Sony might be finally in a position to make at least a few dollars on the sale of PlayStation 3 consoles with the news that the company has achieved a shrink of the RSX graphics chip from 65nm to 40nm. The die shrink, of course, brings in multiple benefits, but if the yields are good they should be able to get more chips per wafer.

The move to 40nm for the RSN graphics chip follows a similar move that the company made by shrinking the Cell CPU to 45nm high-k process from the 90nm process that the Cell processor used previously. The shrink to 40nm will also cut the amount of supporting chips on the circuit board. In addition, the new RSX using the 40nm process will run cooler, as well, although the actual numbers are not known.

The move is really a bigger deal and necessary for Sony to help it rebound for all of the losses that the company has had on the PlayStation 3 hardware. With the move to the slim version of the PlayStation 3 console Sony was said to be close to breaking even, perhaps making a few dollars on each unit; with the move to the RSX 40nm, they should be able to do much better than this, depending on the total revisions that they are able to make with this cost savings exercise.