http://www.eet.com/semi/news/showArt...06&_loopback=1

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Sony's 300-mm fab starts test production of Cell processor

By Yoshiko Hara
EE Times
May 21, 2004 (10:00 AM EDT)



TOKYO — Sony Corp.'s Nagasaki 300-mm fab has begun test production of
Cell processors, Ken Kutaragi, Sony's executive deputy president and
COO, acknowledged this week. He declined to elaborate.

Sony and IBM Corp. recently announced joint development of Cell
processors for workstations to provide a graphics content creation
platform by the end of 2004. The first Cell chips will be fabricated
at IBM's Fishkill, N.Y., fab, but Sony is also preparing for volume
production of the Cell processor, which will be the core of Sony
Computer Entertainment Inc.'s (SCEI) next-generation game console.

Construction of the 300-mm pilot line began last spring on the first
floor of SCEI's Nagasaki Fab 2. The clean room is complete and
partially completed production facilities are processing wafers.
Installation of equipment will be completed by the end of the year.




Sony and its game subsidiary has thus far invested ¥115 billion (about
$1 billion) in the 300-mm fab to establish a 65-nm process. The fab
will serve as Sony's base for manufacturing Cell processors and other
devices fabricated with the 65-nm process.

Sony has also invest ¥36 billion (about $321 billion) on IBM's 300-mm
silicon-on-insulator line at East Fishkill fab. Once the 65-nm SOI
process is established there, Sony intends to duplicate the process at
the Nagasaki 300-mm fab.

SCEI's Nagasaki Fabs 1 and 2 served as the production base for core
chips for PlayStation 2. But with production processes scaling down,
the lines now have surplus capacity and are fabricating other devices
such as CMOS sensors.

Sony will integrate the two fabs into its main semiconductor operation
in July.

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