Written by LinuxGuru 
Alright guys, time for GDM part 3! This episode will feature info about the companies that fuel our entertainment, from a PS3 manufacturing perspective. Enjoy!
Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社 Sonī Kabushiki kaisha) is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world’s largest media conglomerates with revenue of US$88.7 billion (as of 2008). Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its name is derived from Sonus, the Greek goddess of sound.
Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its five operating segments—electronics, games, entertainment (motion pictures and music), financial services and other. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony’s principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson and Sony Financial Holdings. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. The company’s slogan is Sony. Like no other.
Sony is also part of “STI”, a group of 3 companies that collaborated on the design and manufacturing of the cell microprocessor. STI stands for ‘Sony, Toshiba, IBM’.
The multinational NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) (pronounced /ɪnˈvɪ.di.ə/) specializes in the manufacture of graphics-processor technologies for workstations, desktop computers, and mobile devices. Based in Santa Clara, California, the company has become a major supplier of integrated circuits (ICs) used for personal-computer motherboard chipsets, graphics processing units (GPUs), and game-consoles. Notable product lines include the GeForce series for gaming and the Quadro series for graphics processing on professional workstations, as well as the nForce series of integrated motherboard-chipsets.
NVIDIA also manufactured the RSX graphics processing unit for Sony’s PlayStation 3.
Part of “STI” (see definition above)
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed “Big Blue”, is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.
IBM has been known through most of its recent history as the world’s largest computer company; with over 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest information technology employer in the world. Despite falling behind Hewlett-Packard in total revenue since 2006, it remains the most profitable. IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. based technology company. It has engineers and consultants in over 170 countries and IBM Research has eight laboratories worldwide. IBM employees have earned three Nobel Prizes, four Turing Awards, five National Medals of Technology, and five National Medals of Science. As a chip maker, IBM has been among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders in past years, and in 2007 IBM ranked second in the list of largest software companies in the world.
Part of ‘STI” (see definition above)
Toshiba Corporation (株式会社東芝 Kabushiki-gaisha Tōshiba) (TYO: 6502) is a multinational conglomerate manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company’s main business is in Infrastructure, Consumer Products, and Electronic devices and components.
Toshiba-made Semiconductors are among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. Toshiba is the world’s fifth largest personal computer manufacturer, after Hewlett-Packard and Dell of the U.S., Acer of Taiwan and Lenovo of China.
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is the industry consortium that develops and licenses Blu-ray Disc technology and is responsible for establishing format standards and promoting business opportunities for Blu-ray Disc. The BDA is divided into three levels of membership: the Board of Directors, the Contributors, and the General Members.
The “Blu-ray Disc Founder group” was started in May 2002 by nine leading electronic companies: Sony, Matsushita, Pioneer, Philips, Thomson, LG Electronics, Hitachi, Sharp, and Samsung. Spearheaded by Sony Corporation, on February 19th 2002 the companies announced that they were the “Founders” of the Blu-ray Disc and later changed their name to the “Blu-ray Disc Association” on May 18, 2004 to allow more companies to join their development. Some examples of companies that signed in include Apple, TDK, Dell, Hewlett Packard, The Walt Disney Company, Warner Bros. and Universal Music Group. As of December 2007, there are more than 250 members and supporters of the Association.
