Earlier this month, AMD announced that it has shipped 50 million graphics chips for Nintendo Wii. IBM the supplier of CPU for Wii also followed AMD and announced that the company has shipped 50 million processors for the Wii game system. IBM first began supplying the processor, which was custom designed for Nintendo Wii in 2006 and Wii was released in November 2006. The CPU chip for Wii is based on IBM’s Power Architecture and it uses IBM’s silicon-on-insulator technology.

"We are proud to have achieved this important milestone in supplying the microprocessor for Nintendo's Wii system, which has brought millions of new consumers to the gaming experience," said Brian Connors, vice president, games and power platforms for IBM Microelectronics. "IBM has a long, successful relationship with Nintendo combining silicon technology with game system creativity to deliver winning products."

Shipment of 50 millionth processors for Wii doesn’t mean that Nintendo has shipped 50 million Wiis. As some of the processors might still be in queue for production of Wii system and some processors might have been used to repair damaged Wii systems. However, this does mean that before end of 2009 Nintendo will ship 50 millionth Wii, increasing its lead over Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 gaming systems.
[Via IBM]