Sony's R&D Money For Cell Helped Create The Xbox 360 CPU

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Posted January 2, 2009 - By r_pad

The Wall Street Journal was a lengthy writeup on The Race for a New Game Machine: Creating the Chips Inside the Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3. The book, written by two former IBM employees involved with the creation of the Cell processor, chronicles the chip designs for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It turns out that IBM, Sony, and Toshiba spent 400-million dollars and five years in designing Cell. Meanwhile, Microsoft benefited from all the research and development. The Wall Street Journal's Jonathan V. Last writes:

"In late 2002, Microsoft approached IBM about making the chip for Microsoft's rival game console, the (as yet unnamed) Xbox 360. In 2003, IBM's Adam Bennett showed Microsoft specs for the still-in-development Cell core. Microsoft was interested and contracted with IBM for their own chip, to be built around the core that IBM was still building with Sony. All three of the original partners had agreed that IBM would eventually sell the Cell to other clients. But it does not seem to have occurred to Sony that IBM would sell key parts of the Cell before it was complete and to Sony's primary videogame-console competitor. The result was that Sony's R&D money was spent creating a component for Microsoft to use against it."

That's pretty crazy. It appears that Sony's ambitious plans for the PlayStation 3 combined with a surprising amount of trust in a Western partner caused it to take its eyes off the ball. Meanwhile, Microsoft cleverly -- and apparently legally -- seized an opportunity to get a fancy new chip with other people's R&D money. I'm absolutely fascinated by how this book humanizes three very large companies. Based off of theWSJ report, I feel sad for Sony for being hustled and admire Microsoft's gumption. Then there's IBM, which comes off as the dirty, two-timing slut. At least, that's the characterization that comes up in my head.

How do you guys feel about these revelations?

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