April 21, 2003 – Tokyo, Japan – Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) and Sony Corp. said they would invest a total of approximately 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion) over three fiscal years from 2003 to 2005 in the installation of a semiconductor fabrication line to build chips with 65nm process on 300mm wafers.

With this investment, SCEI will manufacture the new microprocessor for the broadband era, code-named Cell, as well as other system LSIs, to be used for the next generation computer entertainment system. This investment serves an important role not only for SCEI but also for the Sony Group to develop future broadband network businesses.

Of the 200 billion yen, 73 billion yen will be invested in the FY03. Installment of a new semiconductor fabrication line for building chips with 65nm process on 300mm wafers will be initiated in SCEI’s Fab2, a semiconductor fabrication facility located in Isahaya City, Nagasaki Prefecture. Test production will begin using the new fabrication line, gradually moving on to mass production.

Since the spring of 2001, SCEI has been engaged, together with IBM Corp. and Toshiba Corp., in the development of the new microprocessor for the broadband era. Also, since the spring of 2002, Sony has participated in the said three-company alliance for the development of the advanced semiconductor process technologies. R&D of digital signal processing technologies for broadband applications are also being conducted.

By means of this investment, SCEI and Sony aim to effectively conduct test production, and to quickly establish a mass production system with 65nm embedded DRAM process.