PlayStation III to use new Big Blue tech

According to a story on Electronic Buyers' News, Friday, Sony and IBM have firmed up their decision to work together on PlayStation III by using Big Blue's cell architecture.

The PlayStation III is likely to tip up next year, and we confidently expect that the Xbox II will tip up the year after that - or perhaps earlier - although Microsoft might decide to skip a number and call it three rather than two.

It's done that before - the most notorious example is when Microsoft Word jumped from number four to number six, confounding expectations from users that the number five came after number four.

Around about this time last year, word was growing that Sony and IBM would collaborate on an entirely different kind of architecture for the PSIII, and we think Eva Glass is still perfectly correct about Microsoft doing the same with the Xbox II III.

What's important about IBM's "Cell" architecture is that it builds broadband into it. Its Fishkill fab in NY will employ .10 micron (100 nanometer) technology and silicon on insulator to build the technology.

You can find the EB News story here.

We still think that Gamecube will do really very well. It has better technology than very expensive Macintoshes but at a price that would make Steve Jobs sneer.

In fact, it's identical CPU technology - so no-one should sneer at Nintendo, we reckon…. µ