Playstation 3

July 10th, 2007 Leave a comment Go to comments

The PlayStation 3 ( PS3 ) is Sony ’s next generation video game console in the 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 backward compatible with earlier PS1 and PS2 games. At the moment, little more is known in public about the PS3 apart from its hardware specifications and reports that it will be based on open API s for game development. Playstation 3 Logo PlayStation 3 in vertical position with the controller

History

The PS3 was officially unveiled on May 16 , 2005 , at Sony’s E� conference, where the console was first shown to the public. The console was in non-operational form at E� and the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, although videos of soon-to-be released games running on the hardware were presented, such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 3 . Some have disputed the authenticity of the Killzone 3 footage. However, Guerrilla Games has stated that the footage was done ‘to specification’, meaning that they rendered the game on a PlayStation 3 prototype (at 5 frames-per-second), and then sped up the recording to the projected performance of the game on final hardware (60 frames-per-second). Developers assured that since it was an early in-development game, it will look at least as good as it did in the presentation when released, due to the engine becoming more mature during development.

Cost and release date

The system’s retail price has not yet been confirmed. Sony officials hinted that the PS3 will actually cost less than �50,000 in Japan, which is currently about US$450 (�260, � 380). To compete with the upper price ceiling of the Xbox 360, the PS3 will most likely sell in the U.S. for 399 dollars (�230, � 340). Sony President Ken Kutaragi points out “It’ll be expensive” and “I’m aware that with all these technologies, the PS3 can’t be offered at a price that’s targeted towards households. I think everyone can still buy it if they wanted to,” said Kutaragi to a mostly Japanese crowd. “But we’re aiming for consumers throughout the world. So we’re going to have to do our best [in containing the price]“. In contrast Kazuo Hirai , president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, says the PS3 will not be expensive and that it will be competitively priced against the Xbox 360. The PlayStation 2 retails in Japan for �39,800, in the US at $150, in the UK at �105 and in the EU at � 125.

More recently, however, a report compiled by Merrill Lynch Japan and published in the business magazine Toyo Keizai estimated the total cost of producing a PS3 at launch time at �54,000, or US$483 (�270, � 410) (the most expensive components, the Cell microprocessor, the RSX Graphics processing unit , and the BD-ROM drive are each estimated to cost US$101 (�57, � 85), with the additional cost going into the motherboard , RAM, wireless chipsets, and probably system-on-a-chip implementations of the PS1 and PS2 systems for backwards compatibility). Sony is already making efforts to control manufacturing costs, and may even go as far as dropping the system’s planned integrated router to reduce expenses. In the same report, Merrill Lynch predicts that Sony will initially sell the PlayStation 3 for �44,800 (US$410) in Japan, and US$399 (�225, � 339) in the USA, taking a financial loss (as it did with the PlayStation 2) in order to build the console’s install base, losing as much as US$1 billion in the first year after release. Sony would later recoup this loss (as well as the Cell’s US$1.8 (�1.01, � 1.53) billion ( R&D expenses) through software licensing fees and future reduced hardware manufacturing costs. The report also notes that Microsoft may plan to disrupt the normal console business cycle by choosing to cut the price of the Xbox 360 at the same time the PS3 launches, which the report estimates would cause Sony to lose an additional US$730 (�400, � 340) million in its second year, and US$457 million in its third. It is not known whether these hypothetical losses would be due to Sony being forced to further cut the price of the PS3 hardware, or suffering reduced revenue from game purchases due to stiff competition from Microsoft.

For the consumer this means one will be able to buy a PlayStation 3 at a lower price than its actual manufacturing cost.

In the same magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment president and “father of the PlayStation” Ken Kutaragi was interviewed, and expressed little concern over the PS3’s possibly high launch price, believing that customers would be willing to pay extra for a superior product, as they had in the past for the original PlayStation (�39,800 vs. 12,500 for the Super Famicom).

