PS3 – Sony’s Next Generation Monster

Sony made it big with there PS2. Now they are looking to go 50 times over board, and add so much power to there PS3, that they want to blow the XBox 360, and the Nintendo Revolution out of the water. I’m afraid that won’t happen so easily, but they definitely have a good shot at it. Sony is known for it’s overall hardware, and entertainment as they do make televisions, stereo’s, etc. This time around PS3 will launch around the same time as the XBox 360, and the Nintendo Revolution, so of course they want to do the best they can to reach the top. Let’s discuss a lot of information about Sony’s upcoming Console.

Sony’s hardware specifications are as stated. A Power-PC – Base Core Processor at 3.2 GHZ, a Graphics Chip set at 550 MHZ, and 256 MB of GDDR3 RAM. Now while this might sound very good, which it is, it is not everything the PS3 has to offer. 3.2 GHZ is fast, and 550 MHZ is very strong in graphics. 256 MB isn’t the fastest RAM out of the three consoles, while Nintendo has the edge in that, it still has a 700 MHZ bus too back them up. Sony’s hardware specifications look top right now, so that is a plus for them. This time around though, it looks like software is going to make you or break you. Sony’s gaming library has always been strong, so if they continue to add to there library, they can be a prime contender for the top spot this year. NVidia is starting to form quite a bond with Sony, so expect there graphics chip to be by NVidia, which will accelerate there games. While it is still early yet, there isn’t too much information out on the PS3, so I have to limit this to some point. As soon as I do know more I will let you know though!

These are PS3’s known specs currently.

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
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 2.0 (EDR)

Controller
Bluetooth (up to 7)
USB 2.0 (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

All I can say right now, is wow. Sony isn’t playing games anymore. Now they are playing business. While the PS3 is set to launch in early 2006, it is only a few months after the launch of the XBox 360, and Nintendo Revolution. This is all subject to change, so there is no true known date, but this is the expect time of release.