Sony announces official specs for PS3

[cyrix]

The name was not unexpected, since Sony had been running an extensive teaser-ad campaign prepping the public for the PlayStation 3. The company had laid a blanket of posters around the Los Angeles Convention Center, site of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka E3). Bus stalls and billboards around the convention center proclaimed "Prepare for Chang3" in the distinctive PlayStation font with partial shots of the Dual Shock controller's square-circle-triangle-X buttons.

Sony also confirmed the PlayStation 3, will use Blu-Ray discs as its media format. The discs can hold up to six times as much data as current-generation DVDs. It will also support CR-ROM, CDR+W, DVD, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R formats. It also confirmed the machine would be backward-compatible all the way to the original PlayStation. It will also have slots for Memory Stick Duo, a SD slot, and a compact flash memory slot. It will also sport a slot for a detachable 2.5 inch HDD somewhat similar the Xbox 360's.

Out of the box, the PS3 will have the capability to support seven Bluetooth controllers. It will also have six USB slots for peripherals--four up front and two in the back.

Sony also laid out the technical specs of the device. The PlayStation 3 will feature the much-vaunted Cell processor, which will run at 3.2 Ghz, giving the whole system 2.18 teraflops of overall performance. It will sport 256mb XDR main RAM at 3.2 Ghz, and have 256MB of GDDR VRAM at 700mhz.

Sony also unveiled the PS3's graphics chip, the RSX "Reality Synthesizer based on Nvidia technology. The GPU will be capable of 128bit pixel precision, 1080p resolution, some of the highest HD resolution around. It also has over 300 million transistors, larger than any processor available commercially today. It was manufactured using the 90nm process with 8 layers of metal. The RSX is more powerful than two GeForce 6800 ultras, which would cost rough $1000 if bought today.

The PlayStation 3 will also sport some hefty multimedia features, such as video chat, internet access, digital photo viewing, digital audio and video. Sony Computer Entertainment head Ken Kutaragi introduced it as a "Super computer for computer entertainment."

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/05/16/news_61246 81.html

Eat it up guys. Now we wait for pictures!!!

[Piggus]

2.18 Terraflops?! Good lord!

That's more than double the proccessing power of the Xbox 360.

*Is more than impressed*

[Zero]

Can someone elaborate a little more on this for me? Like what means what.

I'm usually just into gamplay, and some visuals. I don't know much about all the technical riff raff with specs n shit. What do Terraflops do? How do they effect how well games are made?

[cyrix]

Teraflops is how many computations the CPU (cell processor) can handle in a second. So basically? Over 2 trillion computations a second. More than double the Xbox 360 power.

[Zero]

Bah, I don't care if it double's so and so's power. I just wanna know how it effects the console. Ya know? Like how will *this* many terraflops help the game? Will it make for better framerate? or what?

[RJ PIMP]

there is no end to the possibilites of the console now...

[cyrix]

Yes, frame rates will be better handeled, so will AI, lighting, etc...

The processor has the power to handle ANYTHING any game developer throws at it, and then some. Imagin playing Half Life 2 on your PC, while having your chat program open, rendering a video, burning a cd, downloading music, and having all these fancy programs running to make your desktop looking fancy, and Half Life 2 ran flawlessly, and you still had loads of power to spare.

[Olin]

But in order to do that, you'll also need plenty of RAM and an incredibly fast hard disk. So if, say, the parts don't work together very well, you're just getting a waste of power.

[cyrix]

The ram is more than fast enough to keep up with the CPU, and if my guess is on, the Hard drive will be at least a 10,000 RPM drive. Or some other next gen hard drive.

[Zero]

Ah I see, so it's like RAM?

Thats good. Would be great if you couls have more than one program of things running on the PS3. Not sure if there will be. Like if it turns out kinda like the XBOX, How you have songs on there. Would be nice if it you could put music on your PS3, and it plays in a media player. And you could start up a game and play your own music.

Wow, nevermind that^, half-way through it, it sounded like a kinda shitty idea, haha. I hate my brain sometimes. *slap self*

Well, it is good to hear the AI will be better. Never had a problem with framerate. But AI has usually always been kinda stupid. :p

[cyrix]

But the point is you could run your music, and have the PS3 downloading game content while playing with 50 people online all at the same time with no lag at all. It's amazing to be honest.

And no lol....

See the CPU performs all the calculations and is the "brain" of the console. The fact it runs at over 2 teraflops means the brain is REALLY REALLY FUCKING FAST. Which translates into: it's able to perform all these calculations for different things so quickly you won't experience a slow down in any thing.

[Zero]

Oh, I get it now.

I wonder what PS3 will have to offer with online. I hope it's as great as 360's stuff.

I'm usually not one to pay for online games. I think thats why I never got XBOX and XBOX Live. But I got into WoW, so, it's not a big thing now. And I should have a job by the time 360 comes out. So paying $10 or more a month isn't much.

I wanna see more on the media things the consoles have to offer.