Does Sony have semiconductor division? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: sangar
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 12:15:54 pm
content: Hi All,In one of the conversation, my colleague said that SONY is the end-product company and it does not have any semiconductor division for them...Instantly, I googled the above and I got Sony-semicon...As far as I know, this Sony-semicon is only focusing on Digital image sensor as I don't see others except this...Well,Q1:Does sony owns this Sony-semicon ?Q2: Do they focus on others but Digital image sensor?Thanks,Muthu

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 12:37:53 pm
content: Sony developed heaps of silicon for their own stuff, and others.How about their game consoles? A lot of Sony video encoders and such ended up in all sorts of camcorders, and (now retro) computers.

author: @rt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 12:39:37 pm
content: CD player and CD drive chipsets are another one. Just start typing Sony CXD into Google and let autocomplete do the rest.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 11, 2018, 02:49:07 pm
content: 30 years ago Sony had a semiconductor division producing quite a range of both consumer products and high performance products. They built a lot of what they needed for their own consumer and professional end equipment, and they sold widely on the open market. For example, in the early 90s they were the place to go to for high performance DACs. They needed them for the workstation equipment they produced, available products were not good enough, so they made their own, and offered them to the open market.Now, their focus seems much narrower.

author: bitwelder
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 02:52:46 pm
content: To be on-topic with the owner of this forum, just watch Dave's teardown of any Sony device he had in his hands, and you'll see plenty of Sony (quite specialized) ICs.

author: raptor1956
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 05:09:31 pm
content: I high percentage of the imaging chips in DSLR's and other cameras are made by Sony. The picture gets a bit more complicated when you realize that a lot of chip companies are not actually chip companies but IP creators that rely on foundries to actually make there chips. A decade ago AMD was a big chip maker, today they don't make any chips at all and instead rely on companies like Global Foundries to FAB there parts. I'm not sure where Sony is on that spectrum.Brian

author: Nauris
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 08:50:39 pm
content: Quote from: raptor1956 on November 12, 2018, 05:09:31 pmTheir web pages say Sony is very much in the chip making end with 6 fabs located in Japan, latest ones opened in 2014 and 2016.I found video from Kumamoto fab after the earthquake in 2016:

author: schmitt trigger
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 09:06:40 pm
content: Back in the late 80s, when IR remote controls were not completely integrated into a single device, we used a specialized Sony IC to amplify the photodiode signal.They of course, used it on their TVs and VCRs, but was also available to other OEMs.

author: Wan Huang Luo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 09:23:43 pm
content: This article gives a good description of Sony's semiconductor manufacturing operations;https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2017/09/05/sony-kumamoto-sensor-factory-tour-a-rare-glimpseQuote

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 09:37:42 pm
content: In the ultra-specialized world of broadcast, Sony has developed a myriad of specialized silicon solutions. They are, however using more and FPGA for flexibility on products that are aimed at moving targets.Short and misplld from my mobile......

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 09:44:47 pm
content: Quote from: blueskull on November 12, 2018, 09:27:37 pm"Secretive" and "foundry services" don't go together. If you haven't seen Sony silicon in non-Sony products you probably haven't looked very much.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 10:23:37 pm
content: Quote from: blueskull on November 12, 2018, 09:27:37 pmSony image sensors (and complete sub-assembly "block-cameras") are widely used (and advertised) in consumer and broadcast gear.Sony was the first (or one of the first?) Japanese companies to license the transistor from Bell Labs back in the early 1950s. They developed their own manufacturing process from scratch. There was a great documentary on YouTube about this. I will see if I can find it again.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 10:39:16 pm
content: Quote from: blueskull on November 12, 2018, 09:53:03 pmI designed Sony silicon into OEM consumer digital set-top-boxes in the late '90s/ early 2000s. Their customer design support relationship was excellent, they were always keen to share advanced info and get feedback to improve future product integration.Of course that was before they downsized their UK operations, but there again, so did we!

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 12, 2018, 10:55:15 pm
content: Quote from: blueskull on November 12, 2018, 09:53:03 pmSony chipsets for non-Sony CD and other disk players.Sony chipsets for non-Sony analogue TVs. They never seemed to get their act together with digital TV.Sony SRAMs seemed to be all over the place in the 90s.Sony video ADCs and DACs seemed to be everywhere in the 90s. The DACs were used a lot in 90s era digital radio, as their glitch energy was lower than DACs made by people like ADI specifically for the purpose.Sony MEMs devices seem to be widely used, although I'm not clear if they have a big market share like they do with image sensors.Most of the Sony silicon I know about is not particularly new, but there is an awful lot of it out there in the world in non-Sony products. None of the Japanese semiconductor makers have done very well in the last 10 to 15 years. Just look at the sad tale of Renesas.

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2018, 12:45:24 am
content: Sony re-arranged their web pages in the last few years to consumer friendly, phone friendly marketing fluff that forces you to contact their sales people to get anywhere near hardware data. That is is why your not finding data on their operations. I went looking for block camera data a month ago and struggled till I found Sony Europe's web pages seem to be independent of Sony Global Marketing.Steve

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2018, 12:50:33 am
content: Quote from: LaserSteve on November 13, 2018, 12:45:24 amIndeed, their US websites are useless fluff almost completely devoid of useful technical information.I have also found that for the real technical info you must go to the UK, EU, or even South American websites.I was a rabid Sony fan-boy for decades since I was in high school. But that is wearing pretty thin in recent times.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2018, 01:36:32 am
content: Quote from: blueskull on November 13, 2018, 12:53:18 amI think NXP overtook Renesas when they merged with Freescale, but Renesas are certainly big in MCUs. However, they aren't that big compared to the combined market shares of NEC, Hitachi and Mitsubishi before they merged.Without their strong automotive presence Renesas would probably have died. People like Toyota had to take part in the bailouts, because they couldn't afford to see Renesas disappear. The last time I talked to automotive people, which might be about 4 years ago, their highest priority was to get parallel designs free of Renesas parts ready.