Samsung set to supply memory chips for PlayStation Portable

South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics has announced that it is to begin supplying memory chips for the PlayStation Portable, in a deal which may help Sony boost its production to meet demand for the handheld console.

The arrangement, which Samsung hopes will help it to move its memory chip business into the lucrative consumer electronics market, will see the firm supplying a 64 megabyte chip package, including both the DDR RAM and flash memory used by the PSP.

Sony's target is to ship three million units of the PlayStation Portable by the end of its financial year on March 31st, and the firm did manage to slightly exceed its shipment target of 500,000 units for December - crossing the line with an extra 10,000 units in retail.

However, the device is still in short supply, and shortages of components - especially the graphics processor used in the system - are the main culprit, SCE boss Ken Kutaragi admitted last week.

The Samsung deal should help to ensure that memory chips are one less headache for Sony to deal with - and as the firm races to prepare stock of the console for its planned European and North American launches this quarter, it wouldn't be surprising to see further new component deals being signed.