taken from: Nextech News.com
Apparently the PS3 Cell processor is so big and complicated, they’re having a hard time making enough to satisfy the demand. An IBM Semiconductor VP says they’re “lucky to get 10 or 20 percent” out of a chip like the Cell. The other 80-90 percent aren’t fit to be used in PS3s, meaning they either get used in another application or thrown away if they can’t be. (Gizmodo)
Ok so now we have the cell processor one of those “new things that sony is taking a risk on” having horrible production runs… 10-20% is going to REALLY eat into sony, if they are only able to use 1 in 10 or 1 in 5 of the produced chips that means 4 of those chips atleast are scrap silicone and wasted cash… THIS IS NOT GOOD, especially considering that sony is taking at minimum 400$ [LOSS] on each ps3 console.
But that’s not the end of the bad news, it appears Bluray diodes are also in very short supply as kotaku covered today and quoted below.
A Chinese newspaper is reporting that Sony’s running into a brick wall with Blu-ray production. The paper says that production facilities have not been able to meet the demand for the diode that generates the blue laser that puts the blue in Blu-ray. Sony’s own plants and those of Japan’s Nichia Corp. have been having continued run-ins regarding supply shortcomings. This could not only delay production of Blu-ray DVD players, but also the PlayStation 3. (Kotaku)
The fact is as was feared by myself and MANY MANY others, the PS3 is based on untested, unproven hardware and is a HUGE risk, basically sony is betting their entire company on it. With such new drive and processor components and the shear complexity of the PS3, sony’s not only going to take a HUGE loss on each console, but the fact is with these high failure rates, reaching any sort of demand levels for the PS3 let alone leaving enough diodes for “other” bluray products. If sony can’t improve it’s silicone yield and up the diode output drastically not only will they end up making an even bigger loss on each PS3 than was originally expected (which would lead to no price cuts as has been demanded by consumers and developers), but they will also could end up not meeting the demand as they have been promising.
Also another sad fact is Microsoft has a 2-3% failure rate on a proven silicone chip that they are already on their second revision and people are acting like thats a “high failure” when in fact its quite low… but as i was saying if they think this is bad god only knows what sony will end up having with all the production problems and the shear complexity of the system. For the sake of sony as a company i really hope they can fix things up because if you look back in the PS3 category you’ll notice things for Sony haven’t been looking good lately at all.
taken from: Nextech News.com
I wonder how much Sony is going to fail… This should be interesting.
Andrew
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