IBM confident over Cell supply for PS3 launch

The process of bringing manufacturing of the Cell microprocessor up to speed has been an enormous success so far, according to a senior IBM executive, who said that the new chip's yields are improving faster than any other device the firm has worked on.

Speaking to Warren Communication News, IBM senior vice president William Zeittler said that the firm is learning how to improve yields of the chip "faster than on any chip we've done."

In effect, this means that the company's output of Cell processors - which is largely defined by the "yield", or how many chips on each silicon platter are actually usable - is progressing ahead of schedule.

It's good news for Sony, as it means that one of the main stumbling blocks to producing high volumes of the PlayStation 3 console for launch has been largely removed - with the other key components which could yet cause problems being the NVIDIA graphics part and the Blu-Ray drive, although both of those are based on more mature technologies than Cell.

However, it should be noted that IBM was also able to ramp up the volume of the PowerPC processors used in the Xbox 360 very quickly, not least since they were very similar to existing dual-core PowerPC chips.

The severe shortages of the Xbox 360 at launch are thought to have been caused more by the firm's over-ambitious target of launching worldwide within a two week window than by any extraordinary manufacturing difficulties - which goes to show that while IBM may be keeping its side of the deal, Sony still has much ground to cover to ensure steady supply of the PS3 at launch.