IBM claims Cell production is now going well

THE CELL PROCESSOR is steadily being shoved out the door of IBM plants, despite reports of poor yields.

Sources have informed the Inq that IBM executives have told employees within the firm, that yields are "on or above" targets.

Yields for a large, complex part like the Cell are expected to be low at the start of production and improve steadily thereafter - if IBM had allowed for a very low yield to start with, its plausible that the rumours of bad yields were entirely accurate and this is what IBM was expecting all along.

The exec also said IBM had shipped the first full allotment to Sony under a 'take or pay' arrangement (whereby Sony has the obligation of either taking delivery of the goods or paying a specified amount), and that Sony must have "quite a stockpile of the processors in a warehouse somewhere".

Presumably the warehouse has close links to Asustek, where recently other sources released details of Asustek plans to deliver 4 million units of the PS3 console to Sony this month. µ

See also
PS3 Cell yields are in the toilet
Sony suffers multiple woes