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===Communications===
===Communications===
* Three Gigabit [[Ethernet]] ports (Sony has indicated that the PlayStation 3 might act as a [[Ethernet hub|hub]] or [[Ethernet switch|switch]])
* Three [[Gigabit Ethernet]] ports (Sony has indicated that the PlayStation 3 might act as a [[Ethernet hub|hub]] or [[Ethernet switch|switch]])
* built-in [[IEEE 802.11]] b/g Wi-Fi (as opposed to needing an add-on for this function)
* built-in [[IEEE 802.11]] b/g Wi-Fi (as opposed to needing an add-on for this function)
* built-in [[Bluetooth]] 2.0 (as opposed to needing an add-on for this function)
* built-in [[Bluetooth]] 2.0 (as opposed to needing an add-on for this function)
Line 87: Line 87:


==Possible future capabilities according to E3 PS3 conference==
==Possible future capabilities according to E3 PS3 conference==
*The ability for the [[PlayStation Portable]] to connect to the PlayStation 3 as a video enabled controller.
*The ability for the [[PlayStation Portable]] to connect to the PlayStation 3 as a video-enabled controller.
*Twelve simultaneous [[High-definition television]] streams for use on a title screen for a HD Blu-ray Movie.
*Twelve simultaneous [[High-definition television]] streams for use on a title screen for a HD Blu-ray Movie.
*[[High-definition television|High-definition]] [[IP]] [[video conference|video chat]]
*[[High-definition television|High-definition]] [[IP]] [[video conference|video chat]]

Revision as of 12:03, 21 May 2005

File:Ps3logo.jpg
PlayStation 3 in horizontal position.
PlayStation 3 in horizontal position.

The PlayStation 3 (colloquially known as the PS3) is the next video game console in Sony Computer Entertainment's (SCEI) market-leading PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 is slated for release in spring 2006. It is the successor to the PlayStation 2 and will mainly compete against the Nintendo Revolution and Xbox 360. Sony has announced that the PS3 will be backwards compatible with earlier PS1 and PS2 games. At the moment, little more is known in public about the PS3 apart from its hardware specification and reports that it will support open APIs for game development.

A simple comparison of the system architectures appears to show that the raw floating point capability of the PS3 is roughly double that of the Xbox 360. Trade press reports have speculated that the design of its relatively novel Cell microprocessor will result in games that do not exploit the PlayStation 3's full potential until game vendors ship their second wave of titles in mid-2006. This has led to more speculation that the Xbox 360, with its more conventional architecture, may take a short-term lead over the PS3, followed by the PS3 overtaking the Xbox for the rest of this console cycle as its full capabilities are exploited by game manufacturers. However, all of this speculation is based on the assumption that low-level toolkits that would ease the full utilization of the PS3 architecture remain to be developed. At the moment, only Sony and its licencees are likely to know the full truth.

The PS3 was officially unveiled on May 16, 2005, in Sony's conference at E3, where the console was first shown to the public. The system's retail price in America has not yet been confirmed, but it is speculated to be between $299 and $499. In Japan, the PS3 will be released for less than 50,000 yen, which is about $465 in US dollars. Kazuo Hirai claims the PS3 will not be expensive and that it will competitively priced with the Xbox 360. [1]

Hardware specifications

According to a press release by Sony at the May 16, 2005 E3 Conference, the final specifications of the PlayStation 3 are as follows.

CPU

Cell processor:

  • PowerPC based core (PPU) clocked at 3.2 GHz
  • 1 VMX (IBM's branding for AltiVec) vector unit for the PowerPC core
  • 512 KiB L2 cache
  • 7 SPE (Synergistic Processing Elements) are programmable vector processor units clocked at 3.2 GHz each (there are eight on the chip, but one kept unused for redundancy, leaving seven usable)
  • 7 256 KiB SRAM caches for the SPEs
  • 7 128×128 SIMD general purpose register files


GPU

Custom "RSX" design co-developed by Nvidia and Sony:

  • Clocked at 550 MHz
  • 1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
  • Full high definition output (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
  • Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines

Memory

  • 256 MiB XDR DRAM system memory clocked at CPU die speed (3.2 GHz)
  • 256 MiB GDDR-3 VRAM clocked at 700 MHz

Theoretical system bandwidth

  • Main XDR DRAM: 64 bits × 3.2 GHz = 25.6 GB/s
  • GDDR-3 VRAM: 128 bits × 700 MHz × 2 accesses per clock cycle (one per edge) = 22.4 GB/s
  • RSX: 20 GB/s (write), 15 GB/s (read)

Overall floating-point capability

File:8784671701491003.jpg
Sony comparison of PS3 performance in FLOPS with Xbox 360.

In a slide show at their E3 conference, Sony presented the "overall floating point capability," of the PlayStation 3 to be 2.18 TFLOPS (comparing with Xbox 360 - 1.15 and "PC" 3.2 Ghz - 0.08). In their official press release, the same statistic was reported to be 2 TFLOPS. It is possible that one or the other was a typographical error or that different methods were used to come up with the figures. Regardless of which one was intended, it is fairly unclear how these numbers were calculated, possibly being nothing more than a creative addition of the theoretical peak floating point capabilities of the Cell CPU and the RSX GPU. Floating point performance is a single-dimensional metric for measuring one computer against another. This means that it should not be taken as an indicator of one game console's capabilities over another's, but rather as a very limited comparison of one facet of their respective performance.

AV output

Sound

Storage

  • Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE
  • DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 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, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side)
  • Standard/Duo and standard/mini Memory Stick slots
  • CompactFlash Type I and II slot
  • SD card slot
  • Detachable 2.5" hard drive slot (capacity not confirmed yet)

Communications

  • Three Gigabit Ethernet ports (Sony has indicated that the PlayStation 3 might act as a hub or switch)
  • built-in IEEE 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi (as opposed to needing an add-on for this function)
  • built-in Bluetooth 2.0 (as opposed to needing an add-on for this function)
  • USB 2.0 (four front and two rear ports)

Controller

File:ImagePs305.jpg
The new DualShock 3 controller

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

PlayStation 3 standards

Unlike the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems, Sony appears to have chosen publicly-available application programming interfaces and technologies for the PlayStation 3. The current list of open standards Sony has chosen includes:

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

Possible future capabilities according to E3 PS3 conference

See also

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