Playstation 3 Information

The Shogun

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. The PS3 will be released on November 11, 2006 in Japan and November 17, 2006 in the rest of the world, and will ship in two initial configurations.

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 2005 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).

Sony's current retail strategy for the PlayStation 3 will involve two different configurations that are detailed in a Sony Press release.[1] The "premium" or 60 GB version of the PlayStation 3 comes with an internal 60 GB hard drive. This version of the console will also include Wi-Fi connectivity, HDMI output, and a memory card reader out of the box.

The 20 GB version of the console will not feature Wi-Fi, HDMI, or a memory card reader. The hard drive is upgradeable, and memory card and Wi-Fi support can be added through adaptors. The only non-upgradeable feature is the HDMI support.[2]

In most territories, the 60 GB configuration will cost around USD$100 more than the 20 GB version.

There is also news about a possible price change. Sony announced that if the console might fail from the high price, they will change it.

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,Ubisoft, 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 , Assassin's Creed, Final Fantasy XIII, Killzone PS3, Resident Evil 5, Devil May Cry 4, Silent Hill 5, Shin Megami Tensei, Armored Core 4 , NBA Live 07, Unreal Tournament 2007, Resistance: Fall of Man, Grand Theft Auto IV, Tekken 6, Heavenly Sword and Warhawk.

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. However, it was later determined that the Gran Turismo demo was in fact, running on a PC system, not PS3 hardware. Also shown at E3 was a Final Fantasy VII technical demo of the opening sequence remade for the PlayStation 3 system. At this time, 7 games have been mentioned as possible PS3 launch titles: Lair from Factor 5, Warhawk from Incognito Entertainment, Unreal Tournament 2007 from Epic Games, and Resistance: Fall of Man from Insomniac Games, Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 from THQ, and Call of Duty 3 from Activision. Sony Computer Entertainment CEO, Kaz Hirai said that as many as 15 PS3 titles could be available for launch.
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Backward compatibility

Sony has stated that the PlayStation 3 will have backwards 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.[7] Some sources report that the backwards compatibility will be achieved via software emulation.[8]

At the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing, 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 backwards compatibility with games that hadn't followed the TRCs. "Either it's accidental or on purpose; there's actually a lot of games that don't follow the TRC."[9].

The PlayStation 3 will not be backwards compatable with PlayStation 2 peripherals such as the DualShock controller. It is not known at this time whether PS2 USB peripherals will be compatible with the PlayStation 3.
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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. 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.[10]
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Online features

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

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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. At the E3 2006, Sony presented the "Marketplace" where players can buy and download music, have a profile and act in karaoke's in a service called "SingStar".

It has been confirmed that Linux will be pre-installed on the PS3 hard drive. Sony hopes this will encourage homebrew development.

"Because we have plans for having Linux on board [the PS3], we also recognize Linux programming activities. "Other than game studios tied to official developer licenses, we'd like to see various individuals participate in content creation for the PS3." [1]

Although, it's currently unknown if Linux will be the PS3's main kernel used to run everything, including the Cross Media Bar, or if will be a dual boot environment, where Linux would be loaded from the Cross Media Bar menu. Also, Sony has not said what Linux distribution they will use, or if they will make their own.
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Hardware specifications

According to a press release by Sony at the 2005 E3 Conference, the specifications of the PlayStation 3 are as follows: [11]
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Central processing unit (CPU)

3.2 GHz Cell 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.
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Graphics processing unit (GPU)
The rear of the 20GB PlayStation 3 as it was shown at E3 2006. AC IN, AV MULTI OUT, DIGITAL OUT and an RJ-45 network port are visible
Enlarge
The rear of the 20GB PlayStation 3 as it was shown at E3 2006. AC IN, AV MULTI OUT, DIGITAL OUT and an RJ-45 network port are visible

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)
* Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines
* 128-bit pixel precision offers rendering of scenes with high dynamic range imaging
* 1.1 billion vertices per second

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Memory

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

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Theoretical system bandwidth

* 25.6 GB/s to Main Ram XDR DRAM: 64 bits × 3.2 GHz / 8 bits to a byte
* 22.4 GB/s to GDDR3 VRAM: 128 bits × 700 MHz × 2 accesses per clock cycle (one per edge) / 8 bits to a byte
* 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)[12]
* 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)[13]

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Audio/video output
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Video

