Sony announces some PSP specs.

[Jammrock]

The site is in Japanese (maybe Sasq can do some highlights), but the pics have English specs:

http://ngs.impress.co.jp/html.ng/site=GMW&size=148x800&sp=sky2

Sony says..

- it will have 10x the processing power of the original PSX. It will be capable of 3D rendered games.

- It will use something called a UMD (Universal Media Device), which is a small DVD like disc that stores 1.8 GB of data on a double layered disc. Plus have 64 MB RAM for gaming.

- The screen will be a backlit TFT widescreen (450 x 272 pixels, which is almost NTSC TV resolution).

- 3D graphics engine, MPEG4 video playback.

- MP3 audio playback, 3D sound (for Dolby headphones or simulated surround???) using PCM (which is odd since they are pushing DSD so much for SACD), stereo speakers and headphone out.

- All processing, graphics and sound will be done on a single chip solution, with a MIPS 32-bit core at an undetermine clock speed.

- Memory Stick interface for MP3's and game data for saves and the like.

-USB 2.0 to connect other peripherals to it, and possible to connect it to the PS2 and PC (for MP3 upload I would guess).

- Built-in Li-Ion battery with AC adapter.

- I saw another place that said it will have some form of 802.11 for wireless uplink with other PSPs (and PC's?).

Looks like a nice toy. But something like this will probably cost $150 minimum, but I would guess an early start of $200-$250. Should be interesting to see.

Jammrock

[Chrono_Wanderer]

hmm... give me...

[Chris B]

Re: Sony announces some PSP specs.

Originally posted by Jammrock
Looks like a nice toy. But something like this will probably cost $150 minimum, but I would guess an early start of $200-$250.

Honestly I think that estimate may be on the low side. I wouldn't be one bit surprised if this thing hits the shelfs at 350+ $. I hope I'm wrong though

One thing is this UMD media type! It looks to me like Sony want total control over the format. I mean video playback for example is all fine and dandy, but will I have to buy a UMD disc with the movie? Or could I play it from the memory stick?

First option is just not acceptable. Why would I want to buy a second copy of a movie that I can only view on this thing. Of course they could be putting out special UMD recorders as well, but that opens up a whole other issue right there.

Vidoe from memory stick then!? Ok, but to store anything in a decent quality I'll need one of the 'big' ones. Another cost! And even then there's only so much room. Take this thing on a long flight to watch a couple movies? Not if I need one memory stick pr. film.

It really looks like a waste of video playback capability to me. If it's to have any appeal as an MP3 player/vidoe player and not just a gaming device they need to stick a hard drive in there.

Ok, no more ranting The specs DO look nice from a performance point of view when compared to other handheld gaming devices. But I think I'll save the cheers till I see the finished product.

[Jammrock]

I'm sure the video playback is designed for in game video.

Jammrock

[Rakido]

Here are more infos (in english this time )

http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6072659.html

PSP Specifications:

PSP CPU Core

MIPS R4000 32-bit core
128-bit bus
1-333MHz (1.2V)
8MB eDRAM main memory
2.6Gbps bus bandwidth
FPU, VFPU (2.6 billion flops)
3D graphics extended instructions
I Cache, D Cache

PSP Media Engine

MIPS R4000 32-bit core
128-bit bus
1-333MHz (1.2V)
2MB eDRAM submemory
I-Cache, D-Cache
90nm CMOS


PSP Graphics Core

1-166MHz (1.2V)
256-bit bus
2MB eDRAM (VRAM)
5.3Gbps bus bandwidth
664 million pixels per second pizel fill rate
3D curved surface and 3D polygon engine
Support for compressed textures, hardware clipping, morphing, bone, tessellation, bezier, b-spline (NURBS)
Maximum of 33 million polygons per second
24-bit full color (RGBA)

Sound Core

VME (Virtual Mobile Engine)
Reconfigurable DSP
166MHz (1.2 V)
128-bit bus
5 giga operations per second
CODEC capabilities
3D sound, 7.1 channels
Synthesizer, effecter, and other abilities
ATRAC3 plus, AAC, MP3 for audio


Media

UMD (Universal Media Disc)
60mm-diameter disc
660nm laser diode
1.8GB capacity (dual-layered disc)
11Mbps transfer rate
AES crypto system
Unique disc ID
Shock proof
Regional code system
Parental lock system
Repeat ordering system


Other Specifications

16:9-format widescreen TFT LCD (480x272 pixels, 24-bit full color)
MPEG4 AVC decoder
Wireless LAN (802.11)
IrDA (Infrared Data Association)
USB 2.0
Memory Stick
AV in/out
Stereo headphone out
Lithium ion battery
Expansion port

Rakido

[Kooldino]

What's the release date? Specs seem nice.

