AirRaid
02-09-08, 03:14 AM
Not new news, but I decided to start a thread to collect articles that haved rumored/reported on Nvidia's involvement with Sony PlayStation Portable 2 (PSP2). Word first surfaced that Nvidia got a 2nd graphics design win / contract with Sony (the first being for PS3) back in early 2006.
This 2nd contract was said to be worth more to Nvidia than the RSX PS3 contract.
Jen-Hsun Huang talking about the original PSP:
"The PSP is really one the last 3D devices that will be built inhouse by anybody on the planet"
http://cellphones.engadget.com/2006/03/24/nvidia-gets-contract-for-next-gen-sony-console/
Nvidia gets contract for next-gen Sony console?
by Marc Perton
"Nvidia, which got about $30 million from Sony for the PS3 graphics
engine, has signed on with Sony for another product -- and Nvidia execs
say the new deal will run through 2007, and should earn the company
"slightly more" than the PS3 deal. So, what's it gonna be,
rumor-mongers? PSP2? Vaio media center? A color Reader? For now,
though, Nvidia is playing coy, boasting about the deal, but going all
silent on the details, which, of course, just forces us into rampant
speculation mode. So, for now we're counting on either the Clie 2007 or
an MD player with integrated video -- and with Sony being Sony, we
could just be right."
http://web.archive.org/web/20060324214411/http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29406
I'd say the primary highlight is what they call "NRE2" Revenue
with Sony and the massive talks of handheld. They also got a slide with
"growth opportunities" listing portable game consoles-like devices as
"30M units per year" for them, in the "CE" category along with PS3.
Overall, it is plainly obvious that NVIDIA is working with Sony on
PSP2. They expect NREs to last nearly two years on that, so I'd expect
it to be a mid/late 2008 part.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=technology&storyID=nN23330678&from=business
Nvidia says lands new Sony design contract
Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:04pm ET40
SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 23 (Reuters) - Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. said on Thursday it has a new design contract with Sony Corp. that will pay more than it earned for creating the graphics processor for the upcoming PlayStation 3 video game console.
Sony paid Nvidia about $30 million for designing the PS3's graphics chip, a fee that was paid out gradually as work on the processor was completed, Nvidia's chief financial officer Marv Burkett said.
"We had anticipated that (contract revenue) would drop off, but that's not going to happen," Burkett told financial analysts. "We have new contracts with Sony to do some further designs."
Revenue from the new contract would be "probably slightly more" than the first and would continue into 2007, Burkett said.
Burkett declined to reveal what the design work was for.
"We have a contract to do engineering work for them. I don't think I should discuss what that product is," Burkett said.
Nvidia is expected to have revenue of about $2.8 billion this year, so the new design work would be just a small slice of its overall business.
In the case of the PS3, the engineering contract is the smallest of three revenue streams Nvidia collects. It also gets a licensing fee paid out each quarter until mid-2009 and collects a royalty on each chip Sony makes.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/41595
New "PSP 2" in the Works
by Chris Remo Apr 07, 2006 1:54pm CST
Shacknews has learned from a reliable source close to Sony that a new iteration of its PSP console is currently in the works. The device is a successor rather than a redesign of the current system; recent rumors have suggested that Sony is also working on a redesigned PSP. It is not clear if the two rumors are in fact speaking about the same project, but this new report definitely refers to a brand new system. It will have built in hard drive support from the beginning, and will not be using the UMD media format, either for games or for other content. This makes sense, since the PSP is the only device that uses UMDs, and since UMD movie sales have been falling lately, there is little reason for Sony to stick with the format. However, it does appear to rule out the possibility of backwards compatibility. It is unknown what format will be used in its stead. The device, which the source referred to only as "PSP 2," is currently in development, and may appear some time "in the next three years."
Nvidia recently announced that it has a new design contract with Sony, one which will apparently pay more than the company received for its work on the PlayStation 3's GPU. It seems fairly likely that the contract in question refers to this PSP successor, given Sony's history of working with Nvidia on game console technology.
When contacted for comment, SCEA representative Paul Murphy said, "As you know, SCEA does not comment on rumors or speculation."
Nvidia hiring eDRAM engineers for new project:
http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module2/79459/job_qjpreviewth.png
http://web.archive.org/web/20070127091408/www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37668
NVIDIA hiring eDRAM engineers - for Sony's PSP2?
15-Jan-2007, 10:21.03 Reporter : Uttar
A quick look at NVIDIA's website will reveal that they are currently looking for eDRAM engineers. It's worth noting that they have never shipped any such design, and it seems extremely unlikely to us that anyone in the industry is planning to use eDRAM on products aimed at the PC market. As such, this could be a further confirmation that NVIDIA has the contract for Sony's PSP2 handheld.
Indeed, the original PSP has plenty of eDRAM (2MB for the GPU alone), and the PS2 GPU has its fair share of it too. These chips are manufactured in Sony's own fabs, which thus seem rather well tuned for it. It has already looked extremely likely for a while that NVIDIA would get the contract, as past financial conference calls have had Jen-Hsun Huang say that he believes the original PSP's graphics chip will be the last one developped in-house for any console or CE device. That wouldn't theorically exclude AMD from the contract though, of course - and while it's likely it has been decided by now who won the contract, it's also impossible to be sure.
Still, this eDRAM job offer is a further confirmation of NVIDIA's likely contract with Sony on this project, which you would expect to see shipping around 2009, given the traditional industry cycles. Assuming a royalty-based model, likely per-unit revenue would be between 3 and 5 dollars, in addition to one-time payments. That's not a lot of money for either NVIDIA or AMD nowadays, but it remains financially appealing because of the 100% margins associated with the deal.