During its E3 presentation, Sony confirmed the PlayStation 3 will be available around March 2006 . Reports quoting high-ranking Sony officials suggest the PlayStation 3 may be launched simultaneously in Japan and North America (not worldwide), a tactic that would differ significantly from the PlayStation (launched December 1994 in Japan and September 1995 in North America) and PlayStation 2 (launched March 2000 in Japan and October 2000 in North America).

Some industry critics had speculated that due to many of its monumental technical challenges, Sony could delay the release of the PlayStation 3 up to early 2007 . However, according to German website Gamefront, chairman and CEO of the European brand Sony Entertainment, Sir Howard Stringer has added confirmation to Sony’s E3 press release that the company indeed launches its next generation console in spring of 2006 .

Sir Howard Stringer will give a keynote at CES in January of 2006. It is possible that this topic among other PS3 topics will be made clear. [http://www.ps3portal.com/?view=article&article=210]

Games in development

Main article: List of PlayStation 3 games

As of October 2005, there are already over 140 PS3 games in production by multiple developers and publishers, like SCEA , Electronic Arts , Konami and many others.

Most developers have already announced games for the PS3. Some anticipated ones include , Killzone 3 , Resident Evil 5 , Devil May Cry 4 , Shin Megami Tensei , Armored Core 4 and Unreal Tournament 2007 . In the E3 2005 Press Conference, Sony showed some demos of games in development with the codenames Eyedentify , Vision Gran Turismo and MotorStorm . Also shown at E3 was a technical demo of Final Fantasy VII ’s opening sequence remade in PlayStation 3 graphics, at the time recent to the show, SquareEnix stated no plans for a remake. Square Enix is however listed for a Final Fantasy game along with 70 other Japanese developers during TGS 2005. Since they aren’t working on a remake then this will most likely be Final Fantasy XIII. The most anticipated PS3 game up to this point is , which had its first trailer shown at the Tokyo Game Show 2005 event. Controversial games developers Rockstar North have also hinted that they are planning the provisionally named Grand Theft Auto 4 , primarily for the PS3.

GNU/Linux

Ken Kutaragi confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will come with GNU/Linux as its operating system. Kutaragi hinted that there is a possibility that the PlayStation 3’s hard disk drive may be sold separately. The drive is required for most games since they depend on a hard disk for data storage or otherwise lose most usability options.

IBM had quickly sent a series of improvements to the Linux developers mailing-list regarding the Cell processor, and has publicly presented a Cell based server running Linux Kernel 2.6.12. Since then IBM has begun to offer detailed information and tutorials for software development on Cell based systems including the PlayStation 3.

Software development kit

Sony has selected several technologies and arranged several sublicensing agreements to create the software development kit for developers. The PlayStation 3, unlike the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems, is based on publicly-available application programming interface (API).

The list of open standards includes:

  • Cg , Nvidia’s C -like shading language.
  • COLLADA , an open, XML -based file format for 3D models.
  • OpenGL ES 2.0 , the embedded version of the popular OpenGL graphics API.
  • 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 http://www.pixeluxentertainment.com/ , a toolkit for advanced procedural synthesis
  • Alias Systems Corporation ’s 3D graphics programs http://www.alias.com/glb/eng/products-services/product_families.jsp

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

  • IPv6 , the next generation of the Internet Protocol .

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 Linux development tools. Sony is providing developers with Linux toolchains where SN Systems will provide more customer-oriented Linux tools at an additional cost.

Backwards compatibility

Games

The PlayStation 3 will be compatible ” on the chip ” with most PlayStation 2 and PlayStation games, without emulation. It still isn’t known how Sony has achieved this (although Sony had developed a single-chip PS2 CPU/GPU solution, used in newer revisions of the “slim” PS2). Compatibility with PS2 online games and games designed for the hard drive support hasn’t been elaborated upon. In a recent interview Ken Kutaragi has recently stated that backwards compatibility will be achieved through a combination of hardware and software:

“Third-party developers sometimes do things that are unimaginable. For example, there are cases where their games run, but not according to the console’s specifications. There are times when games pass through our tests, but are written in ways that make us say, ‘What in the world is this code?!’ We need to support backward compatibility towards those kinds of games as well, so trying to create compatibility by software alone is difficult. There are things that will be required by hardware. However, with the powers of [a machine like] the PS3, some parts can be handled by hardware, and some parts by software.”

