October 25, 2004 – Sony Corp. aims to boost its ratio of semiconductors made in-house from the current 20% to at least 40% within three years, according to the The Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Overall, Sony group firms now use roughly 1 trillion yen (US$9.32 billion) worth of semiconductor chips/year, but produce only 20% of this number.
As more audio-visual products embrace digital technology, the Sony group’s semiconductor use is expected to increase 50% to 1.5 trillion yen within three years. By boosting development and production of semiconductors among group firms, the major electronics maker hopes to beef up its competitiveness and profitability.
Sony plans to design and develop all core system chips for its Sugoroku series DVD recorders, starting with models to be launched later this year. The company currently outsources development of the image compression component of the chips.
In addition, Sony plans around next year to begin mass-producing the Cell, a high-performance chip that it has been developing with IBM Corp. and Toshiba Corp.