Before you jump to conclusions, it’s not that IBM will no longer manufacture that precious little chip that powers your Sony PlayStation 3, but the Sony, Toshiba and IBM co-developed processor will not see the previously announced 32 SPE processor ever happen now. Not by IBM at least. And previously, Toshiba bought out Sony’s stake in the Cell CPU foundry [ article here ] almost two years ago.

IBM’s most recent development in the Cell Processor’s design is the PoweXCell 8i, which is featured in the second most powerful supercomputer in the world; Roadrunner.

However, this is where Cell will end for IBM. The company’s Vice President David Turek, told German website Heise Online that the planned 32 SPE Cell processor will not be made.

Fret not… the PlayStation3 processor will still live on. And if Sony wants to use a variation of the Cell in the PlayStation4, I’m sure IBM can be convinced with a few briefcases of money. But it does make you wonder what else will happen for this “wonder” chip. Seems to me like it’s finally starting to lose to the faster, more efficient (to program for at least) CPU plus GPU combination.

[ PlayStation University ] [ Heise Online ] [ IBM ]

SEOUL, Korea (AVING) — Toshiba Korea launched its premium ultra-thin notebook pc ‘PORTEGE T130′ in Korea market, which is designed to meet the demands of everyday mobility.

Measuring less than one inch thin at its slimmest point and weighing 1.7kg with 6-cell battery pack, it adopts a 13.3-inch Clear SuperView 16:9 widescreen. Powered by Windows 7 OS and power-efficient Intel ultra-low voltage processors, the PORTEGE T130 is equipped with ultra-fast DDR3 memory and lots of expansion ports, including HDMI-out.

Toshiba Korea launched its premium ultra-thin notebook pc ‘PORTEGE T130′ in Korea market, which is designed to meet the demands of everyday mobility.

Link to the original article…

Anybody remember the whole Betamax vs. VHS battle? Sony, the chief backer of Beta, wasn’t as nice as Toshiba and the retailers are pertaining those that purchased the Toshiba and Microsoft backed HD-DVD.

This time, some said that HD-DVD was doomed from the beginning with the Sony PlayStation 3 serving as their “trojan horse” to get into millions of homes and help push Blu-Ray over HD-DVD’s popularity. Meanwhile, earlier released Blu-Ray players were having problems playing such recently released and Blu-Ray profile updated titles like Pirates of the Caribbean.

With that said, just under a month ago, Toshiba finally pulled the plug on HD-DVD and a lot of people are looking at their last movies coming out, or have came out. Terminator 2 will be the last real release – I think there’s a Veggie Tales that’s being touted as coming out a bit later, if Paramount doesn’t stop that from being released as well.

So what to do… what to do.

Seems like Best Buy got your back. Yeah… that Best Buy.

Until December 31st, 2008, if you purchased a HD-DVD player and/or HD-DVD attachment (think: Microsoft XBOX360 HD-DVD add-on) before February 22nd, 2008, you’re eligible for a $50.00 that Best Buy will be proactively mailing cards to some of its customers and expects to distribute more than $10 million in gift cards. Also feel free to hit up the Best Buy HD-DVD trade-in program.

This offer starts March 21st.

Even though I avoided this battle for the “next generation” of video, this might be helpful for quite a few of you – I’m still enjoying my Betamax