Hardware

According to PSM Magazine the PS3 will not be backwards compatible with some of the hardware peripherals of the PS2. Which means that memory cards for PlayStation and PlayStation 2 won’t work on the PlayStation 3 hardware.

“We’ve received a lot of letters asking about how PS3 will be backwards compatible with PS2 and the original PlayStation if it doesn’t have memory card slot. Well, we have an answer, and it’s both good and bad. First, the bad news: All of those old memory cards you have won’t be usable with PS3. Okay then, what’s the solution? Sony has actually decided to only use Memory Stick Duo cards (the same format PSP uses) for PS3 save data. However, if you play a PS1 or PS2 game on PS3, the system will treat the Memory Stick like it’s a normal memory card. This is different from the PS2, which requires you to use a PS1 memory card for PS1 saves. What this means is that you won’t be able to use any of your old saves if you play PS1/PS2 games on PS3 (wonder if a DexDrive will work…). But there’s an upshot to all this: Downloading and sharing saves via PC for all three PlayStations and PSP (hint, hint) will be easy as pie.”

It is currently possible to get PS1 and PS2 games transfered to a PSP memory stick using the PSP USB cable. The Datel game enhancement accessory Max Media can be used to transfer them directly from the PS2 to the PSP.

Hardware specifications

A simple comparison of the system architectures appears to indicate that the floating point capability of the PS3 is at the very least double that of the Xbox 360 . It should be noted that this figure is based on the combined floating point capacity of the Cell microprocessor and the RSX GPU in the PS3 compared to the combined capacity of the Xenon CPUs and Xenos GPU in the Xbox 360. The amount of completely programmable floating point capacity afforded by the Cell microprocessor for general-purpose tasks, like procedural content generation and game physics, is much higher than that of the Xbox 360’s CPU, while the floating-point performance of the two systems’ GPUs, which are designed specifically for graphics rendering tasks, are somewhat closer to parity.

According to a press release by Sony at the May16 2005 E3 Conference, the specifications of the PlayStation 3 are as follows.

Central processing unit

3.2 GHz Cell processor :

  • 1 PPE ( PowerPC -derived)
  • 32 KB L1 cache
  • 512 KB L2 cache
  • VMX vector unit (IBM’s branding for AltiVec )
  • Two hardware threads
  • 7 SPE (Synergistic Processing Elements) vector processor units
  • 256 KB SRAM local memory for each SPE
  • 218 GFLOPS (billion floating point operations per second)
  • 128�128-bit SIMD general purpose register files
  • 234 million transistors
  • 213 million available transistors due to the one disabled SPE

Each chip includes 8 SPEs, but one is most likely disabled to improve yields and reduce costs

Graphics processing unit

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

  • Clocked at 550 MHz
  • 1.8 TFLOPS (trillion floating point operations per second)
  • Full high definition output (up to 1080p ) x 2 channels
  • Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines
  • 136 shader operations per cycle
  • 100 billion shader operations per second (with CPU)
  • 51 billion dot products per second (with CPU)
  • 128-bit pixel precision offers rendering of scenes with high dynamic range imaging

NVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang stated during Sony ’s pre-show press conference at E3 2005 that the RSX will be much more powerful than two GeForce 6800 Ultra video cards combined. Current industry speculation is that the RSX may be based on the G70 architecture used in NVidia’s GeForce 7 Series GPUs which were introduced in June of 2005, but implementing many more parallel pixel and shader pipelines than any consumer PC GPU (NVidia’s top-of-the-line GeForce 7800 GTX currently contains 24 pixel and 8 vertex pipelines), and clocked higher than any PC GPU based on G70 (with speculation that the RSX chip will be reworked using the new G71 architecture topping 650-700 MHz and an improved vertex pipeline support, as well as an increased 512mb memory) (again, the 7800 GTX is clocked at 430 MHz, compared to 550-600 MHz for the RSX). An nVidia spokesperson was quoted in PlayStation Magazine as saying that the 7800GTX “shares a lot of similar inner workings with the PS3’s RSX chip, only it (the 7800GTX) isn’t nearly as fast (as the RSX).”

