Sony Introduces Playstation 3, to launch in 2006
by Anand Lal Shimpi on May 16, 2005 9:12 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Introducing the Playstation 3
Ken Kutaragi, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, lead the introduction to most of the Playstation 3 specifications. For starters, the console will not be out until Spring 2006 - contrary to recent rumors.
The console itself will be available in three colors - white, grey and black:
As we all know already, the Playstation 3 supports Blu-ray storage technology, marking one of the fundamental differences between it and Microsoft's Xbox 360, which will ship with a DVD drive.
Mr. Kutaragi also reaffirmed that the PS3 would feature backwards compatibility with both the original Playstation and PS2 games, potentially another major advantage over Microsoft's Xbox 360 from a developer and even a consumer standpoint. Microsoft has yet to confirm backwards compatibility for original Xbox games on their new 360 console, but we expect to find out for sure this week.
One of the most publicized features of the Playstation 3 is the new Cell processor. We've talked about Cell in great depth already, but here's how it applies to the Playstation 3:
Contrary to the rumors we've heard, it looks like the PS3 will implement the Cell processor that we all were introduced to a few months ago - featuring a single PPE and 8 SPEs. There is one caveat however; the Cell processor in the PS3 will only feature 7 working SPEs, one will remain disabled in order to improve yields.
The processor will also feature a 512KB L2 cache and each SPE will feature 256KB of local memory, all running at 3.2GHz built on a 90nm process.
The Cell in PS3 can decode up to 12 HD streams simultaneously at full frame rate.
Sony also showed off Cell displaying 1000 movie thumbnails at the same time:
With one fewer SPE than we originally expected, Cell continues to be the shining star of the PS3 and we aren't disappointed with its implementation in the console.
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AnnihilatorX - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
#37"why 7 controllers? "
Because the Cell has only 7 SPE units :P
cryptonomicon - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
HOLY SHIT SONprobedb - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Finally maybe consoles that I'll buy :) I hope they do 1080i over component and not just HDMI or we're screwed!Cdeck - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
i had a feeling the ps3 would smoke the xbox 360. ms's only hope was to get theirs out early.any word on sony's online gaming? free? not so free? hardwired to your bank account like ms?
ElFenix - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
37 - if you count the number of controllers in the PS3 connectivity picture on page 3 you get 8. one of them is connected with a solid green line rather than the dashed blue lines of all the others. as the USB stuff is marked with green lines, i guess this is just a wired USB controller. as the controller is blue like the rest, i guess maybe each controller could be wireless or plugged in.sprockkets - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
why 7 controllers?seems the only way one is going to be perhaps better than another console another is due to physics processing.
by the time it's ready to be made, they might as well make the cell processor on a 65nm process.
dual gbe and other stuff does make for a lot of potential, at least for networking in the house.
Jynx980 - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Very nice pictures of the demos. Its gotta be tough to get a decent shot in the pit.Any word if the games have to support 720p like the Xbox 360?
Xajel - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
WOW...nice introduction anand
sorry but i just make a small translation to arabic and post some info's in three Arabic forums with a links ofcourse to our lovley anandtech website and a note to mention that all info's are from here...
forums are
Montadayat Al Bahrain ( Bahrain Forums )
http://forum.montadayat.org/showthread.php?t=74545
Multaqa Al Bahrain ( Bahrain Online )
http://www.bahrainonline.org/showthread.php?s=&...
Arab Hardware ( Arab Hardware )
http://www.arabhardware.net/forum/showthread.php?t...
bob661 - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Wow. I wasn't expecting this. How about those Unreal shots?Pythias - Tuesday, May 17, 2005 - link
Aw! Did i hurtems widdle feewins?