This 2nd contract was said to be worth more to Nvidia than the RSX PS3 contract.
Jen-Hsun Huang talking about the original PSP:
"The PSP is really one the last 3D devices that will be built inhouse by anybody on the planet"
http://cellphones.engadget.com/2006/03/24/nvidia-gets-contract-for-next-gen-sony-console/
Nvidia gets contract for next-gen Sony console?
by Marc Perton
"Nvidia, which got about $30 million from Sony for the PS3 graphics
engine, has signed on with Sony for another product -- and Nvidia execs
say the new deal will run through 2007, and should earn the company
"slightly more" than the PS3 deal. So, what's it gonna be,
rumor-mongers? PSP2? Vaio media center? A color Reader? For now,
though, Nvidia is playing coy, boasting about the deal, but going all
silent on the details, which, of course, just forces us into rampant
speculation mode. So, for now we're counting on either the Clie 2007 or
an MD player with integrated video -- and with Sony being Sony, we
could just be right."
http://web.archive.org/web/20060324214411/http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29406
I'd say the primary highlight is what they call "NRE2" Revenue
with Sony and the massive talks of handheld. They also got a slide with
"growth opportunities" listing portable game consoles-like devices as
"30M units per year" for them, in the "CE" category along with PS3.
Overall, it is plainly obvious that NVIDIA is working with Sony on
PSP2. They expect NREs to last nearly two years on that, so I'd expect
it to be a mid/late 2008 part.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=technology&storyID=nN23330678&from=business
Nvidia says lands new Sony design contract
Thu Mar 23, 2006 4:04pm ET40
SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 23 (Reuters) - Graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp. said on Thursday it has a new design contract with Sony Corp. that will pay more than it earned for creating the graphics processor for the upcoming PlayStation 3 video game console.
Sony paid Nvidia about $30 million for designing the PS3's graphics chip, a fee that was paid out gradually as work on the processor was completed, Nvidia's chief financial officer Marv Burkett said.
"We had anticipated that (contract revenue) would drop off, but that's not going to happen," Burkett told financial analysts. "We have new contracts with Sony to do some further designs."
Revenue from the new contract would be "probably slightly more" than the first and would continue into 2007, Burkett said.
Burkett declined to reveal what the design work was for.
"We have a contract to do engineering work for them. I don't think I should discuss what that product is," Burkett said.
Nvidia is expected to have revenue of about $2.8 billion this year, so the new design work would be just a small slice of its overall business.
In the case of the PS3, the engineering contract is the smallest of three revenue streams Nvidia collects. It also gets a licensing fee paid out each quarter until mid-2009 and collects a royalty on each chip Sony makes.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/41595
New "PSP 2" in the Works
by Chris Remo Apr 07, 2006 1:54pm CST
Shacknews has learned from a reliable source close to Sony that a new iteration of its PSP console is currently in the works. The device is a successor rather than a redesign of the current system; recent rumors have suggested that Sony is also working on a redesigned PSP. It is not clear if the two rumors are in fact speaking about the same project, but this new report definitely refers to a brand new system. It will have built in hard drive support from the beginning, and will not be using the UMD media format, either for games or for other content. This makes sense, since the PSP is the only device that uses UMDs, and since UMD movie sales have been falling lately, there is little reason for Sony to stick with the format. However, it does appear to rule out the possibility of backwards compatibility. It is unknown what format will be used in its stead. The device, which the source referred to only as "PSP 2," is currently in development, and may appear some time "in the next three years."
Nvidia recently announced that it has a new design contract with Sony, one which will apparently pay more than the company received for its work on the PlayStation 3's GPU. It seems fairly likely that the contract in question refers to this PSP successor, given Sony's history of working with Nvidia on game console technology.
When contacted for comment, SCEA representative Paul Murphy said, "As you know, SCEA does not comment on rumors or speculation."
Nvidia hiring eDRAM engineers for new project:
http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module2/79459/job_qjpreviewth.png
http://web.archive.org/web/20070127091408/www.beyond3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=37668
NVIDIA hiring eDRAM engineers - for Sony's PSP2?
15-Jan-2007, 10:21.03 Reporter : Uttar
A quick look at NVIDIA's website will reveal that they are currently looking for eDRAM engineers. It's worth noting that they have never shipped any such design, and it seems extremely unlikely to us that anyone in the industry is planning to use eDRAM on products aimed at the PC market. As such, this could be a further confirmation that NVIDIA has the contract for Sony's PSP2 handheld.
Indeed, the original PSP has plenty of eDRAM (2MB for the GPU alone), and the PS2 GPU has its fair share of it too. These chips are manufactured in Sony's own fabs, which thus seem rather well tuned for it. It has already looked extremely likely for a while that NVIDIA would get the contract, as past financial conference calls have had Jen-Hsun Huang say that he believes the original PSP's graphics chip will be the last one developped in-house for any console or CE device. That wouldn't theorically exclude AMD from the contract though, of course - and while it's likely it has been decided by now who won the contract, it's also impossible to be sure.
Still, this eDRAM job offer is a further confirmation of NVIDIA's likely contract with Sony on this project, which you would expect to see shipping around 2009, given the traditional industry cycles. Assuming a royalty-based model, likely per-unit revenue would be between 3 and 5 dollars, in addition to one-time payments. That's not a lot of money for either NVIDIA or AMD nowadays, but it remains financially appealing because of the 100% margins associated with the deal.