Sony says the chips, which are already widely used in its game consoles, will enable it to boost the functions of its TVs at little cost.

The Sony Playstation chips' ability to handle detailed computer graphics will improve the TV's image-processing capacity, leading to faster on-screen control for selecting the type of TV broadcasts or viewing image data stored on digital or video cameras, for example.

In an effort to catch up to Sharp and other firms in the flat-panel television market, Sony (NYSE: SNE) plans to install its high-performance game console chips in the flat-panel TVs that it is slated to release this fall.

The new TVs will be equipped with chips used in the company's PlayStation 2 home-use game consoles and PSX DVD recorder-game consoles. Sony fabricates these chips at a group plant in Nagasaki Prefecture.

The chips' ability to handle detailed computer graphics will improve the TV's image-processing capacity, leading to faster on-screen control for selecting the type of TV broadcasts or viewing image data stored on digital or video cameras, for example. Sony says the chips, which are already widely used in its game consoles, will enable it to boost the functions of its TVs at little cost.

The electronics and entertainment giant is codeveloping the next-generation Cell microprocessor with IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Toshiba, and has announced its plans to use the Cell chip not just in its next-generation game console but in a gamut of digital home electronics. But the Cell chip is not expected to be ready for mass production until 2005, so products that use the device will not hit the market until that year or in 2006.

In the meantime, Sony intends to use its current game console chips in a wide range of products in a bid to raise product competitiveness.

From TechNewsWorld