Sony reportedly Redesigning PS5 with 6nm AMD CPU, expected to drop in 2022

As per DigiTimes, Sony’s manufacturing partners are all set to start the production of redesigned PlayStation 5 in 2022. Currently, Sony is redesigning PS5 which would be cheaper to built and according to the company’s strategy, which could cut a console’s price after two years in the market.

The redesigned PS5 would have an AMD-designed system-on-chip (SoC) based on TSMC’s N6 (6 nm) fabrication process as opposed to the current SoC which uses TSMC’s N7 technology. A 5nm chip was also considered, but it would have been costly.

Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) and Tongfu Microelectronics are supposed to provide chip packaging services for Sony’s assembly partners. But for the time being, none of the companies has confirmed about the same.

For multi-patterning, speeding up manufacturing, and potentially increasing yields, TSMC’s N6 process is preferred as it uses extreme ultraviolet lithography for up to five layers. Also, the N6 technology has an 18% higher transistor density compared to N7, which can shrink die size and further reduce costs. N6 has the same design rules as N7 and enables designers of SoCs to re-use the same design ecosystem, which drops development costs. 

Sony has sold over 7.8 million consoles from last November till the end of Q1 2021. It is expected that the demand for PS5 and production would increase to more than 10 million this year. Production is reportedly to start in Q2-Q3 2022.