PlayStation Portable Chip Details 147
boarder8925 writes "The Register posted an article today that detailed the PlayStation Portable's chip specs. The CPU will run at up to 333MHz, and its frontside bus at up to 166MHz. The graphics system, operating across a 512-bit bus, will be capable of rendering 664m pixels per second and 35m polygons per second. Its core, operating at 166MHz, will include 2MB integrated buffer DRAM."
Impressive... (Score:2, Interesting)
Relative performance (Score:5, Interesting)
Naturally, these are meaningless numbers...but if does give you a hint (especially given the pixel real estate being small) that the PSP will have proper, immersive 3D gaming capability...which I guess has been shown to good effect with the GT4 demo.
-psy
Re:Reminds me of GameGear.. (Score:4, Interesting)
I hate to break all your dream, but technology has moved forward quite a bit since the Gamegear... Both for batteries AND power consumption.
The latest PocketPCs are using a Xscale at 600+MHz and they have HOURS of autonomy. My older Dell PDA (only a 300MHz Xscale) can play games for 6+ hours before needing a recharge (and using a PSX emulator with games on a microdrive)) and the battery was not even that impressive. I could watch a movie for ~1.5h.
Sure, they may not reach the portability level of a GBA (which itself is years behind a Palm, that could live MONTHS on 2 AAA), but it may be *enough*.
Then again, maybe not... so, wait and see...
Re:Reminds me of GameGear.. (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know if this would work well on a game console.
Re:Impressive...[mod parent up] (Score:3, Interesting)
You also have to consider that this hardware is designed specifically for games. Standard pc hardware is very general in nature, but console hardware is not standard PC hardware, it's put together to be able to perform in exactly the ways where games need performance.
Re:Battery life? (Score:3, Interesting)
RTFA:
When playing Gran Turismo 4, it's going to suck down the batteries. Bring your AC or DC adapter, depending on where you're going to be. Maybe even invest in a jacket with a goofy solar panel on it or something. Or, here's an idea, a battery pack that goes in your pocket and feeds the system through the charging socket. However, if you're playing GBA-esque games which will mostly fit in memory and demand little CPU, the system will scale peformance down to preserve battery.
If you can afford a PSP you can afford an external battery pack. Further tidbits:
Not using wifi? It'll be shut off. Not using IR? ditto. Not currently loading anything off the disc? It's not going to be sucking power.
It would be foolish to assume that battery power will be a non-issue but I suspect it will not be anywhere near as bad as the lynx - Sony is not incompetent - and I'm certain that it will not be as bad as you imagine.
Re:90nm fab (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh, the irony. (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, they promised you'd be able to transfer saves of many games between PS2 and PSP, which only makes sense if the game the saves belong to is a port, no?
I don't care if the chip inside is a Dorito... (Score:2, Interesting)
Easy To Develop For? Maybe... (Score:4, Interesting)
Ease of development was a big plus for the original Playstation. And the initial difficulty of development hobbled the PS2 (killed Saturn). Hopefully Sony is designing the PSP with development considerations in mind. Of course those batteries had better last more than a couple of hours too!
Re:The Cube (Score:3, Interesting)
no way to zone out the gameboy (Score:2, Interesting)
they need to balance power vs battery life