“In a glitzy ceremony held at Sony’s film studios here on Monday, the company released eagerly anticipated details of its upcoming PlayStation 3 and said the console would reach shelves in spring 2006,” Richard Shim and John Borland report for CNET News. “Boasting a new chip touted as being as fast or faster than the most powerful personal computers on the market today, the new console is designed to be a huge step forward from today’s gaming consoles, as well as a key element of a broader networked home entertainment system.”
“According to the company, the new console will have wireless controllers, a detachable 2.5-inch hard drive, slots for compact flash and Sony’s memory stick media and a built-in Wi-Fi connection that can connect to the Playstation Portable,” Shim and Borland report. “‘The network is going to be a core part of the PS3,’ Masa Chatani, Chief Technology Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment. The system will include USB 2.0 and gigabit Ethernet connections, and will support games made for previous generations of PlayStation systems, executives said. It will include support for up to seven controllers at once, providing much-expanded possibilities for multiplayer games. The core processor will run at 3.2GHz, rather than the previously reported 4GHz. The company provided no information on expected price.”
“At the core of Sony’s new game machine is a speedy new chip developed by IBM and Toshiba, called the Cell. The chip is expected to be used in graphics design workstations, as well as in the game system,” Shim and Borland report. “With a radical new design that includes nine separate processors, with one controlling ‘brain’ that will divvy up tasks among its eight peers…”
Full article with more details here.
PlayStation 3 specs here.
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