PS3 Goes Into Full Production...

[Arsynic]

TAIPEI (XFN-ASIA) - Asustek Computer Inc (2357.TW) will deliver PlayStation 3 game consoles to Sony Corp this month as the Japanese firm moves to step up output to meet demand for the Christmas shopping season, the Commercial Times reported, without citing a source.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/07/18/afx2888056.html

Meanwhile final Cell and RSX specs are MIA...what's the deal? The "components aren't final" argument is dead. Finally. Is Sony pulling a PSP on us (in terms of specs)? Why was specs at the forefront of Sony's PR campaign last year and now we know less about RSX than we knew last year.

Sony's official PS3 site is no help. Both Cell and RSX clockspeeds are MIA.

About the numbers, 200,000 a month is hot-cake factory numbers. 2 million a month by October? Damn, Sony's not playing. I was skeptical about the PS3 launch numbers, but if Sony can get this ball rolling, while there's no way they'll meet demand, they'll avoid a "paper launch."

What say you?

 

[AlNom]

I like surprises.

 

[zed]

2 million a month (provided it turns out), what blu-ray + cell manufacturing problems!

 

[Geo]

Whee, from 200k to 2m per month in 4 months? I like their target anyway, tho I'm going to predict they don't quite make it. Still, they get in that ballpark and they should be reasonably okay for Christmas season world-wide launch.

 

[nAo]

Sony's official PS3 site is no help. Both Cell and RSX clockspeeds are MIA.

MIA??? what does that mean?

 

[scooby_dooby]

missing in action

 

[Titanio]

A little more detail - shipments have already started. They received 200k component sets in June. This report also doesn't make it as clear that they're talking about 2m per month..

The Chinese-language Apple Daily and Commercial Times newspaper reported late on Tuesday that Asustek Computer started shipments of PlayStation 3 (PS3) game consoles in small volume in the beginning of July, according to DigiTimes web-site. According to a report, about 200 thousand component sets were shipped to Asus in June, which means that the company is in position to build 200 thousand game consoles. It is also said that in July the Taiwanese builder will receive higher amount of component sets for the PS3, while in September and October the company will get “more than one million [component] sets.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20060718235111.html

Doesn't seem clear that they're planning to get more than 1m each month, or between the months. I'll assume the latter given that they're not even the only assembler (Hon Hai is also going to be assembling them according to the Forbes report, and Sony would be in Japan too), and they're target is 1m.

edit - here's a little more from Digitimes:

The Chinese-language Apple Daily and Commercial Times reported today that Asustek Computer started shipments of PlayStation 3 game consoles in small volume since the beginning of July, with the first consignment to total four million units.

After the first batch of PS3 shipments from Asustek, Foxconn Electronics (the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision Industry) will also supply Sony's PS3 game consoles when demand rises, indicated the Apple Daily. The paper cited sources at Taiwan component suppliers as saying that about 200,000 component sets were shipped to Asustek in June and the volume will grow this month. In September and October, the suppliers estimate to ship more than one million sets to the game console manufacturer, the paper added.

http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20060719PB202.html

So Hon Hai may kick in later as needs arise.

 

[Platon]

I assume that these are the assembly lines they are talking about. Just because they might be capable of puting together 2mln consoles a month does not mean that there might not be components drought, that is something that is up to others not the assembly companies. And like Arsynic, I am also a bit concerned about Sony now a days says nothing about the specs. Sure, they like to focus on BR it seems but still, if it is something that Sony has always been good at is hyping up their specs, why this sillence about them now. Keeping it for TGS?...

 

[Titanio]

I assume that these are the assembly lines they are talking about. Just because they might be capable of puting together 2mln consoles a month does not mean that there might not be components drought, that is something that is up to others not the assembly companies.

True, although it gives the numbers of component sets being shipped. But beyond shipments made (the 200k to Asus in June), they're just supplier estimates. But presumably they will improve anyway, even if they don't hit the 1m/month by September.

What I'm wondering is, if Asus got 200k component sets in June, how many did Sony take? No doubt they are also assembling themselves, presumably?

I'm guessing we may hear about all of this at the Playstation Meeting (if there is one this month). Maybe we'll even see a production PS3 box for the first time too.

 

[Platon]

True, although it gives the numbers of component sets being shipped. But beyond shipments made (the 200k to Asus in June), they're just supplier estimates. But presumably they will improve anyway, even if they don't hit the 1m/month by September.

What I'm wondering is, if Asus got 200k component sets in June, how many did Sony take? No doubt they are also assembling themselves, presumably?

I'm guessing we may hear about all of this at the Playstation Meeting (if there is one this month). Maybe we'll even see a production PS3 box for the first time too.

You are right.I was typing that stuff before your post with a bit more meat in it, than the original. If they intend to launch with 2mln consoles I guess they will need to hit approximately 1mln/month for september and october, depending a bit what the august numbers will be.

