Description about PS3
PlayStation 3
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. 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 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 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 (provisional title), Final Fantasy XIII (tentative), 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.[1] 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 60 GB 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, making 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..[2] 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
PS3 will come with an online service which is 80 times better than xbox live aparently according to Ken Kuturagi the ceo of Sony 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. The hard disk will come pre-installed with a Linux distribution, possibly with Cell extensions developed by IBM and Sony.[3][4]
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: [5]
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) x 2 channels
• Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines
• 128-bit pixel precision offers rendering of scenes with high dynamic range imaging
• 512 MB Graphics Render 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 (400 MHz)
• 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM clocked at 700 MHz
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)[6]
• 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)[7]
Audio/video output
• Supported screen sizes: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
• Two HDMI (Type A) outputs (Dual-screen HD outputs)
• S/PDIF optical output for digital audio
• Multiple analog outputs (Composite, S-Video, Component video)
Sound
• Dolby Digital 5.1 minimum, DTS, LPCM (DSP functionality handled by the Cell processor)
• May be handled by a Soundstorm 2 embedded in the RSX link Article
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: Standard 60 GB, 2.5", detachable/upgradeable, with Linux pre-installed.[8][9][10]
• Memory Stick standard/Duo and standard/mini slots
• CompactFlash
• SD/MMC slot
It was announced on the 14th of March 2006 that all PlayStation 3 games will ship on Blu-Ray Rom discs.
Communications
• Gigabit Ethernet Hub (one IN and two OUT connections)
• IEEE 802.11 b, g Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.0
• USB 2.0 (four front and two rear ports)
Networking
SCEI's press release indicates that controller connectivity to the PlayStation 3 can be provided via:
• 802.11b, g Wi-Fi. Integrated for mesh networking and connectivity with the PlayStation Portable
• TCP/IP networking (wired ethernet)
• USB 2.0 (wired)
• Bluetooth 2.0 (up to 7 controllers)
Controller
On March 23, 2006 at the Game Developers Conference, Phil Harrison announced that the "boomerang" design has indeed been scrapped and that a new controller design will be revealed in May at E3. [11]
Physical dimensions
• 32 cm (L) x 24 cm (W) x 8 cm (H)[12]
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[5].
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
• Two simultaneous High-definition television streams for use on a title screen for a HD Blu-ray Movie.
• High-definition IP video conferencing.
• EyeToy interactive reality game, Eyedentify.
• EyeToy voice command recognition.
• EyeToy virtual object manipulation.
• Digital photograph display (JPEG, PNG).
• MP3, Ogg and ATRAC download and playback.
• Simultaneous World Wide Web access and gameplay.
• Hub/Home Ethernet Gaming Network.
• Parental Controls
• The ability for the PlayStation Portable to connect to the PlayStation 3 as a video-enabled controller.
• up to 7 wireless controllers at once.
• up to 6 wired controllers at once.
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:
• COLLADA, an open, XML-based file format for 3D models.
• PSGL, a modified version of OpenGL ES 1.0 with extensions specifically aimed at the PS3 [2]
• OpenMAX, a collection of fast, cross-platform tools for general "media acceleration," such as matrix calculations.
• OpenVG, for hardware-accelerated 2D vector graphics.
Sublicensed technologies includes:
• Ageia's PhysX SDK, NovodeX.
• Epic's Unreal engine 3.0 framework.
• Havok's physics and animation engines.
• Pixelux's Game Asset Synthesis Technology[13], a toolkit for advanced procedural synthesis
• Alias Systems Corporation's 3D graphics programs [14]
• Cg 1.5, Nvidia's C-like shading language.
• SpeedTree RT, a programming package produced by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. that aims to produce high-quality virtual foliage in real time.
• Kynogon's Kynapse 4.0 "large scale A.I."[15]
The list of standards they are reported to be considering includes:
• IPv6, the next generation of the Internet Protocol. [16]
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. [17]
Blu-ray movies will use a region code. However, the Blu-ray region code will be different from the DVD region code.[18]
Region code Area
1 North America, Central America, South America, Japan and East Asia
2 Europe and Africa
3 China, Russia, India, Pakistan and all other countries.
Sony to Launch PS3 in Nov 2006
Much to the disappointment of gaming fans the world over, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI) has announced that it will launch its PlayStation 3 (PS3) simultaneously in Japan, North America, Europe and India in early November 2006.
SCEI expects to produce nearly one million units of PS3 every month, and plans to launch PS3 globally along with several attractive PS3 game titles.
Sony says that its PS3 offers an unique combination of overwhelming computing power and BD (Blu-ray Disc), allowing users to playback BD software at a high bit rate.
The much-awaited BD format boasts of a storage capacity of up to 50 GB (dual layer) plus robust security, and promises to deliver games and movies with unparalleled image quality.
Compatible with a wide variety of television sets ranging from standard-definition TV to full high-definition TV, the PS3 can also be connected to high-speed broadband network through Gigabit Ethernet.
Milestone Interactive is the official distributor of PS3 within the country.
In short
PLAYSTATION 3 SPECIFICATIONS
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 gigaflops
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-based 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)
SB2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)
SYSTEM FLOATING POINT PERFORMANCE:
2 teraflops
STORAGE
--HDD Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1
--I/O--USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
--Memory Stickstandard/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)
--ControllerBluetooth (up to 7)
--USB 2.0 (wired)
--Wi-Fi (PSP)
--Network (over IP)
AV OUTPUT
Screen size 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI out x 2
AV multi out x 1
Digital out (optical) x 1
DISC MEDIA
CD
PlayStation CD-ROM
PlayStation2 CD-ROM
CD-DA
CD-DA (ROM),
CD-R,
CD-RW
SACD Hybrid (CD layer),
SACD HD
DualDisc (audio side)
DualDisc (DVD side)
PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM
PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM
DVD-ROM
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD+R,
DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc
PlayStation 3 BD-ROM
BD-ROM
BDPU: Cell Processor PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
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