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PlayStation 3

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PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3 Logo
PlayStation 3 Logo
PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
ManufacturerSony Computer Entertainment
TypeVideo game console
GenerationSeventh generation era
LifespanNovember 11 2006 (JP)
November 17, 2006 (NA)
November 17, 2006 (EU)
MediaBD-ROM
DVD-ROM
CD-ROM
CPU3.2 GHz PPC Cell with 7 3.2 GHz SPEs
Online servicesPlayStation Network Platform (PNP)
PredecessorPlayStation 2

The PlayStation 3 (PS3) will be Sony's seventh generation era video game console in the PlayStation series. It is the successor to the PlayStation 2 and will mainly compete against Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360. Sony has announced that the PS3 will be backward compatible with PS1 and PS2 games that meet Sony's TRC (Technical Requirements Checklist). At the moment, little is known in public about the PS3 apart from its hardware specifications and the reports that it will be based on open APIs for the game development. The PS3 will be released on November 11, 2006 in Japan and November 17, 2006 in the rest of the world, with two configuration plans: one with a 20GB hard drive and no HDMI connection, card reader or Wi-Fi (according to the PDF sheet specifications), the other with a 60GB hard drive and these remaining features present.

The console will retail for ¥59,800 for the 20GB in Japan, while the 60GB model price will be left to the retail outlet to determine. In the United States, the 20GB version will retail for USD$499 while the 60GB version will do so for USD$599. Finally, in Europe the 20GB version will cost €499, and the 60GB one, €599, becoming the "most expensive console ever". [1]

The PS3 was officially unveiled on May 16, 2005 by Sony during an E3 conference, where the console was first shown to the public. A functional version of the console was not at E3 2005 or the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, although at both events, demonstrations were held on devkits (for example Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) and comparable PC hardware, and video footage based on the predicted PS3 specifications was produced (for example for Mobile Suit Gundam).

Games in development

Main article: List of PlayStation 3 games

As of March 2006, there are already over 230 PS3 games announced by multiple developers and publishers, like SCEI, Electronic Arts, Konami, Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, Sega and many others. As well as announced titles there are likely to be many 'secret projects' already under development.

Most developers have already announced games for the PS3. Some anticipated ones include Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots , Killzone PS3, Resident Evil 5, Devil May Cry 4, Silent Hill 5, Shin Megami Tensei, Armored Core 4 , Unreal Tournament 2007, Resistance: Fall of Man, Grand Theft Auto 4: Hawaii Luau (provisional title), Final Fantasy XIII, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Tekken 6.

At the E3 2005 Press booths, Sony showed some pre-rendered and some real-time videos of games in development with the codenames Eyedentify, Vision Gran Turismo and MotorStorm. Also shown at E3 was a Final Fantasy VII technical demo of the opening sequence remade for the PlayStation 3 system. Square Enix stated afterwards that there aren't any plans for a remake of Final Fantasy VII at the moment, but that there is, indeed, a Final Fantasy title in development for the PlayStation 3.[1] At this time, 3 games have been mentioned as PS3 launch titles: Lair from Factor 5, Warhawk from Incognito Entertainment, and Unreal Tournament 2007 from Epic Games.

Backward compatibility

Games

The PlayStation 3 will be compatible with all PlayStation 2 and PlayStation games. In a recent interview Ken Kutaragi stated that backward compatibility will be achieved through a combination of hardware and software.

At the PlayStation 3 briefing on March 14, 2006 in Japan, Sony revealed that the PlayStation 3 will display legacy recoded PlayStation titles in high-definition resolutions. However, backwards capability will be limited to only games that have strictly adhered to Sony's TRC (Technical Requirements Checklist). On April 24, 2006 the website GamesIndustry.biz reported that Sony Computer Entertainment Europe in the UK were working on the PlayStation 3 emulation which is being performed purely in software, similar to the backwards-compatibility mechanism on Microsoft's Xbox 360.

Peripherals

The PS3 will not be backward-compatible with some of the hardware peripherals of the PS2. For example, memory cards for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 will not work on the PlayStation 3 hardware.[2] Instead it was announced that the PS3 will use the Sony Memory Stick, and SD/MMC memory cards to save games. The Memory Sticks will be able to store saved games for both PS1 and PS2 games. However, with the announcement of a standard HDD with the PS3, a hard drive game saving system is very likely.

Peripherals such as MaxAction for PS2, are able to transfer PS1 and PS2 saves to a PSP Memory Stick, may make the saves compatible to be read from the PS3.

Online services (PNP)

Main article: PlayStation Network Platform

As an answer to Microsoft's Xbox Live, Sony confirmed a unified online service at the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing meeting in Tokyo.[3] The name of the service has been given the working title "PlayStation Network Platform". Sony has confirmed that the basic online service will be free and will have sufficient functionality for online gaming. The online service is being developed jointly by Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Online Entertainment.

Online features

Communication/Community:

  • Voice/Video chat
  • Messaging
  • Lobby/Matchmaking
  • Score/Ranking
  • Friend list/Avatar
  • Game data upload/download

Commerce:

  • Shop (accessible from inside games)
  • Content Download
  • Micro Payment
  • Subscription
  • Entitlement (user access rights) management

Account:

  • User Registration
  • Login ID/Handling of name issues

Interface and operating system

According to DevStation Conference, the PS3 will use the Cross Media Bar already used in the PlayStation Portable and PSX devices. On the E3 2006, Sony presented the "Marketplace" were players can buy and download music, have a profile and act in karaoke's in a service called "SingStar".

Hardware specifications

According to a press release by Sony at the May 16 2005 E3 Conference, the specifications of the PlayStation 3 are as follows: [4]

Central processing unit (CPU)

3.2 GHz Cell BE multi-core processor: 1 PowerPC-based 'Power Processing Element' and 8 3.2 GHz Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). The PPE has a 512 KB L2 cache and one VMX (AltiVec) vector unit. Each of the eight SPEs is a RISC processor with 128-bit 128 SIMD GPRs and superscalar functions. Each SPE has 256 KB of software-addressable SRAM.

Only seven SPEs are active; the eighth is redundant, to improve yield. If one of the eight has a manufacturing defect, it is disabled without rendering the entire unit defective.

Graphics processing unit (GPU)

Custom RSX or "Reality Synthesizer" design co-developed by NVIDIA and Sony:

  • Clocked at 550 MHz
  • 1.8 TFLOPS
  • 136 shader operations per clock
  • 74.8 billion shader operations per second (100 billion with CPU)
  • Full high definition output (up to 1080p)
  • Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines
  • 128-bit pixel precision offers rendering of scenes with high dynamic range imaging
  • 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM graphics memory
  • Sony has hinted it may also handle audio (possibly Nvidia's Soundstorm 1) PS3 Block Diagram
  • 1.1 billion vertices per second

Memory

  • 256 MB Rambus XDR DRAM clocked at CPU die speed (3.2 GHz)
  • 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM clocked at 700 MHz
  • 60 or 20 GB Removeable hard drive

Theoretical system bandwidth

  • 25.6 GB/s to Main Ram XDR DRAM: 64 bits × 3.2 GHz
  • 22.4 GB/s to GDDR3 VRAM: 128 bits × 700 MHz × 2 accesses per clock cycle (one per edge)
  • RSX 20 GB/s (write), 15 GB/s (read)
  • SB 2.5 GB/s write and 2.5 GB/s read
  • 204.8 GB/s Cell Element Interconnect Bus (Theoretical peak performance)[5]
  • Cell FlexIO Bus: 35 GB/s outbound, 25 GB/s inbound (7 outbound and 5 inbound 1Byte wide channels operating at 5 GHz) (effective bandwidth typically 50-80% of total)[6]

Audio/video output

Sound

Storage

  • Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-R, BD-RE.
  • DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
  • CD: PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer) SACD HD
  • Hard Drive: 20GB/60 GB (standard depending on package), 2.5", detachable/upgradeable, with Linux pre-installed.[7][8]
  • Memory Stick standard/Duo and standard/mini slots
  • CompactFlash
  • SD/MMC slot
    • The memory slots are only available at the 60 GB model.

Communications

Networking

SCEI's press release indicates that controller connectivity to the PlayStation 3 can be provided via:

Controller

File:Ps3controller.jpg
The Final PlayStation 3 controller.

At Sony's E3 press conference, the PlayStation 3 controller was revealed to be a wireless version of the previous controller design, as opposed to the often maligned "boomerang" prototype wireless design that was previously showcased.

The PlayStation 3 controller features four numbered LED indicators at the top, presumably to identify and distinguish multiple connected wireless controllers. It also has a USB cable port at the top of the controller for charging the internal battery through USB. A jewel-like button on the center has been added at the center of the controller face, in a similar fashion as the addition of a Guide button at the center of the Xbox 360 controller.

