PlayStation2 PlayStation2 will launch on October 26th. We've got a funny feeling that it's going to be 'BIG'.Let's take a look at exactly what you're drooling over..
In addition to its gaming ability, PlayStation2 will make available new forms of in home entertainment as programmers get to grips with its processing power. Sony reckon that for the first time, the standard of entertainment is governed not by the power of the machine, but by the ability of the programmer.
 The console utilises a CPU called the Emotion Engine. Developed with Toshiba, the CPU has a number of key parts, all of which come together in a stonking technological spec-fest. Here's the beef:
PlayStation2 is being pushed as the first truly 128bit games console. Whereas previous machines have utilised two 64bit processors with 64 bit connectors, PlayStation2 has 128 bit connectors, allowing the full power of the processors to be exploited. This enables PlayStation2 to run at a much faster rate than the current generation of 128 bit consoles.
PlayStation2 has 2 floating point calculators so that rather than functioning in binary, the console can work to a limitless number of decimal places. Sony reckons that this brings a leap forward in terms of graphics performance to the standard of the supercomputers used in movie production, allowing real time graphic generation comparable to that seen in Toy Story or Star Wars.
A further part of the CPU decodes MPEG2 movie clips ??e quality utilised by DVD video. European versions of PlayStation 2 will play DVD movies without the need to save drivers onto a memory card (as with the Japanese console) ??mply buy a DVD, put in in and operate using the controller.
PlayStation2 also uses a PlayStation chip to give backwards compatibilty ??out 90% PSX games will be playable on the new machine. This chip also manages peripherals, and the new Dual Shock2 controller will be able to sense 256 grades of pressure. In other words, the harder you press the button, the harder you will hit someone, or the faster your car will accelerate.
Three hundred games are currently in development and over one hundred and eighty development companies are apparently working on PS2 titles.
?h the removal of technological limitations, the public will be able to enjoy videogames which move closer to film in terms of emotion and involvement for the player,??ys Sony. ?elopers will be free to devote more time to plot and character development rather than squeezing the last millisecond of performance from the console.??lt;br>
Tokyo Luddites demand the abolishment of PS2
Sony have designed PlayStation2 with the intention of developing new forms of digital in-home entertainment. PlayStation2 features connectors which are compatible with most electronic products. It will be possible to connect keyboards, hard drives, set top boxes, printers, digital cameras, microphones and other products, which the PlayStation2 hardware will be able to drive and manipulate. Initially, this will allow simple tasks such as the insertion of digital pictures of the player onto game characters ??ough with the furore over gamer's faces appearing in Perfect Dark, Sony may be wary of putting this into place.
With the growth of broadband connections to the home and thus faster access to online media, this connectivity will allow games and movies to be streamed directly to a PlayStation2, along with fully functioning on line gaming. Sony aren't pushing this, however, and you won't see a Sega-style online push just yet. It's on the way though ??pect an announcement about a 30 gigabyte harddrive and a cable modem attachable to the PS2's peripheral port. Though who knows when we'll hear that announcement.
Here's the games that we should see within a couple of months from the console's launch:
Possible Launch Titles:
Drakan - Adventure
Dropship - Adventure
Extermination ??tion / Adventure
F1 2001 - Racing
FantaVision - Puzzle
The Getaway ??taway Driving Adventure!
Gran Turismo 2000 - Racing
Early Titles:
Armored Core 2 Action
Eternal Ring RPG
Evergrace RPG
Fusion GT Racing
Kessen Adventure
Midnight Club Racing
Ready to Rumble Boxing
Ridge Racer V Racing
Sim Theme Park sim
Smuggler's Run Racing / Action
Star Wars: Starfighter Shooter
Street Fighter EX3 Fighting
Summoner RPG
Swing Away Sports
Tekken Tag Tournament fighting
Timesplitters First-Person Shooter
Unreal Tournament First-Person Shooter
X Squad Action
We'll delve into these games in more detail next time, and we'll be hunting down the developers of upcoming PlayStation 2 titles and prodding them with big sticks until they squeal all the details??t that's another story For now, make do with the following technical specs, which you can learn by rote and impress your mates with. You can also pretend that you know exactly what they mean:
CPU: 128 Bit 'Emotion Engine'
System Clock: 300 MHz
System Memory: 32 MB Direct Rambus
Memory Bus Bandwidth: 3.2 GB per second
Co-Processor: FPU (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 1)
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: 48 GB Per Second
DRAM Bus width: 2560 bits
Pixel Configuration: RGB:Alpha:Z Buffer (24:8:32)
Maximum Polygon Rate: 75 Million Polygons Per Second
Sound: 'SPU2+CPU'
Number of voices: ADPCM: 48 channel on SPU2 plus definable by software
Sampling Frequency: 44.1 KHz or 48 KHz (selectable)
I/O Processor
CPU Core: Current PlayStation CPU
Clock Frequency: 33.8 MHz or 37.5 MHz (selectable)
Sub Bus: 32 Bit
Interface Types: IEEE1394, Universal Serial Bus (USB)
Communication via PC-Card PCMCIA
Disc Media: DVD-ROM (CD-ROM compatible) |
