We do know that the default controllers for the PlayStation 3 will be wireless. They can be recharged via any USB port, including those on the system itself. Rather than using 2.4GHz RF signals, the controllers will employ Bluetooth 2.0 technology. PlayStation 3 will support up to seven players wirelessly.
Take a look:
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Not without some sort of adapter. Sony is no longer using the old controller ports and connectors, so the Dual Shock 2 simply won't be able to be plugged in. No official word has been given either way.
Will the PlayStation 3 come equipped with a hard drive? How big will it be?
Sony will make a hard drive available
for the PlayStation 3, but it will be a separate add-on. It will be a 2.5" removable drive, allowing you to transport large
files and swap it out for other drives for more space. Additionally, the drive will come with a version of Linux pre-installed,
thereby making the PlayStation 3 a full-fledged PC as soon as the HD is installed.
Sony has not yet announced a size for the drive, though it's basically hinted that it will increase the capacity of available drives for sale over time.
What kind of disc drive will the system use?
Sony announced some time ago that the PlayStation 3 will make use
of Blu-ray technology. Sony and Toshiba had been in talks to combine the competing Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats into a single
standard, though those talks have been disbanded. The drive itself will be slot-loading.
How fast will the optical disc drive be?
Blu-ray technology transfers at 36Mbps at 1X speed, or about 4.5MB per
second. If the PlayStation 3 needed to load 128MB at the start of a level, it would take nearly 29 seconds (assuming nothing
is cached on a HDD). 2X or even 4X speeds would cut this time down either by 1/2 or by 1/4.
As Blu-ray drives aren't really available to the public yet (aside from a handful of pre-final parts in Japan), coupled with the price of the drives, we expect the PlayStation 3's drive to run at 1X (but the official speed is still forthcoming).
Besides a hard disc and Blu-ray drive, what other sorts of storage options will be available?
Memory Stick (standard
and Duo), SD and CompactFlash. It's also likely (but unconfirmed) that the PlayStation 3 will further allow you to natively
use USB flash drives.
What is the Cell?
The Cell processor was co-designed by IBM, Toshiba and Sony. Configurations can differ, but
here's what the PS3's Cell chip will be like:
Basically, a single Cell processor is designed to act like multiple processors working together, or even independently. A Cell processor has a single PowerPC Architecture Unit (PAU) and multiple Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). A Cell's PAU dolls out instructions to its various SPEs, which can then independently work on tasks. So for instance, one SPU might be programmed to run a game's AI while another handles physics. Since each one acts independently, multiple calculations can be done simultaneously. In other words, it's very powerful. In fact, it's powerful enough to perform 218 GFLOPS.
Who is supplying the hardware?
IBM, Toshiba and Sony are supplying the Cell processors, while NVIDIA is handling
the graphics processor.
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NVIDIA's chip is codenamed RSX. The chip runs at 550MHz and is capable of rendering two 1080p signals simultaneously. It's touted to hit 1.8 TFLOPS of floating point performance and can perform 100 billion shader operations per second, or 136 shader operations per cycle. The RSX uses 128-bit precision for enhanced color definition, making the system capable of High Dynamic Range rendering. Programming-wise, it's based on OpenGL and NVIDIA's CG language.
NVIDIA recently released its GeForce 7800 GTX GPU for the PC, which provides a reasonable real-world approximation of what sort of effects the RSX and PlayStation 3 can handle. The RSX is a step beyond the GeForce 7800 GTX however, making it faster than anything currently available for the PC.
How much RAM will the PS3 have?
256MB of XDR Main RAM @ 3.2GHz and 256MB of GDDR3 VRAM @ 700MHz, or a total of
512MB for the entire system. The RSX graphics chip can actually use all 512MB of system RAM; it is not limited to the 256MB
of GDDR3 RAM.
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Yes. In fact, the standard resolution for the system is 1080p. Yes, as in 1920x1080 progressive, not interlaced. 1080i, 720p, 480p and 480i are all supported as well, of course.
One of the system's more interesting features, however, is the ability to display two 16:9 images simultaneously through the dual HDMI outputs. That means that for the first time in console history, the PS3 can output with a panoramic view of 32:9 or display an entirely different screen that's still coming from a single source.
What sorts of video connections will be available?
Composite, S-Video and component are all possible via AV cables,
but for the best image quality possible the system also employs two built-in HDMI connections. The PlayStation 3 is capable
of displaying two video feeds simultaneously via HDMI, though it's unknown if you can mix-and-match HDMI with a standard AV
output.
Will there still be jaggies?
Some of the video we've seen has had evidence of a slight bit of aliasing, though
simply due to the HD resolution the system renders at, it's very, very slight. It's likely that the jaggies that we've seen
are only due to in-development software and hardware and that final code will feature anti-aliasing, but we're unsure.
What sort of surround sound support will the PlayStation 3 have?
For in-game audio, Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby
Pro Logic II and DTS are all supported and processed by the Cell. Keep in mind, however, that since all the audio processing
is done by the Cell, developers could use or create whatever audio codecs they desire.
What kind of audio connections will be available?
Analog stereo and optical audio output.
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The PlayStation 3 will boast an HD IP (High-Definition Internet Protocol) Camera that's essentially the next generation of the EyeToy. The new camera will capture images that match the same screen output as the PlayStation 3 and will work off an Internet address so that it can be used anywhere in the world for use in independent web-cam broadcasts.
What sort of network connections will be available? Does it feature WiFi?
Yes, the system supports 802.11b/g.
It also has three gigabit Ethernet ports.
These are the companies confirmed so far...
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Launch details have not yet been revealed, except that Bandai plans to release Mobile Suit Gundam day and date.
Will the PlayStation 3 use the same network setup as the PlayStation 2?
No, Sony confirmed at an E3 2004 press
conference that it is currently working towards a new universal networking hub, which in no uncertain terms is similar to
Microsoft's Xbox Live. Specifics about how that network will work (outside of confirmed peer-to-peer in-game item swapping)
are still unknown.
?compatible backwards be it Will
Yes. Sony has confirmed that the PlayStation 3 will be almost entirely compatible
with PlayStation 2 and PSOne software. Games that do not work have not been disclosed.
Will PlayStation 3 be compatible with the PSP?
Sony has stated on numerous occasions that its PlayStation Portable
will connect to the PlayStation 3 via USB and wireless connections.
What will ship with the package?
At this point, the only confirmed piece of equipment is the PlayStation 3 itself.
I know that Final Fantasy VII isn't confirmed for PS3 other than the tech demo at E3, but can you show us a screenshot anyway?
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