Sony Computer Entertainment

Here you can research all three of Sony's Playstation game consoles. Every line of information has been checked and fully proofed.

Central processing unit

R3051

    MIPS R3000A-compatible 32-bit RISC chip running at 33.8688 MHz
    The chip is manufactured by LSI Logic Corp. with technology licensed from SGI.
    Features:
        Operating performance of 30 MIPS
        Bus bandwidth 132 MB/s
        4 kB Instruction Cache
        1 kB non-associative SRAM Data Cache
        2 MB of main RAM

 

Geometry transformation engine

    Resides inside the main CPU chip, giving it additional vector math instructions used for 3D graphics
    Features:
        Operating performance of 66 MIPS
        360,000 flat-shaded polygons per second
        180,000 texture mapped and light-sourced polygons per second

 

Data decompression engine

    Also residing within the main CPU, it is responsible for decompressing images and video.
    Documented device mode is to read three RLE-encoded 16×16 macroblocks, run IDCT and assemble a single 16×16 RGB macroblock.
    Output data may be transferred directly to GPU via DMA.
    It is possible to overwrite IDCT matrix and some additional parameters, however MDEC internal instruction set was never documented.
    Features:
        Compatible with MJPEG and H.261 files
        Operating Performance of 80 MIPS
        Directly connected to CPU Bus

 

Graphics processing unit

Name unknown

    Handles 2D graphics processing separate from the main 3D engine on the CPU
    Features:
        Maximum of 16.7 million colors (24-bit color depth)
        Resolutions from 256 × 224 to 640 × 480
        Adjustable frame buffer
        Unlimited color lookup tables
        Emulation of simultaneous backgrounds (for parallax scrolling)
        Flat or Gouraud shading and texture mapping
        1 MB of VRAM

 

Sound processing unit

Name unknown

    Supports ADPCM sources with up to 24 channels
    Sampling rate of up to 44.1 kHz
    512 kB of memory

 

CD-ROM drive

    2x, with a maximum data throughput of 300 kB/s
    XA Mode 2 Compliant
    CD-DA (CD-Digital Audio)
    32 kB buffer

Bios

    Stored on 512 kB ROM

Memory Card

    128 kB of space in an EEPROM

CPU: Cell Processor
    PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
    1 VMX vector unit per core
    512KB L2 cache
    7 x SPE @3.2GHz
    7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
    7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
    * 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS

 

GPU: RSX @550MHz
    1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
    Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
    Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines

Sound: Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell-base processing)

Memory:
    256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz
    256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz

System Bandwidth:
    Main RAM: 25.6GB/s
    VRAM: 22.4GB/s
    RSX: 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)
    SB: 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)

System Floating Point Performance: 2 TFLOPS

 

Storage:
    HDD
    Detachable 2.5” HDD slot x 1

I/O:
    USB: Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
    Memory Stick: standard/Duo, PRO x 1
    SD: standard/mini x 1
    CompactFlash: (Type I, II) x 1

Communication: Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x3 (input x 1 + output x 2)

Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g

Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)

Controller:
    Bluetooth (up to 7)
    USB2.0 (wired)
    Wi-Fi (PSP®)
    Network (over IP)

AV Output:
    Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
    HDMI: HDMI out x 2
    Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
    Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1

CD Disc media (read only):
    PlayStation CD-ROM
    PlayStation 2 CD-ROM
    CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW
    SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD
    DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side)

DVD Disc media (read only):
    PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM
    PLAYSTATION 3 DVD-ROM
    DVD-Video: DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW

Blu-ray Disc media (read only):
    PLAYSTATION 3 BD-ROM
    BD-Video: BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE

CPU: 64-bit[3][4] "Emotion Engine" clocked at 294.912 MHz (299 MHz on newer versions), 10.5 million transistors
        System memory: 32 MB Direct Rambus or RDRAM
        Memory bus Bandwidth: 3.2 gigabytes per second
        Main processor: MIPS R5900 CPU core, 64-bit, little endian (mipsel).
        Coprocessor: FPU (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator × 1, Floating Point Divider × 1)
        Vector Units: VU0 and VU1 (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator × 9, Floating Point Divider × 1), 32-bit, at 150 MHz.
            VU0 typically used for polygon transformations optionally (under parallel or serial connection), physics and other gameplay based things
                Parallel performs transformations in parallel in the same moment
                Serial (series) performs transformations in a series of steps or stages coherent to the design of each VU
                    Stage 1: VU0 does perspective and cam, boning, animations and movement laws per triangle
                    Stage 2: VU1 does colors, lights and effects per triangle)
            VU1 typically used for polygon transformations, lighting and other visual based calculations
                Texture matrix able for 2 units (UV/ST)[45]
        Floating Point Performance: 6.2 gigaFLOPS (single precision 32-bit floating point)
            FPU 0.64 gigaFLOPS
            VU0 2.44 gigaFLOPS
            VU1 3.08 gigaFLOPS (with Internal 0.64 gigaFLOPS EFU)
        3D CG Geometric transformation(VU0+VU1 parallel): 66 million polygons per second
            3D CG Geometric transformations under curved surfaces: 16 million polygons per second
            3D CG Geometric transformations at peak bones/movements/effects(textures)/lights(VU0+VU1): 15–20 million polygons per second (dependent on if series or parallel T&L)
           Actual real-world polygons (per frame):500-650k at 30fps, 250-325k at 60fps
        Compressed Image Decoder: MPEG-2
        I/O Processor interconnection: Remote Procedure Call over a serial link, DMA controller for bulk transfer
        Cache memory: Instruction: 16 KB, Data: 8 KB + 16 KB (ScrP)

