IBM, Toshiba, Sony to renew five-year chip tie-in

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp., Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp. on Wednesday said they will renew a five-year partnership that produced the Cell microprocessor, the heart of Sony's PlayStation 3 video gaming console.

Terms of the renewal weren't disclosed. The companies plan to develop new chip technology for a variety of consumer electronics uses such as televisions, audio equipment and video games.

The three companies invested about US$400 million in the first phase of the partnership, which began in 2000 and resulted in the Cell, a high-powered chip that runs video game consoles.

The renewed partnership will focus on fundamental research for next-generation chip technology at 32-nanometres and beyond, which is faster than the 90-nanometre and 65-nanometre chips used in today's Cell technology, IBM, Sony and Toshiba said in a joint statement.

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