IBM, Toshiba, Sony Renew Cell Partnership

According to an official report, Sony, Toshiba and IBM have jointly announced that the companies have renewed their co-production partnership which helped create the Cell chip, to be used in Sony's PlayStation 3, for another 5 years. So far, the three firms, which have revealed significant details on the Cell chip over the past few months, have invested around $400 million in the tech, with the PS3 chip the first major consumer application to be spun out of the project since it started in 2000. However, the firms also intend to continue Cell development for other consumer electronic devices such as high-end televisions and audio equipment, though interestingly, Reuters has issued a correction over claims of possible medicinal and military use for the Cell, removing these uses from its initially released list. "This is a winning combination," said Masashi Muromachi, president & chief executive officer of the Semiconductor Company at Toshiba Corporation. "With Toshiba’s cutting-edge process technology and manufacturing capabilities, Sony’s various semiconductor technologies and deep knowledge of consumer markets and IBM’s state-of-the-art material technology, we can anticipate breakthrough process technologies for the 32-nanometer generation and beyond. Toshiba will apply these advances to assuring continued leadership in cutting-edge process technology and the accelerated development of essential devices for the age of ubiquitous connectivity." The companies also indicated that the renewed partnership will especially help research next-generation chip technology at 32-nanometers and beyond, significantly beyond current production technology. "By extending this relationship to the next-generation of process technologies and deepening our partnership at the research level, we expect to increase the pace of development for major technology advances," said Lisa Su, vice president, Semiconductor Research and Development Center, IBM Systems & Technology Group. Research and development will take place at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., the Center for Semiconductor Research at Albany NanoTech, and at IBM’s 300 millimeter manufacturing facility in East Fishkill. [UPDATE: 8.41am PST - added Sony, IBM comments, location details.]