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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 SpecsCPUCell ProcessorPowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz1 VMX vector unit per core512KB L2 cache7 x SPE @3.2GHz7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancytotal floating point performance: 218 GFLOPSGPURSX @550MHz1.8 TFLOPS floating point performanceFull HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channelsMulti-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelinesSoundDolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing)Memory256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHzSystem BandwidthMain RAM 25.6GB/sVRAM 22.4GB/sRSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)SB 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)System Floating Point Performance2 TFLOPSStorageDetachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1I/OUSB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1SD standard/mini x 1CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1CommunicationEthernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/gBluetooth 2.0 (EDR)ControllerBluetooth (up to 7)USB 2.0 (wired)Wi-Fi (PSP)Network (over IP)AV OutputScreen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080pHDMI: HDMI out x 2Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1Disc MediaCD 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+RWBlu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-REAs 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?
About the author:
Ron is the CTO for Dice Ventures Inc an internet holdings and development company. For more great gaming information and discussion visit Video Games Forum or check out Ron's Blog
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