Sony sells Cell processor to Toshiba for $858 million
October 19th, 2007 by supadupagama
Back in 1999 Sony and Toshiba made a joint venture company to manufacture the PlayStation 2’s semiconductor chips. With this agreement about to expire in March 2008, the two companies got into talks and as a result starting in April 2008 Toshiba will be producing the Cell processors in the PlayStation 3.
For the record, the Cell microprocessor was developed jointly by IBM, Toshiba, and Sony. And Sony made this choice in order to refocuse on its core business instead of branching out into chip production.
The sale of the Cell processor from Sony to Toshiba gives the latter the manufacturing responsibility for the Cell processor used in Sony’s PlayStation 3. But still allows Sony to continue to invest in the Cell chip. The deal was made for close to 100 billion Yen (about $858 million)! — Via 1UP, Engadget & Toshiba