth, USB and wi-fi. This would all conveniently let you purchase TV shows and movies on the PSN adding either a larger laptop HD or external HD. Digital TV is coming to the US soon so the PlayTV will also work. Not to mention the plan of Cyberworld and grid computing dreams of Sony, Toshiba and IBM. That and everyone hates to work with Microsoft.

Built into tvs? An interesting concept :)

Ok so this article is a hmmmm what? slow news day? These talks were going on all along.

And Toshiba already put a cell in a TV.. turns out you can run like 8 Live feeds on one screen!!!

Besides this has nuthing to do with blu-ray.

Toshiba is a technology company... And besides you see any Cells in blu-ray players??

gimme other news!!!

PS - Ok I'm a bit angry as I fall under the 3% of buggy PS3s!!! On that same note, I can still watch all movies, listen to music and play all downloaded demos and games. All with Network connectivity. Which is 1000% of what you can do when you get the RRD! Yes, I'm talkin to you brokebox lovers!

yeah, the ps3 will not be built into a tv, what it does mean is 480i/p upscaling that's as good as the ps3 (as of yet iv'e found nothing that upscales dvd better than my ps3) multisignal processing for better channel surf funtions, audio processing(imaginge a tv able to decode dolby true hd), the ablity to cross communicate and share processing cycles with other cell devices, cleaner GUI and more tv operating system options, faster more reliable blu-ray players, less expensive and cooler AV recievers, reduced power usage for all devices. economies of scale will lower the price of the cell by using it in more CE devices, possibly lowering the price of the ps3, finding the matamatical end to Pi, viewing of media in 4D and enabling production of the flux capacitor, etc....

the Cell Processor was developped by Toshiba and Sony, not just sony, so now it is a Toshiba technology, for every PS3 they produce, Sony has to pay Toshiba.

This is old news, Toshiba has a TV that uses the cell processor and one of the features was the ability to upscale any tv signals up to high definition.

When you actually do research, Toshiba was a backing partner with Sony for Betamax back in the late 70's against JVC's VHS - so this isn't new news at all to see them working together.

Didn't they make the CELL together anyways. I think it'd make sense for them to work together on producing and selling them, now that everything* is going to have the CELL built into it!

* not literally

Toshiba moves to back the PS3 and the Cell

Reader Comments (17)

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