Even so, a delay to the PlayStation 3 would also have repercussions across the video-games industry.

ECONOMIST: The video-games industry

The company also plugs the ability of the PlayStation 3 to do far more than just play video games: it can show high-definition DVDs, connect to the internet and, with the right accessories, record TV programmes.

BBC: Halo 3 character

Cell chips are well suited to processing streams of video and sound, and for modelling the complex three-dimensional worlds of video games, so Cell's debut will be in Sony's next-generation games console, the PlayStation 3, which is expected to contain four of the beasts.

ECONOMIST: Computing