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| |{{yes}}{{cite web|url=http://www.2old2play.com/News/Highlights_from_Sony_Keynote_at_TGS_2006 |title=Highlights from Sony Keynote at TGS 200 |accessdate=2006-09-24 |accessmonthday= |accessyear= |author=Tank |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=] |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher=2old2play |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate=}}</ref> abbreviated '''HDMI''}} | |{{yes}}<ref name="HDMI"{{cite web|url=http://www.2old2play.com/News/Highlights_from_Sony_Keynote_at_TGS_2006 |title=Highlights from Sony Keynote at TGS 200 |accessdate=2006-09-24 |accessmonthday= |accessyear= |author=Tank |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |date=] |year= |month= |format= |work= |publisher=2old2play |pages= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate=}}</ref> abbreviated '''HDMI''}} | ||
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Revision as of 03:20, 25 September 2006
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| Manufacturer | Sony Computer Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Type | Video game console |
| Generation | Seventh generation era |
| Release date | See table |
| Lifespan |  November 11 2006  November 17 2006  November 17 2006  March 2007   March 2007  Q1 2007 |
| Media | BD-ROM DVD-ROM CD-ROM SACD |
| CPU | 3.2 GHz Cell Broadband Engine with 1 PPE and 7 SPEs |
| Online services | PlayStation Network Platform |
| Backward compatibility | PlayStation, PlayStation 2 |
| Predecessor | PlayStation 2 |
The PlayStation 3 (Japanese: プレイステーション 3,, Pureisutēshon Surī, trademarked PLAYSTATION 3, abbreviated PS3) is Sony's seventh generation era video game console, third in the PlayStation series. It is the successor to the PlayStation 2 and will compete against Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii. The PS3 is scheduled for release on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America (excluding Mexico, where the console will be released in Q1 2007), and March, 2007 in Europe and will ship in two initial configurations, the main difference being a 20 GB or a 60 GB hard disk being fitted. Sony officially unveiled the PS3 to the public on May 16, 2005 during an E3 conference. A functional version of the console was not at E3 2005 or the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, although at both events, demonstrations were held on devkits (e.g. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots) and comparable PC hardware, and video footage based on the predicted PS3 specifications was produced (e.g. Mobile Suit Gundam). It wasn't until E3 2006 that games were shown on actual PlayStation 3 systems. In preparation for launch, Sony has announced that there will be 27 playable PS3 titles on show at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2006 on final hardware.
Overview
System configuration
| Feature | Basic | Premium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Upgradable hard drive | Yes, 20 GB | Yes, 60 GB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Blu-ray drive | Yes | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HDMI port | YesCite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). The "premium" version of the PlayStation 3 will come with an internal 60 GB Serial ATA 2.5" hard drive, Wi-Fi connectivity, and multiple flash memory card readers, and features a brighter cosmetic silver-colored logo and trim.
The second, alternate configuration of the console will have a 20 GB internal hard drive, but will not feature Wi-Fi or a memory card reader. The hard drive is upgradeable, and memory card and Wi-Fi support can be added through adaptors. An ICT flag can be set by content producers, which forces non-HDCP video down to a pixel resolution of 960×540 (50% greater than DVD-Video at NTSC resolution, and 25% greater than PAL resolution). SCEA president Kaz Hirai stated that it is "too early to speculate at this point" whether movie producers will activate the ICT feature. According to German publisher Spiegel, a behind-the-scenes agreement was made not to enforce the ICT flag on next-generation optical formats until at least 2010, or possibly even 2012. Release data and pricing
Currency conversions are to US$, accurate as of 22 September 2006. However, these do not take account of differences in tax regimes. David Wilson, Head of Public Relations at Sony Computer Entertainment UK, stated that both models will likely be sold in the UK market, but both may not be available at launch. Previously, Sony Computer Entertainment UK Marketing Director Ray Maguire had stated that only the 60 GB version would be available at launch. Sony announced on September 6, 2006 that the PAL (European and Australasia) launch has been delayed until March, 2007 due to a shortage of diodes used in the Blu-ray drive. In Japan, Sony has opted to go with an open pricing scheme for the 60 GB model, allowing retailers to set a price point themselves. Rakuten, one of the biggest Japanese online retailers, has set their price point at ¥71,800, or ¥75,390 with taxes added (about US$675). The PS3 has received mixed reviews for its price. It is significantly higher than its same-generation competition in all world markets. Sony has publicly defended its pricing model, citing the PS3's higher performance and inclusion of a Blu-ray drive, of which stand-alone players cost an average of US$1,000. Game pricingThere have also been statements by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) President and CEO Kaz Hirai suggesting games may cost somewhere between US$60 and US$100, more than the US$60 standard for higher-priced games. Future Shop, a Canadian subsidiary of Best Buy, has priced each game at C$69.99 (approx. US$62, c. 2006).. Gamestop and EB Games have listed the games as US$60.00 each. Activision recently revealed that they will price their games at $60 each. Software
