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Semiconductor History | Sony Nagasaki — Cell’s Fab Changes Hands and Finds a Second Life
· 2008-3
Personal memoryBy kevin · · updated · Report an issue
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Semiconductor History | Sony Nagasaki — Cell’s Fab Changes Hands and Finds a Second Life
kevin
3/3/2008
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Nagasaki Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation was established on March 3, 2008 inside Sony’s Nagasaki Technology Center. Toshiba owned 60 percent and Sony plus Sony Computer Entertainment held 40 percent; the venture operated the 300-millimetre line that made Cell Broadband Engine processors, RSX graphics chips, and other advanced system LSIs.
Cell came from a Sony–Toshiba–IBM development alliance and placed one general-purpose processing element beside specialized engines built for streams of data. In PlayStation 3, the architecture made parallel computation part of the console’s identity, while the Nagasaki line turned that unusual design into high-volume silicon.
The good was shared risk and capability. Toshiba gained access to a leading 65-to-90-nanometre logic line, Sony retained a manufacturing stake in the processors that defined its platform, and both companies could use the venture for consumer system-on-chip work beyond one package.
The technical cost matched the business one. IBM's own Cell research described most data movement and instruction flow as software-controlled, so strong performance depended on explicitly dividing work and managing the specialized engines' local stores.
The bad was visible in how quickly the ownership circled back. Toshiba had bought the line from Sony in 2008 and leased it to the venture, but by December 2010 the companies were preparing to dissolve the arrangement; Sony completed the equipment acquisition on April 1, 2011 and began converting part of the capacity toward CMOS image sensors.
The reversal showed both the burden and the value of a modern fab. A specialized console processor could not by itself justify one ownership structure forever, yet cleanrooms, wafer tools, and trained staff could be redirected toward the image-sensor demand that became central to Sony’s semiconductor business.
The pin marks Sony’s verified Nagasaki manufacturing campus and current public map location. The cover shows an actual Sony Computer Entertainment Cell/B.E. package on a PlayStation 3 board, not a wafer from the Nagasaki line.
Sources: Sony's February 2005 Cell architecture release and February 2008 semiconductor-business presentation; IBM Research's Cell microarchitecture paper; Sony/Toshiba Nagasaki joint-venture outline; Sony and Toshiba transfer announcements of December 24, 2010 and February 28, 2011; Sony Annual Report 2011; current Sony Semiconductor operations page.
Photo: “Ps3-cell,” Voodooo83, CC BY-SA 3.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ps3-cell.jpg
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