In addition to the basic design, the other major feature revealed at the press conference was the ability to sense rotational and translational acceleration to allow for a full six degrees of freedom. The controller is lighter than prior DualShock controllers. According to Sony, because of inclusion of the motion-sensing function, the rumble capability of the previous controllers was omitted, so as not to interfere with motion sensing. Some have speculated that the removal of the rumble capability was also influenced by Sony's loss of the latest round of the lawsuit with Immersion Corporation related to Immersion's haptic feedback technology patents. [9]

File:ImagePs305.jpg
The 2005 "Boomerang" controller was officialy abandoned.

Other, more minor refinements have also been made to the controller. Nearly all the buttons have been raised from their previous versions, presumably to enhance their pressure-sensive analog functionality. The L2 and R2 shoulder buttons, in particular, have been redesigned to allow for a much deeper depression range (similar to the shoulder buttons on the GameCube controller, though with a feel more often compared to the hinged triggers of Microsoft's Xbox controllers). The analog sticks also have finer analog sensitivity, at 10-bit accuracy, as compared to the 8-bit accuracy of the previous models.[10]

Power

The power supply will be built into the console instead of having a separate power adapter as is the case with the slim Playstation 2 and the Xbox 360. This can be verified by viewing a photo of the rear of the PS3 and noting the 3-prong PC-style power plug.

Overall floating-point capability

In a slide show at their E3 conference, Sony presented the "CPU floating point capability" of the PlayStation 3's Cell CPU, and compared it to other CPUs. In their official press release, the same statistic regarding the PS3 as a whole was reported to be 2 TFLOPS[4].
The figures are rounded estimates based on addition of the theoretical maximum floating point performances of the processing units in the Cell CPU and those of the RSX GPU. Inevitably, real-world performance for both systems will be lower. Additionally, programmers may find it difficult, initially, to optimize their game engines to make the best use of the highly parallel architectures of both systems, further reducing real-world performance.

Miscellaneous

Software development

The PlayStation 3, unlike the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems, is based on open and publicly available application programming interfaces.

The list of open standards includes:

Sublicensed technologies includes:

The list of standards they are reported to be considering includes:

Sony has selected several technologies and arranged several sublicensing agreements to create an advanced software development kit for developers. In addition, Sony recently purchased SN Systems, a former provider of Microsoft Windows based development tools for a variety of console platforms including the PlayStation 2, GameCube, PSP and Nintendo DS to create additional GNU development tools. Sony is providing all developers with GNU toolchains where SN Systems will provide more customer-oriented GNU tools at an additional cost.

Region coding

During a Q&A session at the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will indeed feature region-free gaming. [15]

Blu-ray movies will still use a region code. However, the Blu-ray region code will be different from the DVD region code.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Sony Shocks With PS3 Price". www.kikizo.com. Retrieved May 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "No More Memory Cards". www.maxconsole.net. Retrieved Jul 31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "PlayStation Network Platform detailed". www.gamespot.com. Retrieved Mar 15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ a b "Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. to launch its next generation computer entertainment system" (PDF). Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Retrieved June 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ "Cell Broadband Engine Architecture and its first implementation: a performance view (subsection The Element Interconnect Bus)". IBM. Retrieved Nov 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "Cell Broadband Engine Architecture and its first implementation: a performance view (subsection Flexible I/O Interface)". IBM. Retrieved Nov 29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "PS Biz Brief 06: PS3 HDD Required - It's 60GB and Linux too". ign.com. Retrieved 2006-03-15.
  8. ^ "CONFIRMED: PS3 to Ship with HDD". next-gen.biz. March 20, 2006. Retrieved 2006-03-20.
  9. ^ E3 06: PS3 specs tweaked, 20GB version stripped down, GameSpot News, 2006-05-08
  10. ^ "E3 2006: PS3 Controller". IGN. Retrieved May 08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ "pixeluxentertainment.com". Retrieved Sep 15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |org= ignored (help)
  12. ^ "alias.com now autodesk". Retrieved Feb 25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |org= ignored (help)
  13. ^ "Kynogon joins SCEI's "PLAYSTATION3" Tools & Middleware program" (PDF). Retrieved Jan 25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |org= ignored (help)
  14. ^ "Juniper Networks on IPv6 and MPLS networking in Asia – Part I". DigiTimes Publication. Retrieved June 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ "Region-Free PS3 Gaming Announced". IGN.com. Retrieved March 22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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