Samsung to supply chips for Sony's PSP

Samsung Electronics said Thursday that it would supply memory chips to power Sony's new handheld game console, helping it make inroads into the consumer electronics market for memory chips.

For Sony, the deal will help it meet its target of shipping 3 million units of the PlayStation Portable (PSP), the portable version of its PlayStation 2 console, worldwide by March 31. The company has faced a challenge meeting the target because of a difficulty in procuring enough key components, such as advanced chips.

Samsung, the world's top memory chip maker, expects the deal to help expand its memory chip market to include various consumer electronics products, such as digital cameras and game devices, beyond cell phones.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate launched the PSP on Dec. 12 in Japan and shipped about 510,000 units by Dec. 31. It plans to launch the new console in the United States and Europe in March.

Samsung said its chip package would have a capacity of 64 megabytes and consists of 256-megabit NAND flash memory and high-speed mobile DDR (double data rate) DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips.

Shares in Samsung rose 0.3 percent to 441,000 won ($423.2) as of 03.14 GMT, versus a 0.11 percent drop in the broader market. Shares in Sony were up 0.99 percent to 4,070 yen.