In the quest for making ultra-realistic video games, a team of experts have banded together to create the "super chip", meant to power computers and game consoles even further than the currently-used silicon chips. More details in the full article.

 

Here's a bit of a surprising development in the high-definition media battle: Sony's deep in the middle of negotiations with Toshiba regarding the sale of Sony's microchip-producing facilities. These microchips are the same ones that give the PlayStation 3 its fair share of next-gen processing power.

This news comes directly from the business daily Nikkei, citing sources close to both parties.

Now it's nothing to get all up in arms about - Sony's just doing some very clever outsourcing, that's all. This is part of Sony's strategy to cut down on costly semiconductor assets, and this will let the electronics giant focus on the production of other products such as image sensor chips in digital cameras and camcorders.

And Sony is not letting go of the microchip facilities for a song: the company behind the PlayStation 3 looks to hand over the deed to the facilities for a cool 100 billion yen - that's about  US$ 869.7 million dollars out of Toshiba's pocket. Although it seems that this price is right up Toshiba's alley, as an agreement between the two companies is expected in the near future.

And here's even more good news: to make sure that there's going to be no shortage of chips for PS3 production, Sony is also considering a partnership with Toshiba on the management of the facilities themselves after all is said and done. This bodes quite well for the PlayStation 3 - as it's going to have two great minds taking care of its chips rather than just one.

Not a bad business move from Sony indeed!

Thanks to super7 for the tip!

By way of a press wire in circulation, Sharp Corporation Japan has announced the upcoming release of what may be the world's smallest blue laser to date. This new semiconductor-based laser measures in at just 3.3 mm in diameter - see the press photo above for reference - and is announced to be compatible with both HD DVD and Blu-Ray format players.

It will be noted that not too long ago, Sharp made a similar announcement stating that they would be increasing blue laser diodes production for their factories in Japan. How that production increase and this recent announcement will affect the ongoing competition between HD DVD and Blu-Ray remains to be seen, although we hope this means better diversity (and lower costs) for consumers.

The new laser - under model number GH04020A4G - is scheduled to have sample shipments released this June 13th at an expected price of ¥12,000 (US $ 100) per pop. The mass production run starts this July at an expected rate of 500,000 units per month.

In order to improve profitability in its chip division and hit their target operating margin of 5 percent, Sony announced that it will cut back on future chip spending. This according to Reuters. The same report also suggests that the company may not continue in-house production of its Cell microchips.

According to Reuters, Sony Executive Deputy President Yutaka Nakagawa told reporters that investment in chips would come down significantly from the 460 billion yen ($3.8 billion) allocated over the three business years since April 2004.

The climbing cost of increasingly heavy initial investments as costs for chip-making equipment is one of the reasons for the company's decision.

"When we first offered the PS2, there were no semiconductor companies that were able to make chips for the machine, so we did it ourselves. But now, there are companies that specialize in chip production," Nakagawa said.

Talking about Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. and United Microelectronics Corp. - the world's largest and second-largest contract chip makers - Nakagawa said, "They are aggressively investing in cutting-edge technology. Our basic understanding is that we probably won't need to do everything by ourselves for next-generation chips."

It seems NVIDIA may be in a spot of trouble as a result of the PlayStation3's slow going in retail. According to a report from the International Business Times, the graphics chip maker may take a hit in their overall share prices as a result of the console's slow demand.

Michael McConnell of semiconductor analyst Pacific Crest had this to say about NVIDIA's connection with Sony's PS3:

Sony royalties garnered by Nvidia from the PS3 build are expected to be the primary driver of Nvidia's gross-margin expansion in fiscal 2008.... Although poor manufacturing yields on Blu-Ray diodes were the initial cause of PS3 unit constraints at retailers, we have seen evidence of weaker-than-expected consumer demand as availability has improved, likely stemming from overly high prices at retailers and a lack of compelling game titles.

Due to this, the analyst expects share prices to drop their earnings to US$ 1.67 per share, rather than the US$ 1.77 originally predicted. The price of NVIDIA shares are also expected to drop as a result, from US$ 45 to US$ 33.