[bsdgeek]

It should be hitting the market by late 04, early 05.

[Jammrock]

Sony's target date is holiday season 2004, which usually means September/October. It looks like they already have the hardware nailed down, so now it looks like they are working on getting games developed and getting a solid manufacturing process down to keep the price down.

As for the $300+ price, I highly doubt it. This is seen as a gaming console, so any price over $250 won't sell. As proof, look at the old Neo Geo and 3DO, plus the other portable systems to come out over the years. Despite their advanced features and far superior hardware, they all flopped (with the Neo Geo as kind of an exception). There are portable gaming systems from SNK, Sega and TurboGrafx-16 (remember that old NEC console?) that to this very day are more powerful and have more advanced features than the Nintendo GameBoy Advacned SP (or whatever the newest one is called). The trick is that Nintendo sold their GameBoy cheap, sold the games cheap, made tons of great games for it and had a long battery life.

Even with the Sony PlayStation name attached to it, the PSP will fail if the intro price is more than $250 and it doesn't drop under $200 within 3 months. I would guess they will intro it at $200 and drop to $150 within 6 months. After 1-2 years it will go for $100 or less.

Since it is a gaming platform Sony must take the loss on the hardware and make up the difference on software sales. That's the economics of game consoles. Every company that has tried any other economic model has failed, and failed miseribly.

This is why I think they announced the PSP so early. They want to generate demand for the system so more developers make games for it. The more games they have for it at launch, the more money they can recoup off the bat and compete with the GameBoy.

I used to be in the console biz, btw

Anywho, I doubt Nintendo will take this lightly. I'm sure we will hear about a new GameBoy coming out in 2004 by December of this year. GameBoy is their bread and butter with the Gamecube performing poorly.

Jammrock

EDIT: Lol, talk about a slip ... Dreamcast ... what was I thinking.

[bsdgeek]

Originally posted by Jammrock
Sony's target date is holiday season 2004, which usually means September/October. It looks like they already have the hardware nailed down, so now it looks like they are working on getting games developed and getting a solid manufacturing process down to keep the price down.

As for the $300+ price, I highly doubt it. This is seen as a gaming console, so any price over $250 won't sell. As proof, look at the old Neo Geo and 3DO, plus the other portable systems to come out over the years. Despite their advanced features and far superior hardware, they all flopped (with the Neo Geo as kind of an exception). There are portable gaming systems from SNK, Sega and TurboGrafx-16 (remember that old NEC console?) that to this very day are more powerful and have more advanced features than the Nintendo GameBoy Advacned SP (or whatever the newest one is called). The trick is that Nintendo sold their GameBoy cheap, sold the games cheap, made tons of great games for it and had a long battery life.

Even with the Sony PlayStation name attached to it, the PSP will fail if the intro price is more than $250 and it doesn't drop under $200 within 3 months. I would guess they will intro it at $200 and drop to $150 within 6 months. After 1-2 years it will go for $100 or less.

Since it is a gaming platform Sony must take the loss on the hardware and make up the difference on software sales. That's the economics of game consoles. Every company that has tried any other economic model has failed, and failed miseribly.

This is why I think they announced the PSP so early. They want to generate demand for the system so more developers make games for it. The more games they have for it at launch, the more money they can recoup off the bat and compete with the GameBoy.

I used to be in the console biz, btw

Anywho, I doubt Nintendo will take this lightly. I'm sure we will hear about a new GameBoy coming out in 2004 by December of this year. GameBoy is their bread and butter with the Dreamcast performing poorly.

Jammrock

Looks like trying to hype it up and make people wait for it instead of current consoles. (like PS2 over DC a couple of years ago)

Yep you have to have ALL of these to succeed. (GameBoy cheap, sold the games cheap, made tons of great games for it and had a long battery life) Atari sold the Lynx cheap ($99), it was more powerful, with games around the same price. But the battery life sucked, it was like 4 hours on 6 AAs. Well actually now that I think about it, Atari had bigger problems so that may not have been why it flopped, and they pulled it from the market pretty early.

I don't really know wtf I was trying to accomplish with this post, but I have 665 now .