Toshiba Corporation, major Japanese manufacturer of computers and electronic devices for consumers and industry. Headquarters are in Tokyo.The company was incorporated in 1939 as Tokyo Shibaura Electric Company, Ltd. (Japanese: Tōkyō Shibaura Denki KK), in the merger of Shibaura Engineering Works, Ltd., and Tokyo Electric Company, Ltd. It adopted its present name in 1978. Toshiba manufactures a variety of consumer and business products. In addition to HD televisions and laptop computers, the company builds DVD players, digital video recorders (DVRs), printers, copiers, lighting products, medical imaging equipment, surveillance systems, and liquid crystal display (LCD) devices. It also produces semiconductors as well as equipment for the generation of electric power, industrial motors, and industrial electronics. It has a number of subsidiaries in other countries. Toshiba, in cooperation with the Sony Corporation and another American firm, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), designed the Cell Broadband Engine. Developed over a four-year period beginning in 2001, this advanced computer chip has multiple applications, from IBM supercomputers to Toshiba high-definition (HD) televisions to the Sony Playstation 3 electronic game system. In 2008 Toshiba introduced a line of laptops, or notebook computers, based on the Cell processor.