GamesMain article: List of PlayStation 3 gamesBackward compatibilitySony has stated that the PlayStation 3 will have backward compatibility with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, and that every PS1 and PS2 game that observes its respective system's TRC (Technical Requirements Checklist) will be playable on PS3 at launch.SCE president Ken Kutaragi asked developers to adhere to the TRC to facilitate compatibility with future PlayStations, stating that the company was having some difficulty getting backward compatibility with games that had not followed the TRCs. "Either it's accidental or on purpose; there's actually a lot of games that don't follow the TRC.". It has been reported that initial PS3 units will include the CPU/rasterizer combination chip used in slim PS2 (EE+GS) to achieve backward compatibility. The PlayStation 3 does not include interfaces for legacy PlayStation devices, but there will be an adapter for the memory cards so users can save their PS1/PS2 data on to a virtual memory card in the hard drive. USB devices for PlayStation 2 may be compatible with PlayStation 3. PlayStation 3 can use Memory Sticks to store save data for PlayStation and PlayStation 2 software. Software developmentThe PlayStation 3, unlike the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems, is based on open and publicly available application programming interfaces. The PlayStation 3 development kit system distributed by Sony was recently praised by IGN as having "distinct lack of noise and heat coming from the system". Despite earlier rumours of programming being difficult, IGN reports that they were told that the dev kit "seemed extremely adaptive and easy to program for". Sony has selected several technologies and arranged several sublicensing agreements to create an advanced software development kit for developers. In addition, in 2005 Sony purchased SN Systems, a former provider of Microsoft Windows-based development tools for a variety of console platforms; including PlayStation 2, GameCube, PSP and Nintendo DS to create additional GNU development tools. Sony is providing all developers with GNU toolchains, and SN Systems will provide customer-oriented wrappers for GNU tools at an additional cost. The open standards are specified by the Khronos Group, and are intended to work with Nvidia's Cg programming language. Scene data are stored with COLLADA v1.4, an open, XML-based file format.. Rendering uses PSGL, a modified version of OpenGL ES 1.0 (OpenGL ES 2.0 compliant except for the use of Cg instead of GLSL), with extensions specifically aimed at the PS3. Other specifications include OpenMAX, a collection of fast, cross-platform tools for general "media acceleration," such as matrix calculations, and OpenVG, for hardware-accelerated 2D vector graphics. These specifications have GPL, free for any use, and/or commercial implementations by third parties. Sublicensed technology includes complete game engines, physics libraries, and special libraries. Engines include Epic's Unreal engine 3.0. Physics libraries include AGEIA's PhysX SDK, NovodeX, and Havok's physics and animation engines. Other tools include Pixelux's Game Asset Synthesis Technology (a toolkit for advanced procedural synthesis) and the Digital Molecular Matter engine plug in for Maya and 3d Studio Max, Nvidia's Cg 1.5 (a C-like shading language, which HLSL was based upon), SpeedTree RT by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (high-quality virtual foliage in real time), and Kynogon's Kynapse 4.0 "large scale A.I.". Sony has considered using IPv6, the next generation of the Internet Protocol. . Interface and operating systemThe PlayStation 3 version of the Cross Media Bar demonstrated at E3 2006 (video) included options for different user profiles, the ability to explore photos, play music and movies from the hard drive, compatibility for a USB Keyboard and Mouse, a full Internet browser and a Friends menu. In a separate demo Sony presented the "Marketplace" where users can buy and download music. Linux will be pre-installed on the PS3 hard drive. Currently it is unknown if Linux will be the operating system used to run everything, including the Cross Media Bar, or if the system will operate as a dual boot environment, where Linux would be loaded from the Cross Media Bar menu. Sony has also worked with Stanford University to bring the Folding@home project to the PS3. When downloaded, the program will run when the system is idle.
