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Sony to create own processor for its handhelds

V

vniow

macrumors G4
Original poster
Jul 18, 2002
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I accidentally my whole location.
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SAN FRANCISCO - Unsatisfied with existing microprocessors, Sony Corp. announced Friday a new handheld computer that for the first time will use a Sony-made chip.

Sony's new CLIE personal digital assistant, due to ship in September, will have a chip optimized for multimedia applications - functions for which Sony's handhelds are known - while draining as little battery power as possible, said Masanobu Yoshida, president of Sony's handheld computing company.

Video will run more smoothly at 30 frames per second, he said. Battery life will last 16 hours with continuous playback of music, or five hours of video. An attachable battery accessory more than doubles that performance, he said.

The Japanese consumer electronics giant already plans to make its own chip for its next-generation PlayStation game console, and the chip for the CLIE, which Sony calls the "Handheld Engine," will be made at the same manufacturing plant in Nagasaki, Japan, Yoshida said at a news conference.

The new handheld, which will have two models, also marks Sony's entry into wireless communication. One model, the PEG-UX50, priced at $699, features the short-range radio technologies called Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. A second model, the PEG-UX40, priced at $599, has only Bluetooth.
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/6334589.htm
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,837
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It also will be the first PDA in the United States to feature a horizontal screen in a clamshell design, eliminating the need for Web surfers to scroll right-and-left to see a full Web page.
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This would make sense if you were surfing regular web pages. But if you are getting a trimmed down "headline news" or "sports scores" or "stock prices" page intended for a PDA, it can be any shape at all.

I think this announcement is about the PEG-UX50, which has a color screen with a resolution of 480x320. That's not many pixels, so if you don't have to scroll horizontally, you'll just have to do more vertical scrolling.

Who made the processors that Sony previously used?
 
job

job

macrumors 68040
Jan 25, 2002
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The Japanese consumer electronics giant already plans to make its own chip for its next-generation PlayStation game console
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I thought IBM was/is making the chip for the Playstation 3. :confused:
 
S

Steradian

macrumors 6502
Dec 3, 2002
393
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San Jose
Heh So I am not the only one here who reads /. :D this is a little odd and conflicting but I am sure that Sony will clear things up in a few months
 
MrMacMan

MrMacMan

macrumors 604
Jul 4, 2001
7,002
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1 Block away from NYC.
Originally posted by job
I thought IBM was/is making the chip for the Playstation 3. :confused:
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Yeah they don't know what they are talking about, Sony Makes the PS series, but not the chip.

IBM has been working on the chip, Sony doesn't have chips powerful enough to do it anyhow.
 
hvfsl

hvfsl

macrumors 68000
Jul 9, 2001
1,867
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London, UK
Originally posted by job
I thought IBM was/is making the chip for the Playstation 3. :confused:
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I didn't think IBM supplied or are going to supply chips for Sony, I thought it was NEC or something.

If it is true about IBM, then the xbox will be the only consoles not on PPC chips, (althought M$ is meant to be switching from Nvidia+Intel to ATI+AMD).
 
E

elmimmo

macrumors 6502
Apr 18, 2002
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AS for PS3's CPU, it is supposedly a joint venture between several high companies. Sony, Hitachi, IBM and I do not know if somebody else.

Funny landscape that of chip providers for next gen consoles: MS Xbox 2: confirmed Ati GPU; Nintendo's GC2: rumored Ati GPU + rumored IBM CPU (yes, same as current GC); PS3: IBMish CPU.
 
solvs

solvs

macrumors 603
Jun 25, 2002
5,684
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LaLaLand, CA
You'd think they could just use a Transmeta chip. Guess Crusoe wasn't as good as people thought it was going to be...
 
hvfsl

hvfsl

macrumors 68000
Jul 9, 2001
1,867
185
London, UK
Originally posted by topicolo
Those were only the dragonball processors that sony used like 2 years ago. They've been using Intel XScales until this annoucement
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The sony chips are meant to be Intel XScare compatible, much like AMD chips are intel compatible.
 
topicolo

topicolo

macrumors 68000
Jun 4, 2002
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Ottawa, ON
Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
sounds cool, but will it really have 5 hours of video playback? and how will you get the videos on there, FW? USB2?
anyone know?
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With palms, you can hotsync using USB and tell your OS to send the video files to the main memory (unlikely since only 16mb of the 32mb of total memory is available to the user) or to a memory stick in the PDA. it'll take a WHILE to transfer a whole movie. A 320x240 Divx movie is about 150mb. You could probably also try to transfer it over the Wifi or bluetooth protocols
 
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