The PlayStation 3 (marketed as PLAYSTATION 3 until September 2009 and officially abbreviated to PS3) is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment, and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. A major feature that distinguishes the PlayStation 3 from its predecessors is its unified online gaming service, the PlayStation Network, which contrasts with Sony’s former policy of relying on video game developers for online play. Other major features of the console include its robust multimedia capabilities, connectivity with the PlayStation Portable, and its use of a high-definition optical disc format, Blu-ray Disc, as its primary storage medium. The PS3 was also the first Blu-ray 2.0-compliant Blu-ray player on the market. The PlayStation 3 was first released on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America and South America, and March 23, 2007 in Europe and Oceania. Two SKUs were available at launch: a basic model with a 20 GB hard drive (HDD), and a premium model with a 60 GB hard drive and several additional features (the 20 GB model was not released in Europe or Oceania). Since then, several revisions have been made to the console’s available models.
Technical specification
CPU
The PS3 uses the Cell microprocessor, which is made up of one 3.2GHz PowerPC-based “Power Processing Element” (PPE) and six accessible Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). A seventh runs in a special mode and is dedicated to aspects of the OS and security, and an eighth is a spare to improve production yields. PlayStation 3′s Cell CPU achieves 204 GFLOPS single precision float and 15 GFLOPS double precision. The PS3 has 256MB of Rambus XDR DRAM, clocked at CPU die speed. As of firmware update 2.01, 32MB of the XDR memory is reserved by the PS3′s XrossMediaBar user interface.
Graphics processing unit
The graphics processing unit, according to Nvidia, is based on the NVIDIA G70 (previously known as NV47) architecture. The GPU makes use of 256MB GDDR3 RAM clocked at 700MHz with an effective transmission rate of 1.4GHz and up to 224MB of the 3.2GHz XDR main memory via the CPU (480MB max).
Connectivity
The PS3 supports numerous SDTV and HDTV resolutions (from 480i / 576i up to 1080p) and connectivity options (such as HDMI 1.3a and component video). In terms of audio, the PS3 supports a number of formats, including 7.1 digital audio, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio and others; audio output is possible over stereo RCA cables (analog), optical digital cables, or HDMI. For the optical disc drive, a wide variety of DVD and CD formats are supported, as well as Blu-ray Discs. A 20, 40, 60, 80 or 160GB 2.5″ SATA 150 hard disk is pre-installed. In the 60 GB and 80 GB configurations, flash memory can also be used — either Memory Sticks, CompactFlash cards, or SD/MMC cards. All models support USB memory devices; flash drives and external hard drives are both automatically recognized. However, they must be formatted with the FAT32 file system — the PS3 does not support the NTFS file system that is the standard in the Windows NT family. For communication, the system sported four USB 2.0 ports at the front on the 20 and 60 GB models as well as the NTSC 80GB model, but the 40GB and 80GB PAL models only have 2 USB ports. All models (80 & 160 GB) released after August 2008 have been reduced to two USB ports, as well as dropping CompactFlash and SD card support. One Gigabit Ethernet port, Bluetooth 2.0 support, and built-in Wi-Fi are available on the 40, 60, 80, 120, and 160;GB versions.
Form and power consumption
The PlayStation 3 console is approximately 6 kg (approximately 13 pounds), 325 mm (W) × 98 mm (H) × 274 mm (D). The case was designed by Teiyu Goto of Sony, and uses the ‘Spiderman’ font. The power consumption of the initial PlayStation 3 units based on 90 nm Cell CPU ranges from 170–200 watts during normal use, despite having a 380 watt power supply. The power consumption of newer 40GB PlayStation 3 (65 nm process Cell/90 nm RSX) units ranges from 120-140 watts during normal use. The latest 80GB units use both 65 nm Cell and 65 nm RSX, and have further lowered power consumption to between 90-120W. The PS3 Slim reduces this power consumption by another 34% with the use of a 45nm Cell.
Universal power supply
The power supply can operate on both 60 Hz and 50 Hz power grids. It uses a standard C14 IEC connector and a C13 power cord appropriate for the region it is being used in. The power supply on the “fat” models are capable of delivering approximately 380W, although the PS3 has never been measured using this much power. The power supply was reduced to 250 watts in the 120 GB “Slim” model. Japanese PS3 models produced since 2007 are capable of delivering 280W of power, in part due to the energy efficiency of the newer 65 nm-based cell processors.
Backward compatibility
The PlayStation 3 does not include interfaces for legacy PlayStation peripherals, though IGN.com tested a legacy controller using a PS2-to-USB adapter, finding that it is compatible, though most other devices (such as the Guitar Hero controller) may not be compatible. However, with the release of firmware 1.70 for the Playstation 3, Sony has added support for previous Guitar Hero controllers with generic PS2-to-USB adapters (although the whammy bar is not functional). Nyko started production on the “Play Adaptor”, a PS2-to-USB adapter allowing for guitars and other PlayStation 2 peripherals to be used on the PlayStation 3 and was scheduled for release in Q2/2007, but Nyko stated at the end of March that the production of this device had been postponed due to compatibility problems with the PS3. The PS3 supports both the USB EyeToy camera/webcam and SOCOM Headset for video and voice chat. A memory card adapter is available so users can copy their old PS/PS2 game saves to a virtual memory card on the PS3’s hard drive. The PlayStation 3 can also use Memory Sticks to store and save data for PlayStation and PlayStation 2 software. New PlayStation 3 systems no longer support PS2 playback (whether through use of the Emotion Engine & Graphics Synthesizer hardware or through the Graphics Synthesizer and software emulation of the Emotion Engine) or Memory Sticks.
Disc drive
The PlayStation 3 disc drive is an all-in-one type allowing the use of different formats:
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray drive is a 2x speed, region coded type allowing the use of:
- PlayStation 3 BD-ROM (DVD region matched, i.e. Zone 1, Zone 2, etc., and All)
- BD-ROM (BD region matched, i.e. Area A, Area B, etc., and All)
- BD-R
- BD-RE (not compatible with BD-RE version 1.0)
DVD
The DVD drive is an 8x speed, region coded type allowing the use of:
- PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM (PlayStation region matched, i.e. NTSC-J, NTSC-U/C, PAL or NTSC-C)
- DVD-ROM
- DVD-Video (DVD region matched, i.e. Zone 1, Zone 2, etc., and All)
- DVD-Audio (DVD-Video content only)
- DVD+R
- DVD+RW
- DVD-R
- DVD-RW
- AVCHD
- DSD Disc
- DualDisc
CD
The Compact Disc drive is a 24x speed, region coded type allowing the use of:
- PlayStation 2 CD-ROM (PlayStation region matched, i.e. NTSC-J, NTSC-U/C, PAL or NTSC-C, compatibility removed in 40GB model, the second 80GB model (CECHF), and the 160 GB model)
- PlayStation CD-ROM (PlayStation region matched, i.e. NTSC-J, NTSC-U or PAL)
- CD-ROM
- CD-R
- CD-RW
- CD-DA
- Super Audio CD (compatibility removed in 40GB, the second 80GB model (CECHF), and the 160GB model)
- Photo CD
- Picture CD
- MP3 CD (MP3, WMA, ATRAC)
