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Sony unveiled PlayStation 3 at E3

17 May 2005 4:41 by Jari Ketola | 133 comments

Japanese electronics giant Sony unveiled their next generation superconsole at the E3 expo in Los Angeles. In addition to disclosing the technical specifications of the console, Sony displayed some impressive technology demos to the audience.

PS3 will be powered by a PowerPC based 3.2GHz Cell processor providing 218 gigaflops of floating point processing power. The graphics will be run by a GPU developed by nVidia -- the RSX (short for Reality Synthesizer) has 1.8 teraflops of floating point processing power. That puts the total performance to over 2 TFLOPS -- double that of the Xbox 360 console (officially) unveiled last week.

The full specs for the CPU and GPU are:

CPU
Cell Processor
PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @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 @550MHz
1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines

The console is capable of providing HDTV video at 1080p, which is called by many "True High-Definition video". 1080p provides progressive 1920x1080 pixel resolution. Xbox 360 has HDTV support up to 1080i resolution, which is interlaced 1920x1080. As if that wasn't enough PS3 provides a dual HD output. That is you can hook two HDTV capable devices to the console's HDMI connectors.

Dolby Digital, DTS, LPCM etc. multi-channel audio is, of course, also supported.

AV Output
Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI: HDMI out x 2
Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1

PS3 has 256MB of XDR main RAM running at 3.2GHz. In addition it has 256MB of GDDR3 video ram running at 700MHz.

Memory
256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz
256MB GDDR3 VRAM @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)

In addition to supporting DVD�R/W and CD-R/RW formats, PS3 will also support Blu-ray media.

Disc media (read only)
CD: PlayStation(R) CD-ROM
CD: PlayStation(R)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(R)2 DVD-ROM
DVD: PLAYSTATION(R)3 DVD-ROM
DVD-Video: DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD R, DVD RW
Blu-ray Disc: PLAYSTATION(R)3 BD-ROM
BD-Video: BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE

The connectivity of the console is very impressive indeed. In addition to the versatile audio/video connectors, the console will have not one but three gigabit ethernet connectors (1000BASE-T) -- one for input and two for output. That allows PS3 users to hook up multiple units without the use of external hubs or switches. The console will also have 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi capability and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) built-in.

Communication
Ethernet: (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 output x 2)
Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)

Users will be able to connect up to seven wireless controllers simultaneously over Bluetooth. Wired USB2.0 controllers can also be used. In addition the PlayStation Portable (PSP) can be used to control PS3 over Wi-Fi. Two-way communications between PSP and PS3 will provide huge opportunities for game developers to realize even their wildest visions. The console can also be controlled via network over the TCP/IP protocol.

Controller
Bluetooth (up to 7)
USB2.0 (wired)
Wi-Fi (PSP)
Network (over IP)

PlayStation 3 will be fully backwards compatible with both PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles. Apparently Xbox 360 will also be backwards compatible with the existing Xbox games, which probably is a small relief to Xbox owners.

In technology demonstrations Sony showed some impressive footage. The rubber duck demo, which was shown at PlayStation 2 unveiling, had received a facelift. The bathtub scene with rubber duckling was first improved by popping in a couple of pirate ships with impressive looking sails getting shot through with cannonballs. Then the bathtub was filled with a thousand more ducks bobbing around in the water.

Also demonstrated was the upgraded version of EyeToy, which can now be controlled via voice commands as well. In one of the demos a man held two glasses in his hands over the tub (using EyeToy) from the rubber duck scene, dipped the glasses in the water, filled them up and then poured them empty. The demo sent ripples of excitement through the audience, Joystiq reports.

Square Enix showed the Final Fantasy VII opening sequence -- rendered in real-time. FF7 will not be ported to PS3, though. A new Final Fantasy game will, however, find its way to the new platform.

PlayStation 3 will hit the stores in Spring 2006.

Sources:
Sony press-release
Joystiq
IGN
The Register
BBC

Permalink to this article

Sony still on track for Spring PS3 launch (9 December 2005)

PlayStation 3 might be delayed until 2007 (3 August 2005)

Survey shows consumers prefer Blu-Ray Disc over HD-DVD (14 July 2005)

PS3 router functionality dropped (11 July 2005)

Will Sony lose more than $1 billion on PS3 hardware? (29 June 2005)

Microsoft aims to sell 10M Xbox 360 consoles in 12-16 months (21 June 2005)

Sony in legal battle over UK PSP sales (3 June 2005)

Sony defends delay of European PSP launch (19 May 2005)

Sony unveils new smaller HD camcorder (18 May 2005)

Nintendo announces the Revolution console (Updated) (17 May 2005)

Xbox 360 unveiled -- specs confirmed (13 May 2005)

Two new console forums added (12 May 2005)

