Last week we spoke about Sony's CFO Takao Yuhara as he provided the Associated Press some details regarding a price-drop of the console. Yuhara re-iterated that, financially, Sony will be breaking even with the PS3 in just about a year's time. But the most important bit about that revelation was that the forecast included price-cuts, cost-cutting on materials, and more.
Yuhara first stated that the primary cost-cutting measure would be the new 65nm Cell processor, which is about 40% smaller than the current Cell processor existing in every PS3 today. The smaller processor will save Sony a lot in manufacturing expenses, and Yuhara has said that their production has already begun.
Additionally, Sony has maintained a stance to get the PS3 to eventually emulate PS2 and PSOne game, as opposed to using the PS2's hardware which is currently present inside of the PS3. Once this is accomplished, and we know Sony is working on this day and night, we can expect Sony to pull the Graphics Synthesizer and Emotion Engine chipset out of the PS3 - further reducing the cost of the system.
The wizards over at Beyond3D have suggested that Sony will likely be merging Bluetooth and Wi-Fi receivers into one shared component. Lastly, the PS3 is also expected to see a revised motherboard and internal power-supply. As the chipsets become tinnier, and thus draw less power, they will require a lighter and smaller power-supply to keep the console running.
It should be noted to the worrying few that none of these things will change the way the PS3 plays your games or functions. Essentially, the only difference between the PS3s today and the revised PS3s will be smaller internal hardware. Sony has done this in the past with the PSOne and the PS2, as each console received numerous internal hardware revisions. With that said, these revised PS3 consoles should hit stores just around the Summer time once the European launch window is complete.
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