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Dec.19 - Dec.26, 2004 |
PlayStation unleashes portable device
Sony's latest gadget to give GameBoy a run for its money when it's finally released
By Alessandro Cancian
Originally Published: 2003-11-23
The empty space in the PlayStation line for portable devices had always been puzzling. Over the years, Nintendo had filled that niche with its GameBoy. Apparently, however, the time of confrontation has come. After some early leaks, now official news and images have been released. Sony is slowly unveiling its portable PlayStation PSP, which is rapidly being completed and is slated for a debut in late 2004. Under some pressure from Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube, Sony is looking for other markets that could boost its profits.
During the Transform 60 conference, the chief of Sony's games division, Ken Kutaragi, illustrated many features of the PSP, confirming some rumours: a 0.09-micron main processor on a 32-bit MIPS R4000, vector calculation unit of the kind used by Intel (SSE2) and PPC (AltiVec), 8 MB of integrated 333-MHz RAM with a 2.6 Gbps bandwidth. A second, similar processor will deal with multimedia features, using 2 MB of integrated RAM.
There will be two graphic processors as well. One will specifically deal with 3D graphics and complex calculations, the other will handle video output. Graphic performance will be very respectable for a pocket device: 256-bit bus with 5.3 Gbps, 664 24-bit pixel per second, and 33 million polygons per second. The screen will be a 4.5" wide, 16:9 widescreen, with a 480x272 resolution.
PSP will have an USB 2.0 port for further expandability and connectivity to other devices, such as PSP, PlayStation 2, and many other systems, along with a Memory StickTM slot for network applications and data transportability in a wireless environment.
The audio section will include multi-channel Dolby 7.1 with 3D sound, MP3 and AAC support (AAC is the digital audio for MPEG-4 used also in the iPod), AVC (H.264) and MPEG-4 video support.
The UMD storage system (similar to a double-layer DVD but smaller) will be able to store up to two hours of DVD-quality video and four hours of standard video. There will be a mechanism resembling that for the DVD and PS zones (the PSP will not read any disc or game purchased in a zone that has not been enabled) and copy protection via content encryption and a unique serial number for every disc.
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