* Supported screen sizes: 480p, 480i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
* S/PDIF optical output for digital audio
* Multiple AV outputs
o Composite
o S-Video
o Component video (output up to 1080p)
o HDMI port (Digital video output; 60 GB model only)
+ It is speculated that with the HDMI port the PS3 will still be able to run two screens. One would use the HDMI connector and another would use an analog connector. It would be analogous to modern graphic cards that have both VGA and DVI connectors, and can run two screens. link

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Sound

* Dolby Digital 5.1 minimum
* DTS
* LPCM (DSP functionality handled by the Cell processor)

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Storage

* Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-R, BD-RE. 2x (9.0MB/sec)
* DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW. 8x (11.0MB/sec max)
* CD: PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer) SACD HD. 24x (3.5MB/sec max)
* Hard Drive: Pre-Installed 20 GB / 60 GB (depending on package), 2.5", detachable/upgradeable, with Linux pre-installed.[14][15]
* Memory card readers (60 GB model only)
o Memory Stick standard/Duo and standard/mini slots
o CompactFlash slot
o SD/MMC slot

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Communications

* One Gigabit Ethernet Port
* Bluetooth 2.0
* USB 2.0 (x4)
* Wi-Fi (60 GB model only)
o IEEE 802.11 b, g standards

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Controller
The final PlayStation 3 controller.
Enlarge
The final PlayStation 3 controller.

At Sony's 2006 E3 press conference, the PlayStation 3 controller was revealed to be a wireless version of the previous controller design, as opposed to the often maligned "boomerang" prototype wireless design that was previously showcased.

The PlayStation 3 controller features a USB mini-B connector terminal at the top of the controller for charging the internal battery through USB, and also for wired play. There are four numbered LED indicators at the top, to identify and distinguish multiple connected wireless controllers.

In addition to the basic design, the other major feature revealed at the press conference was the ability to sense rotational and translational acceleration to allow for a full six degrees of freedom, similar to Nintendo's Wii Remote. The new technology was demonstrated with the game Warhawk, which had to be implemented in 10 days, hinting at a last minute effort to combat the expected hype for Nintendo's Wii Remote. The controller is lighter than prior DualShock controllers. According to Sony, because of inclusion of the motion-sensing function, the rumble capability of the previous controllers was omitted, so as not to interfere with motion sensing. Some have speculated that the removal of the rumble capability was influenced by Sony's loss of the latest round of the lawsuit with Immersion Corporation related to Immersion's haptic feedback technology patents. [16]
The 2005 "Boomerang" controller was officially abandoned.
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The 2005 "Boomerang" controller was officially abandoned.

Other, more minor refinements have also been made to the controller. Instead of the vestigial "Analog" button and light, a jewel-like button on the center has been added at the center of the controller face, in a similar fashion as the addition of a Guide button at the center of the Xbox 360 controller. Nearly all the buttons have been raised from their previous versions, presumably to enhance their pressure-sensitive analog functionality. The L2 and R2 shoulder buttons, in particular, have been redesigned to allow for a much deeper depression range (similar to the shoulder buttons on the GameCube controller, though with a feel more often compared to the hinged triggers of Microsoft's Xbox controllers). The analog sticks also have finer analog sensitivity, at 10-bit accuracy, as compared to the 8-bit accuracy of the previous models.[17]
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Power

The power supply will be built into the console instead of having a separate power adapter as is the case with the slim PlayStation 2 and the Xbox 360. [18]
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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[11].

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.
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Miscellaneous

* 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.
* Parental Controls
* The ability for the PlayStation Portable to connect to the PlayStation 3 as a video-enabled controller.

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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[19], a toolkit for advanced procedural synthesis
* Alias Systems Corporation's 3D graphics programs [20]
* 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."[21]

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

* IPv6, the next generation of the Internet Protocol. [22]

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.
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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. [23]

Blu-ray movies will still use a region code, the Blu-ray region code will be different from the DVD region code.
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Criticism

The PS3 has primarily been criticised for its relatively high price compared with other competing consoles. [24] It is also historically a relatively high price for a console launch. Corrected for inflation, the low-end model is slightly less expensive than the Sega Saturn system, and is $100 more expensive than the successful PS2. [25]

Sony has defended its pricing model, noting the PS3's higher performance and inclusion of the Blu-ray drive.[26] However, it is not clear how useful the Blu-ray drive will be on the less expensive model; film studios may choose to turn on Blu-ray's ICT (Image Constraint Token) flag at any point, degrading the non-HDMI output to slightly higher than DVD resolution. A Sony executive responded that it is "too early to speculate at this point" whether movie producers will activate the ICT feature.
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