Sony no longer researching CELL 2, abandons architecture.

Slightly extreme on the sentiment, but I do agree that Sony have been arsing about with their stuff.

Yes, everyone can agree that the first Discmans lasted a while, and their first DVD players and some of their TV sets.

However, I can also wholeheartedly agree that the greater majority of their stock is rebranded tat (I've known a good selection of VCRs and DVD players which are just Toshiba rebrands, quite a lot of their widescreen TVs are way overpriced in regards to quality, you have to spend over £2000 to get a true 1080 LCD from them, etc.).

 

I don't think Sony products are any worse than Philips, Panasonic, Toshiba etc. The quality of most consumer electronics is pretty poor these days - except for cell phones it seems.

 

I use a combination of Seanix (a local BC brand, probably just rebadges other stuff) and Yamaha for my consumer electronics and all has been dandy. Each product has its niggles (TV wont display HD @ 50Hz, only 480p50, 480p60, 720p60 or 1080i60), the DVD player takes a while to load up, and won't eject until loaded and the AV receiver won't route composite video through the component out, but the actuall build quality's been fine and spot on, no worries.

What are the usual issues of poor quality consumer goods?

 

No, but thanks anyway :nod:
It's threads like this that really incite my ire, so to speak.

 

My nokia's paintjob started to fall after like 4 months of use, and the chrome finish is full of scratches.

Of all consumer electronics, cellphones are the most expendable by their users, and therefore the build quality is bad (since people tend to get rid of the unit after a short period anyways).

 

You say that, but actually are they not just the products that receive the most abuse? Most people take their phones around everywhere, keep them in their pockets where they get scratched up, they get dropped, etc etc.

If you want something decent expect to pay for it. That's how life works usually and home electronics are not an exception to that rule.

 

Sony Ericsson stuff still kicks ass though. But, IMO, Ericsson phones even before that had the highest quality. I never managed to break my R-310 phone, I even drove a car over it. Bathed with it. Threw it from the fifth floor.

 

You can bet it, they are almost indestructible. I'm now with a Motorola C650, it falls from a meter of the ground and both covers and the battery are detached from the phone
I never liked Motorola phones, Sony Ericsson and Nokia phones have a lot better quality. Even when I keep most of my stuff until it's absolutely obsolete, I wanna get rid of this phone quickly. Maybe when I have some free time...

 

Imho what you listed are exactly the problems that i have with consumer electronics nowadays. Lots of bugs. For example Nokia phones not taking incoming calls; you get an sms you missed a call. Spontaneous reboots, freezes etc. My parents' Philips TV having a weird effect on screen which was obviously a bug. "rebooting" the tv made it disappear etc.

Time to market has to go down while complexity goes up -> insufficient testing and lots of bugs. Build quality is pretty good for all brands they sell around here i think.

 

Indeed, alot of my family members, friends, co-workers have had problems with Nokia phones. I'm not exaggerating if I'm saying 10 people close to me have had problems, with 20+ Nokia phones. As I'm the "tech genie" of my family, I always end up fixing them, but it's come to the point where I refuse to touch a Nokia with a 20 foot pole. The most common problem is where the phone replaces the ring tone with a short, silent beep, and everyone misses their calls.

 

I agree with Limey - this isn't anything onerous.

Sony are not putting money into production facilities and not investing in <65nm development.

This means they'll pay someone else to manufacture and when (and if) someone does Cell <65nm then Sony will have to licence the use (shaving off some profit margin). Nintendo hs implicitly done the same in some sense and gone with the industry trend - ie. paralleise up existing technology (multi core approach) and use existing tech in parallel rather than continue soley down the lower nm track.

None of the statement as far as I can see implies they are reducing their committment to Playstation range. They are instead shifting their investment around for cost effectiveness reasons - quite normal and healthy practice.

Personally I think PS1, PS2 were fantastic consoles - and gave immense value to the community. It think PSP is the best handheld hardware out, tho s/w wise it falls behind NDS. PS3 (which I own too) is disappointing in it's s/w, though this year will hopefully see a turnaround and see with luck gain some traction against 360(which I love b.t.w). I ain't a Sony fan boy b.t.w. - if anything I think alot of Sega and Nintendo.

 

Wow Asembler,

Thats shocking news!

I like sony only do there sound quailty, but I was interested in the ps3 at least a little cause I believe competition doesn't hurt. Sony though has this habbit of always screwing them selfs by there propriety moves and not taking some advice from there customers who like there product. They basicly like to take swings at there customer. Bad stuff man! I wonder what effect this is going to have on the gaming community? that be interesting to see. :shrug:

 

Newsflash!
Toshiba unveils CELL-driven HDTV at the CES. So maybe this time they ARE right about using the EE/CELL for other purposes than the PS2/PS3!

(I have a source, but it's in Dutch)

 

Sony made very good CRT TVs

 

I am guessing that there is a MASSIVE stockpile of CELL chips that failed tests to be used in a PS3, but are fine at lower clock speeds or with less SPUs running. I'm sure they would operate more than sufficiently in high end electronics and although expensive to make specifically for a role in HDTVs, as chips sitting around looking for an application they'd be excellent.

That was the original plan to offset the cost of R&D and manufacture for the PS3. I am surprised it is taking so long for other electronics to see a use. Perhaps they are considered too powerful for the run-of-the-mill stuff they'd be used in right now.

 

I m not very versed in "bulk mathematics" but what sort of an advantage would a CELL processor, such a high FP execution unit, have for your run off the mill consumer electronics?

I imagine a hidden cost inside those sets, being more expensive than they could be had they opted for a more suited (and cheaper) processing unit.

 

I hear a lot about quad-HD in japan these days (thats 4 times the resolution of 1080p).

A CELL would be good for this kind of broadcast.

 

Multi-media interfaces etc. require a decent amount of processing power. Blu-ray movie players could run decoding in software (like the PS3 does). I'd imagine there are a lot of applications for higher powered CPUs in the near future.

 

A little video on the toshiba TV [clicky]

 

exactly what i was thinking outsource the whole stuff, cause when its time to get into ps4 deeply you got free choice of technology whithout the hazzle that you financed the whole thing like happend with the cell and have to stand to it

also the production partner has to stand for the quality and quantity so its easier to cashback if the production runs late