Taiwan PCB makers to start PS3 PCB shipments in 3Q

[Crossbar]

Looks like the manufacturing plan is falling in place. :)

Once manufacturing starts there will be no more tweaking, maybe the final kits will start shipping anytime from now?

Taiwan printed circuit board (PCB) makers Unimicron Technology and Nanya Printed Circuit Board (NPC) will start shipping PCBs for Sony's PS3 in the third quarter, with samples already approved by Sony, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily.

Compeq Manufacturing is still waiting for sample approval from Sony for PCBs to be used in the new game console, the paper said.

Unitech Printed Circuit Board wil start shipping PCBs for Nintendo's handheld game console in the third or fourth quarter of this year, while Yu Fo Electronic will become the largest supplier of Xbox 360 PCBs, stated the paper, adding that Foxconn Advanced Technology (FAT) stands a good chance of landing orders for PCBs to be used in Nintendo's Wii.

http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20060710PB206.html

[VG Aficionado]

Nice find, Crossbar :cowboy:

Weren't final hardware devkits meant to be first shipped last May? The final SDK would be ready in June though.

[Crossbar]

Nice find, Crossbar :cowboy:

Weren't final hardware devkits meant to be first shipped last May? The final SDK would be ready in June though.
There have been a lot of contradictory information in this field. You are right about the shipping dates of the dev kits. But I expect all QA work will not be using complete dev kits for testing.

We also received information from a Sony executive about that the final frequency of some PS3 components, specifically the RSX had not been nailed down in the beginning of June. Of course the frequency can be changed on the dev kits, but I also think I remember some comments about final hw to ship later on. I may be wrong though. :shrug:

[overclocked]

Btw whos supplying the memory besides the XDR? They could make a pretty good deal now with fast memory imo.
Good find CB.

Weren't final hardware devkits meant to be first shipped last May? The final SDK would be ready in June though.

Suprise, i sense it. :)

:cheers:

[Crossbar]

Btw whos supplying the memory besides the XDR? They could make a pretty good deal now with fast memory imo.
Good find CB.


Suprise, i sense it. :)

:cheers:
I believe I read in some thread here that Infineon is producing the GDDR3 memory. There are probably some more sources like Micron or Samsung.

I would love to see that they switched to 800 MHz GDDR3, but I find it highly unlikely as 700 MHz will be cheap main stream standard used by both the 360 and boatload of main stream graphics cards like the 7600. That money is probably better spent on the RSX in the long run. But as I said I would love to be proven wrong. :)

[Viper]

Crossbar, I agree. The benefits to cost ratio tells me that 700 mhz will get used.

[overclocked]

Yeah but i dont think thats to far-fetched, it would be the one thing i would expect if there would be any change at all.

I already got my "wishes" with the estimated ~29db sound-level and internal PSU, thats great imo.

For the category that want quad sli they also get a nice suprise when they realize it isnt. :hugegrin:

So that makes all happy i guess. ;)

[Crossbar]

Yeah but i dont think thats to far-fetched, it would be the one thing i would expect if there would be any change at all.

I stopped expecting a change in GDDR3 frequency when they repeated the 700 MHz on the slides at the Developer Conference this spring.

The only frequency number they left out on the slide was the operational frequency of the RSX. Maybe it will go up, maybe it will go down, maybe it will stay at 550 MHz. :)

But let's hope for a nice surprise. :cowboy: