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O T A K U B O Y  ONLINE

BULLETIN - O.O. WIRE
3/2 11:15am EST USA

MEET PLAYSTATION 2

--- BULLETIN *** BUSINESS WIRE JUST MOVED A RE-
LEASE FROM SONY ANNOUNCING THE PLAYSTATION 2.

PIECES OF THE RELEASE FOLLOW:

   Sony Computer Entertainment Tuesday announced the completion of its research and development project to design the successor to the PlayStation(R) that was first introduced during 1994 in Japan.

   The new Graphics Synthesizer will give software experiences for the next generation PlayStation unparalleled graphic quality and detail. The next generation PlayStation technology combines this richly detailed graphic quality with the revolutionary ability to generate worlds, characters, behaviors and complex physical simulations in real-time via the massive floating-point processing power of the system.

    ... "Emotion Synthesis(tm)" which allows the system to simulate not just how the images look, but how the characters and objects in a game think, act and behave. This concept requires a computer system with a massive floating-point mathematical calculation capability far beyond the current state-of-the-art workstations and approaches the performance of large-scale super computers used for scientific simulation.

    The next generation PlayStation has at its heart a CPU with data
processing capabilities far exceeding those of today's state-of-the-art PCs and with a rendering processor that has greater performance than that of the highest level graphics workstations.

    In addition to the technology of conventional CD-ROM, the new
system also adopts the future generation of disc media, DVD-ROM, to
allow for the storage of massive amounts of data and large programs.

    In addition, the new system employs MPEG2 image decompression
technology, widely used today for image-based DVDs.

    In the vital area of sound processing, Sony has gone beyond the
capabilities of the current PlayStation to allow for even more complex
digital enhancement and processing of sound effects and music.
Software generated sounds, using the massive calculation performance
of the system and complex enhancements to the sound processor, allows
for the encoding and processing of advanced 3-D digital sound
techniques such as AC-3 and DTS.

    With over 3,000 titles currently available for the current PlayStation worldwide, Sony has designed the new system to be backward compatible, therefore, allowing consumers to continue to enjoy their library of software. This was made possible by integrating a new I/O Processor that uses a 32-bit core identical to the current PlayStation system, permitting the accurate interchange of data and programs with the rest of the new system.

    Sony Computer Entertainment will incorporate this new technology into the next generation PlayStation that is planned to be released into the Japanese market during the fiscal year ending March 2000. An overseas introduction is planned to follow in the fall of 2000. To allow software developers to begin developing new titles to take advantage of this powerful new technology, development systems will be made available starting this spring.


    NEXT GENERATION PLAYSTATION(R) BASIC SPECIFICATION AND FEATURES

CPU                                   128 Bit "Emotion Engine(tm)"
   System Clock Frequency             300 MHz
   Cache Memory                       Instruction: 16KB, Data:
                                       8KB + 16KB (ScrP)
   Main Memory                        Direct Rambus (Direct RDRAM)
   Memory Size                        32MB
   Memory Bus Bandwidth               3.2GB per Second
   Co-processor                       FPU (Floating Point Unit)
                                      Floating Point Multiply
                                       Accumulator x 1,
                                      Floating Point Divider x 1
   Vector Units                       VU0 and VU1
                                      Floating Point Multiply
                                       Accumulator x 9,
                                      Floating Point Divider x 3
   Floating Point Performance         6.2 GFLOPS

   3D CG Geometric Transformation     66 Million Polygons per second

   Compressed Image Decoder           MPEG2

Graphics                              "Graphics Synthesizer"
         Clock Frequency              150MHz
         DRAM Bus bandwidth           48GB per Second
         DRAM Bus width               2560bits
         Pixel Configuration          RGB:Alpha:Z Buffer (24:8:32)
         Maximum Polygon Rate         75 Million Polygons per Second

Sound                                 "SPU2+CPU"
         Number of Voices             ADPCM: 48ch on SPU2 plus
                                       definable, software
                                       programmable voices
         Sampling Frequency           44.1 KHz or 48 KHz (selectable)

IOP                                   I/O Processor
         CPU Core                     PlayStation (current) CPU
         Clock Frequency              33.8MHz or 37.5MHz (Selectable)
         Sub Bus                      32 Bit
         Interface Types              IEEE1394, Universal Serial Bus
                                       (USB)
         Communication                via PC-Card (PCMCIA)

Disc Device                           CD-ROM and DVD-ROM

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