PlayStation Network PlatformMain article: PlayStation Network PlatformIn response to Microsoft's successful Xbox Live network, Sony announced a unified online service for the Playstation 3's console at the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing meeting in Tokyo; tentatively titled "PlayStation Network Platform". Sony has confirmed that the service will be always connected, free and include multiplayer support. However developers are permitted to charge a subscription fee, as is common with MMO games. On September 12th, it was confirmed that the PNP will be combined with a modfied version of the Xfire client to provide various match-making facilites, such as Friends Lists, among other features. In Tokyo Game Show on September 21st, it was revealed that users will be able to download some of the thousands of PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 titles from the PlayStation Network Platform for a fee, starting with those with the smallest game data. The reason to allow this kind of functionality is that Sony wants to allow the users to choose the games of their preference. Ken Kutaragi also announced functionality with other consoles, similar to Nintendo upcoming Virtual Console, including confirmed Sega Genesis and Turbo Grafx 16 functionality. However, has replied that Sony has been too hasty with calling it a fact. SEGA is currently reviewing the possibilities, but have not yet made a decission on it. Hardware summaryUnless otherwise noted, the following specifications are based on a press release by Sony at the 2005 E3 Conference, and slides from a Sony presentation at the 2006 Game Developer's Conference. The PS3's 3.2 GHz Cell processor, developed jointly by Sony, Toshiba and IBM ("SIT"), is an implementation to dynamically assign physical processor cores to do different types of work independantly. It has a PowerPC-based "Power Processing Element" (PPE) and six accessible 3.2 GHz Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs), a seventh runs in a special mode and is dedicated to OS security, and an eighth disabled to improve production yields. The PPE, SPE's and other elements ("units") are connected via an Element Interconnect Bus which serves to connect all of the units in a ring-style bus. The PPE has a 512KB level 2 cache and one VMX vector unit. Each of the SPEs is a RISC processor with 128 128-bit SIMD GPRs and superscalar functions. Each SPE has its own L1 cache. The floating point performance of the whole system (CPU + GPU) is reported to be 2.18 TFLOPS. PlayStation 3's Cell CPU achieves 218 GFLOPS single precision float and is reported at around 26 GFLOPS double precision. The PS3 will ship with 256 MB of Rambus XDR DRAM, clocked at CPU die speed. The real world results indicate this Cell processor allows programmers to assign SPE's to do different work by instructing the SPE cores to run special programs. For example, you can instruct one core to work on decoding and multiplexing audio, another core to perform computations on realistic projectiles subject to changing gravity constraints and yet another to govern the activities of the main character. The programmer still has 3 more cores not yet assigned but the only remaining task is to collect the work performed and display the results on the screen. Now that each core can be dedicated to one task instead of being interrupted and switching contexts repeatedly like conventional architectures, the efficiency and throughput goes up. The Graphic processing unit is based on NVIDIA G70 (previously known as NV47) architecture, which focuses on maximizing per-pixel computation in favor of raw pixel output. The GPU will make use of 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM clocked at 700 MHz. The GPU has access to the XDR main memory as well. It also supports a wide array of standard and HDTV resolutions and connectivity options (such as HDMI and Component video). In terms of audio, the PS3 will support a number of advanced audio formats, including 7.1 digital audio, Dolby TrueHD, and others. For the optical drive, a wide variety of DVD and CD formats are supported, as well as Blu-ray Disc. A 20 GB / 60 GB 2.5" SATA150 Hard Disk Drive is pre-installed and coupled with Linux. In the 60GB configuration, Flash Memory can also be used — either Memory Stick, CompactFlash, or SD/MMC. For communication, the PS3 will have one Gigabit ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports, and will support Bluetooth 2.0 EDR. The console uses heat pipes and Sony claims the system will be as quiet as a slim PS2. Physically, the PlayStation 3 is approximately 5 kg (11 lb), 9.8 cm × 32.5 cm × 27.4 cm (3.9 in. × 12.8 in. × 10.8 in.). The power supply will be built into the console. A standard 3-pin IEC connector is present at the base of the console. ControllerMain article: PS3 Controller The PS3 uses a controller that is nearly identical to that of the predecessor's DualShock. The new controller features finer analogue sensitivity, more trigger-like R2 and L2 buttons, a Home button, and a USB mini-B port for charging the internal battery and use for wired play. There are four numbered LED indicators as well, to identify and distinguish multiple wireless controllers. The PlayStation 3 supports up to 7 simultaneous controllers over Bluetooth. The new controller also features limited motion sensing, with the ability to, for example, control a spacefighter by tilting the pad, as demonstrated at E3 2006. Unlike the previous DualShock however, this new controller has no vibration feature; Sony says this would interfere with the motion sensor. CriticismThe high launch price of the PS3 has been subjected to much criticism, from analysts and developers alike. Sony executive, Phil Harrison, has defended the price by citing its Blu-ray support and overall value. Thus far, public reception of the console has been mixed with Sony's stock price declining partially due to worries about the future of the PlayStation brand and its profitability. Fans criticised a lack of innovation and it seemed to lack the "wow" factor. It has also been criticised as relying heavily on recycled hits for games. References
External linksOfficial sites
Unofficial
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