Memory

  • 256 MiB Rambus XDR DRAM clocked at CPU die speed (3.2 GHz)
  • 256 MiB GDDR3 VRAM clocked at 700 MHz

Theoretical system bandwidth

  • 25.6 GB/s GPU to XDR DRAM : 64 bits � 3.2 GHz
  • 22.4 GB/s GPU to GDDR-3 VRAM: 128 bits � 700 MHz � 2 accesses per clock cycle (one per edge)
  • 35 GB/s GPU to CPU (Aggregated 20 GB/s (write), 15 GB/s (read))
  • 5 GB/s System Bus (Aggregated 2.5 GB/s upstream and downstream)

Since the RSX is connected to the XDR DRAM and GDDR3 RAM similar to a Turbo Cached GPU it can access both memory locations at the exact same time. This gives the RSX an effective 48GB/s when sending data to/from GPU and RAM.

Overall floating-point capability

Sony comparison of PS3 performance in FLOPS with Xbox 360 . 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 CPU’s. The presentation shows that one PS3 Cell CPU alone is capable of 218 GFLOPS, compared to the Xbox 360 ’s Xenon CPUs’ 115 GFLOPS, and the floating point performance of an “average” PC CPU of about 8 GFLOPS. In their official press release, the same statistic regarding the PS3 as a whole was reported to be over 2.1 TFLOPS. The figures are likely rounded estimations. It was unclear how these numbers were exactly calculated, possibly based on addition of the floating point capabilities of the processing units in the Cell CPU and those of 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 the only indicator of one game console’s capabilities over another’s, but rather as a comparison of one facet of their respective performance.

Audio/video output

  • Supported screen sizes: 480i , 480p , 720p , 1080i , 1080p
  • Two HDMI (Type A) outputs (Dual-screen HD outputs)
  • Optical digital audio output
  • Multiple analog outputs ( Composite , S-Video , Component video )

Sound

  • Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS , LPCM (DSP functionality handled by the Cell processor)

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
  • Detachable 2.5″ hard drive with Linux pre-installed. Possibly optional but required for most games.
  • Memory Stick standard/Duo and standard/mini slots
  • CompactFlash Type I and II slot
  • SD slot
  • MMC slot for mp3s, ogg vorbis, nokia music, and aacs

Physical dimensions

  • 32 cm (L) x 24 cm (W) x 8 cm (H)

Communications

  • Three Gigabit Ethernet ports (Sony has indicated that the PlayStation 3 will act as an accessory interface and as a hub and router; Some have hinted that the three ethernet ports may be removed to lower costs)
  • IEEE 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • USB 2.0 (four front and two rear ports)

Controller

The conceptual controller shown at the 2005 E3. SCEI’s press release indicates that controller connectivity to the PlayStation 3 can be provided via:

  • 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi . Integrated for mesh networking and connectivity with the Play Station Portable
  • IP networking (wired ethernet)
  • USB 2.0 (wired)
  • Bluetooth 2.0 (up to 7 controllers)