 

Graphics processing unit: "Graphics Synthesizer" clocked at 147 MHz
        Pixel pipelines: 16
        Video output resolution: variable from 256x224 to 1280x1024 pixels
        4 MB Embedded DRAM video memory bandwidth at 48 gigabytes per second (main system 32 MB can be dedicated into VRAM for off-screen materials)
            Texture buffer bandwidth: 9.6 GB/s
            Frame buffer bandwidth: 38.4 GB/s
        DRAM Bus width: 2560-bit (composed of three independent buses: 1024-bit write, 1024-bit read, 512-bit read/write)
        Pixel configuration: RGB: Alpha:Z Buffer (24:8, 15:1 for RGB, 16, 24, or 32-bit Z buffer)
        Dedicated connection to: Main CPU and VU1
        Overall pixel fillrate: 16x147 = 2.352 Gpixel/s (rounded to 2.4 Gpixel/s)
            Pixel fillrate: with no texture, flat shaded 2.4(75,000,000 32pixel raster triangles)
            Pixel fillrate: with 1 full texture(Diffuse Map), Gouraud shaded 1.2 (37,750,000 32-bit pixel raster triangles)
            Pixel fillrate: with 2 full textures(Diffuse map + specular or alpha or other), Gouraud shaded 0.6 (18,750,000 32-bit pixel raster triangles)
        GS effects: AAx2 (poly sorting required),[45] Bilinear, Trilinear, Multi-pass, Palletizing (4-bit = 6:1 ratio, 8-bit = 4:1)
        Multi-pass rendering ability
            Four passes = 300 Mpixel/s (300 Mpixels/s divided by 32 pixels = 9,375,000 triangles/s lost every four  passes)

 

Audio: "SPU1+SPU2" (SPU1 is actually the CPU clocked at 8 MHz)
        Sound Memory: 2 MB
        Number of voices: 48 hardware channels of ADPCM on SPU2 plus software-mixed channels
        Sampling Frequency: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (selectable)
        Output: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, DTS (Full motion video only), later games achieved analog 5.1 surround during gameplay through Dolby Pro Logic II

 

I/O Processor:I/O Memory: 2 MB
                  CPU Core: Original PlayStation CPU (MIPS R3000A clocked at 33.8688 MHz or 37.5 MHz)
                  Automatically underclocked to 33.8688 MHz to achieve hardware backwards compatibility with original PlayStation format games.
        Sub Bus: 32-bit
        Connection to: SPU and CD/DVD controller.

 

Interfaces:
        2 proprietary PlayStation controller ports (250 kHz clock for PS1 and 500 kHz for PS2 controllers)
        2 proprietary Memory Card slots using MagicGate encryption (250 kHz for PS1 cards, up to 2 MHz for PS2 cards)
        Expansion Bay (PCMCIA on early models for PCMCIA Network Adaptor and External Hard Disk Drive) DEV9 port for Network Adaptor
        Modem, Ethernet and Internal Hard Disk Drive (single IDE/ATA channel, possible to hook 2 devices to.)
        FireWire (only in SCPH 10xxx – 3xxxx)
        Infrared remote control port (SCPH 5000x and newer) — IEEE 1394 port removed and Infrared port added in SCPH-50000 and later hardware

versions.
        2 USB 1.1 ports with an OHCI-compatible controller.

 

Disc Drive type: proprietary interface through a custom micro-controller + DSP chip. 24x speed (PlayStation 2 format CD-ROM, PlayStation format CD-ROM), 4x (Supported DVD formats) — Region-locked with anti-copy protection. Can't read Gold Discs.

Supported Disc Media: PlayStation 2 format CD-ROM, PlayStation format CD-ROM, Compact Disc Audio, PlayStation 2 format DVD-ROM (4.7 GB)(some games on DVD9 8.5 GB), DVD Video (4.7 GB), DVD-9 (8.5 GB Double-Layer). Later models (starting with SCPH-50000) are DVD+RW, and DVD-RW compatible.

Cut out Playstation patch.

Playstation 2 System Logo.

Playstation 3 Logo.