At a press conference held in Los Angeles, California today, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI) finally revealed details on its next-generation console system, the PlayStation 3 - including the system's official launch date. Scheduled for release in Spring 2006, Sony's next-generation console features some pretty impressive technology including Cell- a processor offering 2 teraflops of processing power jointly developed by IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba Corporation, a graphics processor (RSX) co-developed by NVIDIA Corporation and SCEI, and XDR memory developed by Rambus. Other features being touted by SCEI include BD-ROM (Blu-ray Disc ROM) support which is capable of a maximum storage capacity of 54 GB (dual layer)
and allows for full high definition entertainment content and new advanced copyright protection technology that will make it harder to copy PS3 software. The PS3 will also support high quality display in resolution of 1080p as standard.
The PS3 will also offer storage media support including a detachable hard-drive that will be sold separately (and support for Memory Stick, SD memory card, and CompactFlash), USB support for various devices, Bluetooth enabled wireless controllers, built-in Ethernet port for high-speed Internet access and more (you can read the full specs below)
SCEI also said that Cell based development tools are in the hands of developers and that development of game titles as well as tools and middleware are already in progress. In that regard, SCEI promises full support to new content creation tools by providing developers with extensive tools and libraries that will harness the power of the Cell processor and enable efficient software development.
While the official announcements haven't come in yet (they will shortly) You can bet that most of the major players in the industry are going to support the PS3. EA (new Fight Night game), Capcom (Devil May Cry 4), Bandai (who mentioned the game Gundam World),
KOEI, Konami Digital Entertainment, Rockstar Games, Namco, SEGA, Square Enix (who promise to bring the FINAL FANTASY series to the PS3) and Ubisoft were just a handful of the names thrown around in Sony's presentation today.
SCEI will further reveal details on the PS3 system and will show off working prototypes of the next generation console during E3 this week.
Other PlayStation 3 Coverage
PlayStation 3 Media
PS3 Specifications
PLAYSTATION 3 CPU: Cell Processor PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz 1 VMX vector unit per core 512KB L2 cache 7 x SPE @3.2GHz 7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs 7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE * 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy total floating point performance : 218 GFLOPS
GPU: RSX @550MHz 1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels Multi-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/s VRAM 22.4GB/s RSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read) SB 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)
System Floating Point Performance: 2 TFLOPS
Storage: HDD Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1
I/O: USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0) Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1 SD standard/mini x 1 CompactFlash (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/g Bluetooth Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)
Controller: Bluetooth (up to 7) USB2.0 (wired) Wi-Fi (PSP? Network (over IP)
AV Output Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p HDMI HDMI out x 2 Analog AV MULTI OUT x 1 Digital audio DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1
Disc media: read only 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)
DVD PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM PLAYSTATION 3 DVD-ROM DVD-Video DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc PLAYSTATION 3 BD-ROM BD-Video BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE
