Short answers, pulled from the story.
The PlayStation 3 launched in Japan on the 11th of November 2006. This launch featured a price tag that sent shockwaves through the gaming industry and resulted in the sale of over 81,000 units within 24 hours.
The manufacturing cost for the 20 GB model was estimated at US$805.85 and the 60 GB model cost US$840.35 to produce. Sony decided to sell these units at US$499 and US$599 respectively, meaning they lost approximately US$306 or US$241 on every single console sold.
The Cell Broadband Engine was co-developed by Sony, Toshiba, and IBM. This 64-bit CPU featured a 3.2 GHz PowerPC-based Power Processing Element and seven Synergistic Processing Elements.
The PlayStation 3 Slim released on the 18th of August 2009 during the Gamescom press conference. It featured a significantly slimmer and lighter chassis, reduced power consumption, and a quieter cooling system made possible by transitioning to smaller fabrication processes for the system's CPU and GPU.
Sony shut down the PlayStation Network and Qriocity for a prolonged interval due to an external intrusion. Sony later revealed that the personal information of 77 million users might have been taken, including names, addresses, countries, email addresses, birthdates, and login credentials.
Final production of the PlayStation 3 continued for the Japanese market until the 29th of May 2017. Shipments ended in most regions by 2016, and the console sold approximately 87.4 million units worldwide.