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The finished PlayStation Portable, and a variety of accessories.

The PlayStation Portable, officially known as the PSP, is a not yet released handheld game console by Sony Computer Entertainment. The PSP was unveiled during E³ 2004 on May 11th, at a Sony press conference.

It is intended as a platform for videogames and other entertainment media. With this in mind, the PSP provides various storage formats by supporting Sony Memory Sticks (PRO Duo) and "Universal Media Discs" instead of traditional solid-state cartridges.

Release

On October 27 2004, Sony announced the PSP's Japanese launch date and price. The machine will appear in a pack containing the console, battery, and mains adaptor for 20,790 yen including tax (around US$195, EUR 153, £106) on December 12, 2004. A "Value Pack" will also be available, consisting of the console, battery, mains adaptor, 32MB Magicgate Memory Stick Duo PRO, headphones, remote, slip-case and wrist strap, for 26,040 yen including tax (around US$245, EUR 192, £133).

As yet, the European and North American release dates have not been announced.

Games

A variety of first- and third-party games are in development. See the "List of PlayStation Portable games" for a comprehensive list. The PSP's inputs are geared for gaming rather than multimedia, with two shoulder buttons (triggers), the iconic PlayStation face buttons, a digital directional pad, and an analogue input. There is also a panel of secondary controls, for volume, display, and multimedia, along the underside of the screen (see image).

The PSP's analogue input is apparently not a traditional stick, but a sliding flat panel; its odd placement had lead most to believe it was a speaker. Concerns exist regarding the practicality of the input (its position makes it very much secondary to the directional pad), although reports from E³ and the Tokyo Game Show have been largely positive.

Launch Games (December 12th, 2004)

Armored Core: Formula Front (From Software)
Mahjong Taikai (Koei)
Mahjong Fight Club (Konami)
Everybody's Golf Portable (SCE)
Ridge Racers (Namco)
Vampire Chronicle: The Chaos Tower (Capcom)
Lumines (Bandai)

Multimedia

The PSP will be capable of playing movie and audio files from the UMD disk format. Sony is reportedly in talks with various studios with regards to producing their content on UMDs; Sony Pictures and Sony Music's formidable back catalogues are likely to appear on the system at or soon after launch.

Video and audio files will also be playable from Memory Stick Duo or Memory Stick Duo PRO memory cards. Sony's recent company-wide policy change has meant that the PSP will support MP3 (but not AAC, also known as M4a) in addition to Sony's own ATRAC for audio. In a surprisingly uncommercial move, it's been confirmed that AVC (h.264) video files will be playable from memory sticks; it had been expected that video would only be playable from UMD to improve software sales.

Sony have announced that Image Converter 2, a piece of PC software for converting video files to AVC for playback on Clie palmtops, will be available before the end of the year, and may be used with the PSP. A preview version will be available one day after the PSP's launch for this purpose. The input file formats have not been announced.

The unit will also display JPEG images. In order to transfer files to the system, it must be connected to a PC via the USB port; the memory stick in the PSP is made available as a generic mass storage device.

As the system firmware is upgradable, Sony have not ruled out support for other audio and video CODECs in future; these would have to be decoded in software rather than hardware (it is not yet clear whether AVC, MP3 and ATRAC decoding are performed in-hardware, however). It is also technically feasable for a third party to release a disk of decoders (on UMD format) to play back unsupported video files (from Memory Stick).

Networking

Wi-Fi support allows the PSP to connect to wireless networks, other PSP units, and according to several industry insiders, Sony's upcoming PlayStation 3. It has been suggested that the PSP could link to the PS2 through its USB port. With some games (such as Gran Turismo 4 and Armored Core: Formula Front) appearing on both formats, this could provide functionality similar to the links between GameCube and Game Boy Advance titles. However, no developers have announced such connectivity.

The PSP's main menu allows the user to configure the system for use across a wireless network; this is not necessary for ad-hoc connection to nearby PSPs. A handful of titles (including an as-yet untitled MMORPG) have been announced which use this wireless network functionality, however details are scarce.

Peripherals like a USB Camera, GPS attachment, and headphones with lanyard are expected.

Power

With the release of the Japanese launch details, Sony released their first figures for battery life. The machine will be capable of 4-6 hours of game play, or 4-5 hours of movie UMD playback, depending on the screen brightness selected. However, Sony concede that battery life will be heavily dependent on the game chosen; games such as Puzzle Bobble are expected to greatly extend the battery life of the system, with games such as Ridge Racers probably providing shorter battery lifes. Ken Kuturagi has compared the system to the Walkman, in that battery life will be improved with each product revision, and has outlined some steps (switching to a different fabrication process, for example) which will be used to improve the system's endurance.

It has been confirmed that the PSP's battery will be removable for replacement by the end-user. This may be a response to the criticisms which the Apple iPod has recieved regarding its battery. Extra batteries will be available at the Japanese launch as an accessory, for 5040 yen including tax (around US$47, EUR 37, £26).

Technical information

The PlayStation Portable's CPU can operate at 1-333MHz; the system has 32MB of main RAM and 4MB of embedded DRAM. There are also various co-processors and "Cores" listed in the specifications; it is not clear how many of these are unique systems or how the are considered in programming. These are a 1-333MHz "Media Engine", two "Graphics Cores", and a "Sound Core". There is also an integral h.264 decoder, although it is not clear whether this is a specific hardware function.

The first of these "Graphics Cores" provides hardware polygon and NURBS rendering, clipping, morphing, bones in models, texture compression and tessallation. The second provides surface rendering (presumably texture rendering and pixel rendering for the complete display image.

External links and references

Official Sony PSP Website (Japanese).
Console Database - Info on both the official and unofficial PSP consoles as well as where to buy it.
Sony takes on GameBoy, from CNN/Money 14 May 2003
PSPInsider.com
PSP.ign.com: The PSP FAQ
SCEA PSP Specifications press release
PSP Info and Pictures
PSP Discussion Board

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 ==Technical information==
-The PlayStation Portable's [[Central processing unit|CPU]] can operate at 1-333[[Megahertz|MHz]]; the system has 32[[Megabytes|MB]] of main [[Random access memory|RAM]] and 4MB of embedded [[DRAM]]. There are also various [[coprocessors]] and "Cores" listed in the specifications; it is not clear how many of these are unique systems or how the are considered in programming. These are a 1-333MHz "Media Engine", two "Graphics Cores", and a "Sound Core". There is also an integral [[h.264]] decoder.
+The PlayStation Portable's [[Central processing unit|CPU]] can operate at 1-333[[Megahertz|MHz]]; the system has 32[[Megabyte|MB]] of main [[Random access memory|RAM]] and 4MB of embedded [[DRAM]]. There are also various [[co-processor|co-processors]] and "Cores" listed in the specifications; it is not clear how many of these are unique systems or how the are considered in programming. These are a 1-333MHz "Media Engine", two "Graphics Cores", and a "Sound Core". There is also an integral h.264 decoder, although it is not clear whether this is a specific hardware function.
 The first of these "Graphics Cores" provides hardware [[polygon]] and [[NURBS]] [[rendering]], clipping, morphing, bones in models, [[texture compression]] and [[tessallation]]. The second provides surface rendering (presumably [[texture rendering]] and pixel rendering for the complete display image.