Story at Daily Tech.

Normally I am not one of those guys quick to regurgitate a news blurb to get some big thread snowballing but holy crap, whatever you do, don't get a PS3 at launch.* The gist of this article suggests that if you've got 7 of 8 cores in the cell processor functional from purchase and one more goes after the warranty, you're out of luck. Even if it's covered by warranty that's a pain in the ass to have to return for repair. This isn't in the same league as replacing a DVD drive like in the PS2 or Xbox either, you'd have to stick in a new motherboard.

What experience I have with solid state electronics dictates that the longer an IC operates the more it has been 'tested' and most of the problem cells will have been weeded out in post production, but who wants to take that risk?

*I don't buy launch hardware, ever, as a general rule of thumb anyway.