Word of Sony's "Playstation 3" has been trickling out bit-by-bit, leaving little doubt that Sony is already planning ahead for the next-generation already. Instead of doing everything itself, Sony is turning to some interesting partners in its plans.

Instead of doing everything itself, Sony is turning to some interesting partners for its plans, namely Toshiba and IBM-manufacturer of Nintendo GameCube's "Gekko" chip. The trio of companies, Sony, Toshiba and IBM have announced a joint development agreement, to research and develop a new super parallel processor codenamed "CELL." A total of 400 million dollars will be investment into the CELL project over the next 5 years. Additionally, a new Joint Research & Development Center will be established at an IBM site in Texas, Austin in US.

A source from inside Sony spoke to our pals at FGN Online & indicated this deal may not just be about the next Sony console. "We don't necessarily want to be bound in our thinking by terms like 'PlayStation 3'. This is something that is truly revolutionary and really quite mind-blowing. It could be used in multiple applications."

Sony and Toshiba also announced that they have successfully reduced the size of the PS2 Emotion Engine processor from 0.18 micron to 0.13 micron, which can effectively cut down the manufacturing cost of the PlayStation 2 processors.