The design of the controller has been likened to a boomerang or a banana by many observers (or even less flattering likenesses). However, many suggest that the controller, while a little un-traditional in contrast to the DualShock and DualShock 2 controllers, will provide much greater comfort for extended hours of play, and that eventually everyone will “get used to it.” According to the Japanese video game publication Famitsu , Sony Computer Entertainment chief technical officer Masayuki Chatani said that the controller design is a “prototype, so there could be some small adjustments.” In an interview with Edge , SCEE’s Chris Deering echoed these statements by describing the E3 controller as “just a design study”. Some people pointed that the controller bears a similar resemblance to the old Alps Interactive 3rd party controller which was originally made for the PlayStation.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the PS3 may in fact support the older DualShock 2 (and by logical extension DualShock) controllers . The number of ports to support such backward compatibility would most likely be limited to one, although this is also an unconfirmed rumour. The PS3’s specifications, and E3 display units, don’t support DualShock controller ports Though Sony itself had previously admitted at this past E3 that the controller design for their PlayStation 3 console was not finalized, GameSpot believes any purported changes will not be substantial. They downplay a new rumor suggesting Sony will unveil a revamped PS3 controller at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2006.

Online Service

Sony has recently revealed that the online service for the PlayStation 3 will use the same non-unified architecture as that of the PlayStation 2. In the latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine , Sony scotched rumors that it would be implementing a centralized online service similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Live . Instead, online services for PS3 games will be decentralized and left up to individual game publishers. While this will give games publishers greater freedom in terms of what they are able to offer online, some say it may make it more difficult for Sony to control the quality of the online experience.

Dentralized online services means that gamers will be required to maintain separate accounts on different servers for different games in order to access online games via the PS3 but will have the advantage of being able to choose which games or services they actually want.

Sony has not confirmed any information on the way they will do online. All this is speculation from people or retrieved from a magazine. One thing we can look at for what PS3 may be is the PSP.

Region Coding

PlayStation 3 games are unlikely to be region coded, according to Sony’s Australian managing director, Michael Ephraim.

Unlike its predecessors, the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2, the PS3 is tipped to allow gaming and movie playback from downloads or discs bought in any part of the world, rather than being limited to playing discs only from a specific region. The PS3’s support for HDTV standards was cited as one of the key reasons the company has stopped the practice of region coding.

According to Ephraim, “If you look at the fact that [the PlayStation 3] will support high-definition TV, which will be a global standard, there’s a good likelihood that it will be global region, as for example we’ve done with the PSP [PlayStation Portable].”

Sony’s decicion to stop region coding means consumers will be able to purchase PS3 games and movie discs from anywhere in the world, which may turn out to be significantly cheaper than purchasing them exclusively from their home territory.

Miscellaneous

  • 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.
  • High-definition IP .
  • EyeToy interactive reality game.
  • EyeToy voice command recognition.
  • EyeToy virtual object manipulation.
  • Digital photograph display ( JPEG ).
  • MP3 and ATRAC download and playback.
  • Simultaneous World Wide Web access and gameplay.
  • Hub /Home Ethernet Gaming Network.

See also

References

  1. “ Xbox 360 set to cost around $300; final pricing decision within months ”, GamesIndustry.biz
  2. “ Q&A: Sony video game exec predicts PS3 will prevail ”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
  3. “ Report: PS3 to sell for $399, cost $494 to make ”, GameSpot
  4. “ Add-on PlayStation 3 HDD will run Linux ”, GameSpot
  5. “ IBM Discloses Cell Based Blade Server Board Prototype ”, Nikkei
  6. “ Cell Broadband Engine Resource Center ”, IBM
  7. Juniper Networks on IPv6 and MPLS networking in Asia – Part I . DigiTimes Publication .
  8. Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. to launch its next generation computer entertainment system . Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
  9. Open sourcing of Cell coming to fruition . IT Manager’s Journal .
  10. Kutaragi talks more on PlayStation 3 . GameSpot .
  11. Introducing the IBM/Sony/Toshiba Cell Processor — Part I: the SIMD processing units . Arstechnica .
  12. “ From Xbox to Xbox 360, from PS2 to PS3 ”, Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
  13. “ Sony Undecided on Hard Disk ”, IGN
  14. “ Router functions dropped from PS3 spec ”, GamesIndustry.biz

External links

This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org – the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License .

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