It's no secret that Sony has been eyeing a shift to 45nm Cell processors in the PS3 sooner or later, but the always talkative David Reeves (Sony Europe's president) has now finally dropped a bit more specificity on the matter, while naturally still leaving the company quite a bit of wiggle room. Speaking to The Guardian newspaper, Reeves said that Sony is "always looking at ways to reduce costs," and that one of those measures is "replacing the current 65 nanometer Cell chip with a 45 nanometer one probably in middle of year."
Reeves also expectedly talked up the PS3's multimedia capabilities, which he says will help the PS3 compete better with the Xbox 360 in the short term without the need for drastic price cuts, although he doesn't seem to complete rule out the notion of some increased affordability before the end of the year, saying "it will make progress" in that direction, no doubt with the aid of that aforementioned 45nm Cell processor.