In article <21666716.kkWumB484S@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Microsoft exploited Sony, being the gang that it is.
>
> Playing the Fool
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | ...in 2001 Sony partnered with Toshiba and IBM to create
> | the so-called Cell processor -- a chip so powerful that it
> | would redefine PC-scale power...
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | 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 ..
> | The result was that Sony's R&D money was spent creating a
> | component for Microsoft to use against it.
> `----
>
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123069467545545011.html
Nice spin, Roy. How can anyone seriously claim that there is anything
wrong with going to a major chip designer/manufacturer and asking them
if they can design and build a chip?
If anyone did anything wrong here, it was IBM, for showing the specs to
Microsoft. But it is not even clear that it was wrong for IBM to do
that--as the article notes:
All three of the original partners had agreed that IBM would
eventually sell the Cell to other clients.
When a potential customer comes to you, and says that they need a part
in a certain timeframe, and you have a part in design that you expect to
be ready by then, it is quite normal to show the potential customer the
specs to the upcoming part. It's almost inconceivable that Sony didn't
expect IBM to be showing the design around, and starting to do custom
work based on it.
It probably never occurred to Sony that Microsoft might come to IBM for
a CPU. Sony probably figured that MS would stay with x86, going for
easy porting between XBox360 and PC.
Sony still would have been fine, if they had not committed the
bone-headed move of not lining up an additional supplier:
The deal only got worse for Sony. Both designs were delivered on
time to IBM's manufacturing division, but there was a problem with
the first chip run. Microsoft had had the foresight to order backup
manufacturing capacity from a third party. Sony did not and had to
wait another six weeks to get their first chips. So Microsoft
actually got the chip that Sony helped design before Sony did. In
the end, Microsoft's Xbox 360 hit its target launch in November
2005, becoming its own success. Because of various delays, the
Playstation 3 was pushed back a full year.
--
--Tim Smith
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