Well folks, Sony has finally released Playstation 3 information and it looks like Microsoft needs to be afraid - the PS3 looks smoking hot!
Sony today pulled the curtain up at the Electronic Entertainment Expo to reveal their development plans and launch schedule for their latest video game console, the Playstation 3.
Sony stated in a press release that the backwards compatible Playstation 3 will combine cutting edge technologies including Cell, a 3.2 GHz IBM-Sony-Toshiba jointly developed processor (seven cores to be specific), RSX, a 550MHz graphics processor co-developed by NVIDIA and SCEI and 256MB of XDR memory developed by Rambus. It will also use Sony’s Blu-ray Disc ROM (BD-ROM), which has maximum storage capacity of 54GB (dual layer), to deliver entertainment content in full HD quality. The PS3 will support resolution of 1080p as standard.
The Playstation 3 will, according to Sony, offer a computer power of approximately two teraflops. This will, in conjunction with the aforementioned technologies, be enough to provide highly refined movements of characters and objects as well as providing real time rendering of landscapes and virtual worlds.
Sony said in their release that Cell based development tools were already being delivered to gaming companies and that development of game titles, as well as tools and middleware, was under way.
Notable mentions of features from the specs in the press release include support for Dolby 5.1 and DTS, a slot for a 2.5†hard drive attachment, six USB 2.0 slots, slots for Memory Stick, Compact Flash and SD memory cards and built in support for Ethernet, wireless 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth. The wireless Bluetooth option will provide support for up to seven controllers, while the Wi-Fi could enable connection with Sony’s recently released PSP.
The Playstation 3 will also offer ports for outputting HDMI, analog and digital audio signals. Supported disc formats, besides the BD-ROM, will include CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, DualDisc, DVD-ROM and DVD-RW, among others.
Sony added that the Playstation 3 and next generation games will be available in the spring of 2006 in white, silver and black colors.
“SCEI has continuously brought innovation to the world of computer entertainment, such as real-time 3D computer graphics on PlayStation and the world’s first 128 bit processor Emotion Engine (EE) for PlayStation 2,†said Ken Kutaragi, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment. “Empowered by the Cell processor with super computer like performance, a new age of PLAYSTATION 3 is about to begin. Together with content creators from all over the world, SCEI will accelerate the arrival of a new era in computer entertainment.”
CPU Cell ProcessorPowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz1 VMX vector unit per core512KB L2 cache7 x SPE @3.2GHz7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancytotal floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS GPU RSX @550MHz1.8 TFLOPS floating point performanceFull HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channelsMulti-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines Sound Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing) Memory 256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz System Bandwidth Main RAM 25.6GB/sVRAM 22.4GB/sRSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read) SB< 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read) System Floating Point Performance 2 TFLOPS Storage Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1 I/O USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0) Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1SD standard/mini x 1CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1 Communication Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2) Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/gBluetooth 2.0 (EDR) Controller Bluetooth (up to 7) USB 2.0 (wired) Wi-Fi (PSP) Network (over IP) AV OutputScreen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080pHDMI: HDMI out x 2Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1 Disc MediaCD PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side) DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RWBlu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE
-- By Nino Marchetti for Designtechnica
Showing 25 comments
RSSbecause xbox 360 can play them. that is the only difference for me because both consoles will have great in game graphics. if ps3 can not be played on pc monitor then i am for xbox360 because hdtv are way expensive where i come from (croatia)
Pesonally Playstation 3 is really looking the best at the moment specs wise, but let's not forget people, that consoles are all about the games. I want to see some great games come out of all this raging competion, Otherwise it's all for nothing. Weather E3 vids are rendered i dont know, but i do know that if they were the REAL graphics, coupled with awsome gameplay what else would be more exciting on any cosole?
The advantage that I see MS having today is that they will be releasing the 360 first. This coupled with the fact that this is not just a GAMING console could really help them.
Sony, however, does have the "wait and see" advantage of seeing exactly what happens with the 360 release and adjusting specs/features on the fly.
All I know is it's going to be a fun 2006!!
Also based on the PS3 specs, it has a detachable HDD slot, so that could mean an itegrated hard drive?
The number of controllers tells you nothing, it should be relatively easy to connect 20 wireless controllers. I would expect Microsoft to bump up some specs, like the number of controllers, 1080 p support (easy with HDMI/DVI, and the ATI chip should be ready for it), and possibly some megahertz more to the graphics processor.
It seems to me that the graphics side of PS3 wasn't as it was originally imagined, otherwise I don't really understand why you would put two different very fast memory interfaces in it. When did NVidia come aboard? (Also dual HDMI is easy to do when dual outputs are in most graphics cards. Don't expect any good usage for it.)
Even Microsofts one teraflops figure was overhyped, and now Sony comes with two teraflops. In real world, both should fall far, far behind that figure. It may end up being very difficult to recognize the differences in X360 and PS3 games.
Sony should have enough time to redesign their controller if people complain too much about it. Looks strange, but for me PS2 controller is uncomfortable too.
I suppose it depends on how much your willing to pay for features you're probably never going to use.
What I have to wonder is whether the Xbox 360 will cost considerably less since it uses less hardware, I.E. no integrated WiFi, only supports 4 controllers, and lower resolution capabilities than the PS3.