It sounds unlikely yet its true, at least if we were to believe the book The race for a new game machine . According to the writers David Shippy and Mickie Philips - who were major brains behind the design of the cell processor which powers the Playstation 3 , they sat down with Microsoft engineers and helped them to design the chip that powers the Xbox 360.

In 2001, Sony partnered with Toshiba and IBM to make the Cell chip. During its development, Microsoft approached IBM to have their own chip built around components of the Cell chip.

Sony had agreed with IBM that the chip technology would be sold to other companies. At that time they had no idea that a competitor would use their R&D money so effectively against them. To add salt to the wound, the first chip run had a problem.

This meant that Sony had to sit back twiddling its thumbs while Microsoft who had a backup manufacturing capacity remained on track and reached the market with the Xbox 360 first. Further delays with other components meant that the PS3 got pushed back even more allowing the Xbox360 to become a major success.

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