Toshiba, Sony and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI) today announced the formation of a new joint venture among the companies for the production of high-performance semiconductors,
including chips for PlayStation 3 entertainment system.
Sony said on
Wednesday it will sell its microchip production
facilities in western Japan to Toshiba for 90 billion yen ($835 million), in their latest move to focus on their core businesses.
The equipment will be used by their semiconductor
joint venture that will make high-performance Cell
chips and RSX graphic chips, both used in Sony's
PlayStation 3 game console, as well as other
microchips that go into Toshiba products.
Manufacturing will start with 65nm process, and the
joint venture
will promote migration to 45nm process
mass production, in cooperation with Toshiba's system
LSI manufacturing operation in Oita, while also
working to achieve advances in manufacturing
technologies and efficiencies.
The venture will be established on April 1.
Sony, which is focusing on image sensor chips for
digital cameras and pulling away from heavy
investments for cutting-edge chip production
equipment,
said in October it would sell production
facilities for making key microchips used in the PS3
to Toshiba, but the price has been unavailable.
The announcement on the selling price comes on the
heels of
Toshiba's decision on Tuesday to abandon its
HD DVD high-definition DVD format, ending a prolonged
battle with the Sony-led Blu-ray camp.