Toshiba,Sony Ready To Produce Next-Generation Chip-Report
Wednesday January 21, 3:24 pm ET
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Japan's Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. will soon start mass-producing a next-generation chip for controlling household electric appliances by cell phones from remote places through the Internet, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun reported on its Web site Wednesday.
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The next-generation chip, called "cell," is a micro-processing unit half the size of the one currently used for computer game machines and other high-tech appliances. It is capable of processing nearly 10 times as much information as the current one in use, the daily said.
Toshiba will spend Y200 billion on building production lines for this chip at its factory in the southwestern Japanese city of Oita. It is planning to manufacture products that uses this chip later next year, the daily said.
Sony is considering investing money in Toshiba's factory and asking some of the production lines to be set aside for Sony's products such as a game equipment that will replace its "Play Station 2," the daily said.
The new chip has uses for a variety of products, ranging from DVD recorders to digital television sets to refrigerators. For example, it would enable personal computers to instantly download movies on the Internet and show computer graphics almost as clearly as a printed picture, the report said. |
