At the recent E3 gaming Convention, Sony gave the world a first look at the new Playstation 3, Sony’s contribution to the next generation gaming consoles. Much like the news surrounding the Nintendo Revolution, the Playstation 3 has been immersed in mystery and controversy for the last several years.

Due sometime in spring 2006, the PlayStation 3 will out perform it’s predecessor in every way imaginable. Powered by the "Cell" processor, which Sony proudly claims makes the machine 35 times more powerful than the PlayStation 2, tops the list of the new incredible features. So, what else can we expect from Sony this time around? What we know…

Initially, even the name of the new gaming console was still very much unknown. With teasers, billboards and misleading posters with the very recognizable font "Prepare for Chang3," advertisement had gamers guessing. However at the E3 convention, it was announced that the name of the new console would in fact be “Playstation 3;” much to the dismay of many online blogers and game forum members.

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. This will essentially open the doors for game developers to produce higher quality games without having to worry about disk size limitations.

Sony also unveiled the PS3's graphics chip, the RSX "Reality Synthesizer," which is based on Nvidia technology. The GPU will be capable of 128bit pixel precision and 1080p resolution, (some of the highest HD resolution available anywhere). The RSX also has 512MB of graphics render memory and is capable of 100 billion shader operations and 51 billion dot products per second. The new Playstation 3 graphics chip also has more than 300 million transistors, larger than any processor commercially available today. Below is a full “official” spec breakdown of the new Playstation 3.

Playstation 3 Specs
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

Disc Media
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

As you can see the new Playstation 3 is going to be an incredibly powerful system, offering stunning graphics with the new Nivdia chip, as well as incredible multiplayer potential with up to seven Bluetooth controllers. With enormous horsepower, stunning graphics and a slew of multimedia elements, the Sony Playstation 3 is going to revolutionize the way we play games. The only issue that needs to be addressed now is, how much will the system cost?

Ron is the CTO for Dice Ventures Inc an internet holdings and development company. For more great gaming information and discussion visit our Video Game Forum

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