Dolby, a company famous among gamers for Dolby Digital 5.1, a technology used to deliver vivid sound on the Sony PlayStation 3, and the Microsoft Xbox 360 (don't forget Dolby Pro Logic II for the Nintendo Wii),  presented several technologies at the ICES that should deliver expansive sound experiences in consumer devices. The technologies demonstrated included the following:

Dolby Headphone – a technology that is set to offer virtual 5.1 surround over regular stereo headphones
Dolby Virtual Speaker – a technology that should provide compelling surround sound experience using any regular pair of stereo speakers
Audistry – a technology that offers a suite of audio enhancements that give a big boost to TV sound
Dolby Volume – a technology that promises to allow television makers to address to problem of having inconsistent loudness in broadcast TV.

Perhaps what is most pertinent to gamers though is that Dolby announced that it is collaborating with Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., to create and market a new category of game peripherals designed to deliver superior audio. At CES 2007, Dolby and Freescale demonstrated a new reference design for an Xbox 360 accessory cable that supports Dolby Headphone and Dolby Virtual Speaker.

Looks like Sony lawyers are due back in court. After Immersion won more than $90 million for its Dual Shock patent suit last March, another company, Agere Systems is taking Sony through the legal circus.

According to the semiconductor company, Sony committed patent infringements on eight products, including the PSP, PS2, PS3 (based on announced specs), VAIO computers, Handycams, Walkman players, Memory Stick Duos, and Location Free TV. The technology being contested are the LAN technology and tungsten plugs, among other things.

The lawsuit claims Sony willingly infringed on the patents and - here's the scary part - Agere wants to see Sony's books so it can determine how much money they can wring from the electronics giant. Sony denies the charges, naturally, and claims some of the patents issued by Agere omitted important information when it filed for them. Does that means some of the patents were filed properly but Sony used them anyway?

According to lawsuit-magnet Sony, it has the rights to use seven of the eight patents through a 1989 cross-licensing deal with AT&T and Lucent (whose microelectronics group became Agere Systems). Sony believes the patents in question are invalid and wants the case flushed down the judge's toilet. This is not the first time Agere sued Sony. By the way, Sony counter-sued Agere last month and demanded a jury trial.

Looks like a job tailored-made for Denny Crane.

As we have all undoubtedly heard, the Cell Processor, made by Toshiba, Sony and IBM, was designed to be one of the most potent processing systems available to the public today. Unfortunately, life in the real world is revealing that the complex design of the Cell Processor may be too complex to allow for the efficient operation of its entire complement of 8 cells per core.

IBM admits that it accepts chips that have only four out of 8 cells working, blaming the discrepancy on the size and complexity of the chips design. According to IBM VP of Semiconductor and Technology Services Tom Reeves, "with a chip like the Cell Processor you're lucky to get 10 to 20%" (working). Reeves goes on to say that, "the PS3 requires 7 of the 8 processors to be working," and that, "Sony will be using Cell Processors whether they have all cores functioning or not."

Obviously, at this point Sony is hitched to the fate of the Cell Processor no matter what happens. After Sony's substantial investment of time, money and resources into the processor, changing strategy now would move the project further down the road of disaster. All of this talk about the Cell Processor having various levels of functionality leads to obvious questions about quality control. What if I get one that only has 10% of its capacity functional will I notice a difference?

Should I have to pay the same amount of money for a lesser machine? Another potential pitfall for the processor is the fact that if one cell does happen to "blow out" (cease to function) prematurely, the machine must be sent in for an under warranty repair. If your machine is no longer under warranty then you are apparently out of luck. For those of you out there who have been reading all of this on the verge of tears, about to lose faith in the PS3 take heart!

As far as "blow outs" are concerned, Reeves claims that any problematic cells will be removed during the testing process and it is unlikely that a bad one would make it past QA and into public circulation. Sony apparently will be producing PS3's with different Cell Processors, but remember, the PS3 only needs 7 cells working to function, so essentially those with 8 working processors will simply have an unnecessary or spare cell that will not be used.

Reeves says that there is no difference in speed between a PS3 operating with 7 cells and one using 8 and while he maintains that it is unlikely that there will be any performance differences, only time will tell if there is actually any difference in overall performance. The miles of minutiae, complications and skepticism surrounding Sony's path to a successful PS3 release are a stirring testament to the difficulties they are facing and I feel, firm validation of the PS3's price point.