It was announced today by Sony that test production for the Cell chips will be beginning soon, in their new Japan-based Nagasaki plant. The test batch of silicon wafers, with a 300mm diameter, are mostly going to be ‘breaking-in’ the new 65nm (nanometer) manufacturing process which they recently developed with Toshiba.
This news indicates that the Cell, which is widely accepted to be the technology powering the PlayStation 3, is making good progress, and should be developed in time for the PS3’s release (expected late 2005/2006).