More Xbox 360 details leaked (12 May 2005)

Nintendo Revolution console may not be shown at E3 (19 April 2005)

PS3 Cell chip aiming high (4 February 2005)

PS3 utilizes Blu-Ray (5 August 2004)

PS3 to debut in E3? (12 July 2004)

PlayStation 3 in 2006 (28 May 2004)

Playstation Portable ships in 2004, PS3 doesn't (7 July 2003)

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StnkyMnug (Member) 20 May 2005 7:13
oh yeah and the controller looks kinda uncomfortable, i hope they will have the old look too PS2 v9 flip top swap magic 3.6 Taiyo Yuden 4X DVD-R DVD Decrypter Nero DVD Shrink [ + quote]
Jauzzi (Member) 20 May 2005 9:26
man, i don't know if they're gonna be able to mod that ps3... with all that cell chip, and blu-ray, and that boomerang... i think this time we are gonna have to buy the damn games... [ + quote]
jpp01uk (Senior Member) 20 May 2005 9:35
lol someone out there will get round it, may take them a while because of the new technology but some of the guys who help make it, are sometimes the guys that help crack it it will get done eventually, just could be a while thats all :) [ + quote]
Raakhr (Newbie) 20 May 2005 13:23
PS3!?! That looks like a scanner and a boomerang! [ + quote]
StnkyMnug (Member) 20 May 2005 17:49
LOL...Yeah i hope we can still backup our games...LOL but there will be someone out there that will crack it, it may be a pain in the butt, but whatever works right??? [ + quote]
Ludikhris (Inactive) 21 May 2005 0:31
jpp01uk: Im sorry you're just flat wrong. Each console sold is at a loss thats how the market works. However they make the money up quickly in licensing games to the third party companies. It's just a known fact that everytime a company makes a console they sell it at a loss. I realize they will get deep reductions in cost, but that wont cover them enough. This is exactly why people were making PCs out of XBOXs. The parts were cheaper to take out of an XBOX than buy separate because MS was taking a loss for each console they sold. If I remember right the razor industry works the same, lose money on the razor itself to make money on the blades. (once you own their specific blade the demand for their razors thus becomes less elastic and they can charge more per) kinda the same idea here. Ludikhris [ + quote]
lajr1980 (Inactive) 22 May 2005 11:50
yeah I don't like that controller as well I hope we can just plug in any PC USB controller in it [ + quote]
Jauzzi (Member) 23 May 2005 5:46
so, basically... since it's going to take a while since they can find a way to mod those next-gen consoles... what are we going to talk about in this website? Maybe we are gonna have to start new forum topics, like venereal diseases, monogamy, sodomy, terrorism, soccer, porn... and stuff like that. Can I use that word? -> porn?? [ + quote]
StnkyMnug (Member) 23 May 2005 6:49
ur right we are just going to be talkin about how they need to hurry up and figure it out so they can mod the ps3, then we cant get the first ones that come out cause it will have bugs or glitches or somethin like that PS2 v9 flip top swap magic 3.6 Taiyo Yuden 4X DVD-R DVD Decrypter Nero DVD Shrink [ + quote]
Ludikhris (Inactive) 24 May 2005 1:44
If you think about it there is a good change that the Swap Magic discs will work to play PS2 backups still you just have to figure a way to swap the disc without the system knowing... it should be relatively easy, but that only gets you as far as playing the backup PS2 discs (and if you have a PSX method that too). If you think about it Sony would actually be best of considering the piracy premium on PSX and PS2 a sunk cost and use it to there advantage by making it relatively easy to play backups of those games. That way people that have a lot of backups will be more likely to buy the system right off. They should just make it ballz hard to do PS3 games (which it probably will be). I imagine there will be backup PS2 and PSX games within the first 6 months of PS3 release. Of all the systems I am betting XBOX 360 will be pirated and hacked first because of the easier and more familiar technology. Then again the Japanese compose a lot of "the scene" and dont buy XBOX much compared to Sony and Nintendo's products. Ludikhris [ + quote]
jon_daqb (Inactive) 24 May 2005 21:05
all i have to say is fuk sony x-box is the sickest shit ever so 360 is gonna be unbelieable fuk those confrences i know 360 gonna look better than wat it did on mtv rember the graphics of the last 2 systems look the same on tv but x-box was the better sytem in person and X-box has omre than1 game assholes ps2 has nottin good that x-box don't get J.Feez rolls wit da box till da end baby [ + quote]
Jauzzi (Member) 25 May 2005 5:15
you shouldn't make fun of the ps3 fanboys man, they got that new boomerang that can cut your head off. And they don't miss, cuz they got a homing device for BS. [ + quote]
StnkyMnug (Member) 25 May 2005 6:41
jon_daqb ok yeah u need to go to an x-box thread cause this is only for PS2 fans. get the heck out of here and dont come back or ill use my boomerang on you fool.hahaha PS2 v9 flip top swap magic 3.6 Taiyo Yuden 4X DVD-R DVD Decrypter Nero DVD Shrink [ + quote]
