Sony PlayStation 3

Console Information

 

 

First unveiled at E3 in Los Angeles, May 2005, the PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a follow-up to Sony's successful PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles and is due for release early 2006. Powered by the 'Cell' processor, developed jointly by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, it boasts processing power equivalent to a super computer, with graphics and animation more fluid and realistic than ever thanks to its advanced graphics processor and XDR memory, co-developed with nVidia.

 

Also introduced with the PlayStation 3 is the BD-ROM (Blu-ray Disc ROM), which is capable of storing a up to 54GB on a single dual layer disc, meaning that games can be stored at high definition quality, with 1080 progressive scan as standard. Not only does the system support this new type of disc, it will also play DVDs and CDs, including PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games (backwards compatibility).

 

The system features Bluetooth wireless connectivity, which it uses for its controllers, enabling up to 7 controllers to connect to the console without any wires. Also featured is 6 USB ports for connecting various USB devices as well as slots for Memory Stick, SD card and Compact Flash media, and a detachable hard drive for saving games, etc.

 

Sony PlayStation 3 Technical Specifications

  • CPU: Cell Processor, PowerPC-base Core running at 3.2GHz, 1 VMX vector unit per core, 512KB L2 cache, 7 x SPE at 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 running at 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 surround, DTS, LPCM (Cell- base processing).
  • Memory: 256MB XDR Main RAM at 3.2GHz, 256MB GDDR3 VRAM at 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: Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1
  • Ports: 4 x USB ports at front, 2 x USB 2.0 ports at rear, 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 2.0 (EDR).
  • Controller: Bluetooth (up to 7), USB 2.0 (wired), Wi-Fi (PSP), Network (over IP).
  • Output resolution: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
  • HDMI Output: HDMI out x 2
  • Analog Output: AV MULTI OUT x 1
  • Digital audio output: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1
  • Media: 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).

Related Data