Playstation 3 Soon Into Production

Roy van Rijn writes "According to Forbes, the Commercial Times reported that Taiwanese ASUSTeK Computer Inc. will be delivering PlayStation 3 consoles to Sony starting this month. The news comes amid concerns that Sony may not have enough Cell and RSX chips to meet production goals of 2 million units for launch. The report also states that, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, also a Taiwanese company, will soon begin making the PlayStation 3 consoles for Sony too. Total monthly shipments from manufacturers are expected to be 200,000 units per month."

Don't do the math

[davevt5]

If you do the math you're probably thinking that means there will only be 1.6 million units ready to go by launch (assuming both Asustek and Hon Hai each hit 200k/mo.) The article goes on to state that the production will increase to two million units by October -- at least for Asustek.

The question is, will there be enough cell processors to stuff into these boxes with yields being so aweful [com.com]?

Re:Logic redundancy?

[BenjyD]

I would guess that they are referring to the 'spare' co-processor on each Cell: each Cell has 7 SPEs (co-processors) working, but there are actually 8 in the silicon. That way, if one of the SPEs doesn't work during testing, you can just disable it and still keep the chip.

WSJ article on PS3 lookout

[rfunches]

The Wall Street Journal ran an article today on concerns about long-term sales [wsj.com] (subscribers only, I think) for the PS3. Wall Street analysts and industry watchers are concerned that the PS3 just won't succeed with the majority of gamers, especially with the Wii's lower price tag and innovative controller and the time lead that XBox 360 has.

Re:Don't do the math

[CastrTroy]

Yes, but the Wii still has ports for the old school GC controllers, so if games just want to use standard controllers, they can do that. The controllers are already pretty cheap ($20 US), and will probably get cheaper once there's 2 systems that support them. So, for games that don't care about or don't need the new controller functionality, they can still use the old controllers.

Re:Don't do the math

[twistedsymphony]

I apologize for not citing sources for the HD-DVD over Blu-Ray debate. I figured it was common [projectorcentral.com] knowledge [centredaily.com] at this point, what with the AV forums buzzing [avforums.com] about it.

The whole thing about Cell yields isn't that they're low (of course we expect them to be low when starting production) it's that its look like they'reFAR [theinquirer.net] LOWER [com.com] THEN EXPECTED [reed-electronics.com].

And since you asked, I don't have a link but IIRC the last cost estimated the Cell and RSX chips cost Sony ~$110 a piece. No idea about how the RSX yeilds are. I'd almost be more conserned about RAM yeilds though.

Re:Don't do the math

[Anonymous Coward]

yes, there are more than two idiots

Re:Don't do the math

[TommyBear]

That's not really true. That definitely was not the case with the XBox 360. Everyone was aware that the MS had problems producing the console in enough numbers. No one said that 360s were flying off the shelves.

Developers were screaming. EA was about to have a a small calf and my studio was sitting back watching all the fuss, as we worked on our PS2 title, hoping that MS wouldn't stuff it up in the end.

So I think the same will apply for Sony. If they can't produce enough consoles, game developers like EA are going to let the world know. They, like alot of other developers, have invested in new titles that will ship close to launch of the PS3.

There are something like 167 titles being produced for the PS3 at the moment. That's a lot of competition for a potentially narrow market if Sony's production numbers are too small (shudders).

Re:Don't do the math

[caffeinatedOnline]

I feel the need to call fanboi on your entire response...

Sure there are die-hard, rabid, Playstation fanatics who would still buy one if the price was your first born. But if you look at the fact that Sony has always had lame launch titles, the PSP's consumer excitement around it's launch could be described as "apathetic" with the die hard fans camping out for a product that didn't even sell out....

Its true that the DS is handily beating the PSP in sales, especially since the DS Lite launched; but apathetic is alittle strong. The PSP is selling about half as well as the DS. That's still something like 200k units per month.

Considering that the DS or sales numbers were not even brought into the discussion, where the hell did this come from? The OP was describing the consumer exitement about the PSP and the less then spectacular launch titles for the system, which after the die hard $ony fans had gotten theirs, dropped to apathetic. I don't know anyone that was excited about the PSP mainly due to the lackluster titles at launch.

Root kit lost a lot of fans...

Rootkit fiasco lost a lot of nerd fans. Jo Q Public still has no clue. They don't even know what a rootkit is.

That's funny... I get asked all the time by people who know that I am into computers about it. It was featured on the network news, CNN, MSNBC, etc. etc.

... as did Sony's double talk arrogance and bad mouthing of their competition, and lets not forget the clear rip-offs of Nintendo's Wii-mote and Microsoft's Guide button,

Arrogance: check.

Wii rip-off: undecided. Its a natural progression, the tilt sensor they added, if you ask me. More likely this feature was bumped up in priority when Sony saw the impression the Wii remote made. I can see that one either way to be honest. This is sort of like saying that every single digital music player is ripping off the iPod.

MS 'guide' button: what are you talking about? I don't even know what this is. Hardly a feature that's touted as interesting, at any rate.

Natural progression? I think you hit the nail on the head, though. When $ony saw the impression that the Wii controller made, they made the feature a priority... it has nothing to do with saying digital music players are ripping off the i-pod. It's like another music player coming out with a click wheel.

and perhaps most importantly THE PRICE.

Price is bad, I agree. Way bad in comparison to the other consoles, specifically. Of course, we don't actually know the final price yet.

Ummm... where have you been? The price has been known for quite awhile now. $499 for the basic, $599 for upgraded system.

Heck the reason for the high price was because of the Blu-Ray drive, and reviews thus far have shown that HD-DVD is stomping all over Blu-Ray. Really! I'd like to see that. Cite a source?

Here [projectorcentral.com]
Here [centredaily.com]
and here [avforums.com]

HD-DVD has 2 layer discs (15gig per layer/30gig total) and uses the awesome VC-1 codec.

So? Blu-ray has a max storage of 200 gigs, over six layers. The codec is irrelevant; you can write a Blu-ray disc with MPEG-2, or the awesome VC-1 codec, OR the 'even awesomer' AVC codec. HD-DVD can only use MS-approved codecs and by the way, that has DRM built-in to the wrapper. (H.264/AVC does not necessarily have this stipulation (weak praise I know), but ALL MS codecs will have to deal with this.)

A six layer blu-ray disk has not been produced outside of the lab, and may be years (if ever) before it is able to be mass produced. Where do you come up with that hd-dvd can only use MS approved codecs? You are just spouting FUD now, as blue-ra

Re:Don't do the math

[Yocto Yotta]

Nintendo is also releasing a new DualShock-ish "Classic" controller [google.com]. If you hate the C stick, this is a nice improvement on a standard design.