nuttin_88 (Member) 25 May 2005 15:49
i really don't get why people have to come here and say Fk sony or Fk microsoft, they are both great systems. I understand if you like one better than the other but when you come here and sound ignorant for no reason and think that people are going to care what you think just makes me laugh. I mean what are you trying to prove by writing "fuk sony blablabla" does that make you feel cool or are you just some kind of internet thug trying to start something. [ + quote]
Jauzzi (Member) 27 May 2005 6:36
I, actually, like the ps3 better than the xbox 360, but if you don't get the joke... that's your problem... talking about jokes... someone told me that it was on the news that bill gates went to London (i think) and some guy threw a cake on his face and took pictures of it and spread it over the internet... poor bill was all mad and the security guys grabbed the guy but they couldn't do anything to him because... I mean... how can someone go to jail just for throwing a cake.... it would be really cool if someone finds the link to those pictures... [ + quote]
StnkyMnug (Member) 27 May 2005 6:44
Yeah those pics would be pretty funny to see PS2 v9 flip top swap magic 3.6 Taiyo Yuden 4X DVD-R DVD Decrypter Nero DVD Shrink [ + quote]
Jauzzi (Member) 27 May 2005 6:51
hahaha... okay, I didn't find the pictures... but I found a VIDEO instead... take a look... http://webpages.shepherd.edu/jbeatr01/vids/bgpie.mpeg [ + quote]
StnkyMnug (Member) 27 May 2005 6:54
ah hahahaha omg that was pretty funny...LMAO stupid rich people PS2 v9 flip top swap magic 3.6 Taiyo Yuden 4X DVD-R DVD Decrypter Nero DVD Shrink [ + quote]
nuttin_88 (Member) 27 May 2005 12:57
Daaaaaam! when was this [ + quote]
bigdave76 (Junior Member) 29 May 2005 3:31
hers what i came across for the p3 PLAYSTATION�3 Specifications> Product name PLAYSTATION�3 Logo CPU Cell Processor PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz 1 VMX vector unit per core 512KB L2 cache 7 x SPE @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 @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, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell-base processing) Memory 256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @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 HDD Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1 I/O USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0) 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 Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR) Controller Bluetooth (up to 7) USB2.0 (wired) Wi-Fi (PSP�) Network (over IP) AV Output Screen size 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p HDMI HDMI out x 2 Analog AV MULTI OUT x 1 Digital audio DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1 Disc media * read only 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 About Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. if im not mistaken this system suposed to be dvd r compataible just my 2 cents [ + quote]
bigdave76 (Junior Member) 29 May 2005 3:45
im not against either of the systems they both have there ups and downs im just a die hard sports fan so all you sports fans take check out ncaa 2006 and maddend 2006 looks awsome just be happy ya can play a game go back into time where they had no t.v gaming systems just making the usa lazier than before i perfer to go out and have a life besides arguing about a gaming system go find some woman and have fun what happend to going outside with yr friends and playing football or whatever now days ppl eating pizza and setting on the damn couch thats whats wrong with kids today used to see kids outside now days ya cant get them to go out anp play see what the gaming system has turned us into my 2 cents may be pointless but ya get my drift [ + quote]
djboogie (Senior Member) 1 June 2005 17:13
yup we have al seen those specs beieve it when its built and avilable to the public! How come princess Leia never said "Holy crap! that means he's my dad too!!" [ + quote]
Bubba1982 (Senior Member) 2 June 2005 1:07
ugh. would people please stop posting the damn stats on the ps3 and xbox 360 specs. For more help check out the web chat http://adbuddies.ccsau.info If I were God and I didn''t believe in myself would that be blasphemy? [ + quote]
StnkyMnug (Member) 2 June 2005 6:52
yeah we all know and seen them PS2 v9 flip top swap magic 3.6 Taiyo Yuden 4X DVD-R DVD Decrypter Nero DVD Shrink [ + quote]
Endrit (Junior Member) 10 December 2005 7:37
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ViperVeno (Newbie) 30 May 2006 12:30
Hey People. speaking of that Boomerang... i was just on the official PlayStation website and i think they herd everyone talking down the pad. I've seen a few images of the PS3 with the old pad design. a few improvements on the shoulder buttons and the wire that use to come out of the pad is now replaced with the type of USB sockets u get in Sony Digital Camera to connect to the PC. I'm guessing they are Bluetooth, but say when the batteries run out, you can slap the wire in and use it wired. Thats all from me. Keep the News coming. Thank You [ + quote]