But as always it is really nice to speculate about all these things. Such as if they have been stockpilling cells for a year for example? They have said they have been producing them for a long time, but maybe not mass producing them. If they have been stockpiling them for a long time, could that mean that the cell in PS3 in the end might be 2.8 Ghz? And if they have been stockpiling them for a long time, as well blue laser diods and if the production has not ramped up as expected could there be a component drought a bit later instead when the assembly is in full speed?

There must be a record of ifs in the paragraph, such a nice little word ...

 

[dodo3]

Here was an interview with Kutaragi back in June, but here is the ontopic part:

Q: Your planned shipping schedule is 6 million units worldwide by the end of March, 2007.

Kutaragi: We are planning a monthly production rate of 1 million units. We have secured the parts required to reach this mark. This has been verified, so we should be set to go, barring any major oversights.

Q: Does that include the “Cellâ€￾ semiconductors?

Kutaragi: No worries there. We began the manufacturing process last year (summer 2005), and now have plenty of them – enough to sell on the street, even. We’re hoping to provide servers using Cell’s on our side of the network in the very near future, so the more we have, the better. What was actually more troublesome was securing the generic parts required. As the economy is strong now, we had a hard time securing all the necessary parts to meet a 1 million unit / month quota – passive components, RAM, hard drives, circuit board materials, and even plating alloys.

 

[Titanio]

You are right.I was typing that stuff before your post with a bit more meat in it, than the original. If they intend to launch with 2mln consoles I guess they will need to hit approximately 1mln/month for september and october, depending a bit what the august numbers will be.

If they stayed at 200k per month at Asus, and Sony say was also manufacturing 200k, then they could have in and around 2m shipped by launch in November. If they actually assembled 1m/month in Sept/Oct, they could ship nearly 3m by then. But of course, shipping by launch and having machines on the shelves by launch are two different things...there is a lag, there.

Regardless, I'd be highly surprised if they hit 1m/month in Sept.

And if they have been stockpiling them for a long time, as well blue laser diods and if the production has not ramped up as expected could there be a component drought a bit later instead when the assembly is in full speed?

Yeah, you need to hope that by the time your stockpiles are exhausted, your monthly production of those components can sustain the same output. Although we don't know how large their stockpiles are.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Is Sony pulling a PSP on us (in terms of specs)?

AFAIK PSP was produced exactly to spec. The fact it's not running to max spec (333MHz) is to conserve batteries, but the peak specs are the same - CPU speed was listed as 1...333 MHz.

Why was specs at the forefront of Sony's PR campaign last year

It was news back then. Now they need to add to the marketting campaign, rather than bore everyone with regurgitating the same old specs which everyone's already heard.

...and now we know less about RSX than we knew last year.

How can we know less than we did last year?! Has someone used a satellite brain-ray to wipe the world's memories of PS3's spec from E3 '05? And have they scoured the internet and removed all reference to such figures so we'll never again know what they were? What we know is the same. We have the intended specs as they were presented, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Titanio]

AFAIK PSP was produced exactly to spec. The fact it's not running to max spec (333MHz) is to conserve batteries, but the peak specs are the same - CPU speed was listed as 1...333 MHz.

Well, they increased RAM versus the original spec also (from 8 to 32MB)

 

[Platon]

How can we know less than we did last year?! Has someone used a satellite brain-ray to wipe the world's memories of PS3's spec from E3 '05? And have they scoured the internet and removed all reference to such figures so we'll never again know what they were? What we know is the same. We have the intended specs as they were presented, nothing more, nothing less.

I guess he is thinking in the way that what you knew then, does not apply now then you know less, not about what you know/knew but about your knowledge of the actual fact. Ok, I'm dizzy...

 

[joebloggs]

PS3 goes into production. Full production.

 

[Arwin]

Well, they increased RAM versus the original spec also (from 8 to 32MB)

Yeah, and it would be great if they did the same with the PS3, upping the XDR to 768 would be awesome. Considering that devkits have apparently had 2Gb, it would almost seem that they don't rule that out themselves. And then with the whole Linux thing ...

Of course, it will get by also on 512. But it would be nice for sure ...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yeah, and it would be great if they did the same with the PS3, upping the XDR to 768 would be awesome. Considering that devkits have apparently had 2Gb, it would almost seem that they don't rule that out themselves...

Have they? Last I saw it was 512 MB each for XDR and GDDR.

How much effort would it be to increase XDR to 512 MB in PS3? Can they just whap in some larger chips, or would they need to tweak buses and such? I'd have thought the cost would be prohibitive, but if Sony want to present PS3 as a useful computer, 256 MB directly useable memory for Linux is a bit on the unconvincingly sparse side. I'd rate a memory increase unlikely though.

 

[Titanio]

Memory increases are highly highly unlikely. I think we would have heard about it at E3.

 

[Arwin]

Memory increases are highly highly unlikely. I think we would have heard about it at E3.

You might be right. But TGS is as good a place as any, and like with the PSP, it doesn't need to be announced until right before the launch either.

I think one good way of predicting the possibility of doing so, is to figure out what the street price of XDR was five months before the launch date but with the old Spring launch date in mind, and now.