The Sony Precision Engineering Center subsidiary of Sony Corp is to invest $53m over the next five years to set up a components research and development division to develop optical data storage devices for the information technology and multimedia industries. Some design knowledge will be transferred from Japan to jump- start the project, Sony said. It said 60 research scientists would be hired and trained over the five-year period; Singapore- based Sony Precision was established in 1987 to serve as a regional technological support base for Sony Corp and currently manufactures precision components and provides specialized services in factory automation.
