The PlayStation 4 is an upcoming video game console from Sony Computer Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 during a press conference on February 20, 2013, the PS4 is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of 2013, and will compete with Nintendo's Wii U and Microsoft's Xbox One, as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles.
Moving away from the Cell architecture, the PlayStation 4 will feature an AMD processor based around the x86-64 instruction set. This is intended to make video game development easier on the next-generation console, attracting a broader range of developers. These changes highlight Sony's effort to improve upon the lessons learned during the development, production and release of the PS3. Other notable hardware features of the PS4 include 8 GB of unified memory in the form of GDDR5, a faster Blu-ray Disc drive, and dedicated custom chips for processing audio, video and background tasks.
Among new applications and services, Sony plans to release the PlayStation App allowing PS4 owners to turn smartphones and tablets into a second screen to enhance gameplay. The company also plans to debut Gaikai, a cloud-based gaming service that hosts downloadable content and games. By incorporating a 'share' button on the new controller and making it possible to view in-game play streamed live from friends, Sony plans to place more focus on social gameplay.
In 2012, Sony began shipping development kits to game developers consisting of a modified PC running the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit chipset. These development kits were known as Orbis. In early 2013, Sony announced that an event known as PlayStation Meeting 2013 would be held in New York City on February 20, 2013 to cover the "future of PlayStation".Sony officially announced the PlayStation 4 at the event.They revealed details about the PS4's hardware and discussed some of the new features it will introduce.Sony also showed off real-time footage of games in development, as well as some technical demonstrations.They expect to release the console in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Sony released more information about the PS4 on June 10, 2013 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, as well as showing the device itself.
Main article: PlayStation 4 hardware
The console design was not revealed at the press conference, since the design and
specifications were still being finalized.However, some technical specifications about the console were announced.The technology in the PlayStation 4 will be relatively similar to the hardware found in personal computers.This familiarity should make it easier and less expensive for game studios to develop games for the PS4.The physical console was finally unveiled by Sony at E3 2013.
The PS4 will contain 8 GB of GDDR5 unified system memory with a maximum bandwidth of 176 GB/s.This is 16 times the amount found in the PS3, and is expected to give the console considerable longevity.The unified memory architecture allows the CPU and GPU to access a consolidated memory, removing the need for separate, dedicated memory pools.
The read-only optical drive will read Blu-ray discs at 6x CAV for a maximum read speed of 27 MB/s – a significant upgrade from the PS3's 2x speeds that were capped at 9MB/s.To further enhance optical drive performance, the PS4 will feature a hardware on-the-fly Zlib decompression module, allowing for greater real-term bandwidth, whilst at the same time, the console will continuously cache data onto its hard disk, even buffering unread data when a game isn't actively accessing the optical drive, forming part of Sony's PlayGo strategy.Early reports indicate that the Blu-ray Disc drive will not be capable of reading quad-layer 100 GB discs, a new Blu-ray Disc technology designed to support 4K resolution. Although the console will support photos and videos at 4K resolution, the system is not expected to be able to render games beyond 1080p. The console will include a 500-gigabyte hard drive for additional storage, which can be upgraded by the user.
The PlayStation 4 will feature 802.11 b/g/n wireless network connectivity, Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T), Bluetooth 2.1, and two USB 3.0 ports. An auxiliary port will also be included for connection to the PlayStation Camera, a motion detection digital camera device first introduced on the PS3. A mono headset, which can be plugged into the DualShock 4, will come bundled with the system.Audio/video output options include HDMI and optical S/PDIF. The PlayStation 4 does not have an analog audio/video output.
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| PS4 |
Moving away from the Cell architecture, the PlayStation 4 will feature an AMD processor based around the x86-64 instruction set. This is intended to make video game development easier on the next-generation console, attracting a broader range of developers. These changes highlight Sony's effort to improve upon the lessons learned during the development, production and release of the PS3. Other notable hardware features of the PS4 include 8 GB of unified memory in the form of GDDR5, a faster Blu-ray Disc drive, and dedicated custom chips for processing audio, video and background tasks.
Among new applications and services, Sony plans to release the PlayStation App allowing PS4 owners to turn smartphones and tablets into a second screen to enhance gameplay. The company also plans to debut Gaikai, a cloud-based gaming service that hosts downloadable content and games. By incorporating a 'share' button on the new controller and making it possible to view in-game play streamed live from friends, Sony plans to place more focus on social gameplay.
History:
According to lead architect Mark Cerny, development on Sony's eighth-generation video game console began as early as 2008. Less than two years earlier, the PlayStation 3 had launched after months of delays due to issues in production.The delay placed Sony almost a year behind Microsoft's Xbox 360, which was already approaching 10 million units sold by the time the PS3 launched. PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan said Sony wanted to avoid repeating the same mistake with PS3's successor.In 2012, Sony began shipping development kits to game developers consisting of a modified PC running the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit chipset. These development kits were known as Orbis. In early 2013, Sony announced that an event known as PlayStation Meeting 2013 would be held in New York City on February 20, 2013 to cover the "future of PlayStation".Sony officially announced the PlayStation 4 at the event.They revealed details about the PS4's hardware and discussed some of the new features it will introduce.Sony also showed off real-time footage of games in development, as well as some technical demonstrations.They expect to release the console in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Sony released more information about the PS4 on June 10, 2013 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, as well as showing the device itself.
Hardware:
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| PS4 Hardware |
The console design was not revealed at the press conference, since the design and
specifications were still being finalized.However, some technical specifications about the console were announced.The technology in the PlayStation 4 will be relatively similar to the hardware found in personal computers.This familiarity should make it easier and less expensive for game studios to develop games for the PS4.The physical console was finally unveiled by Sony at E3 2013.
Console:
The PlayStation 4 will utilize a semi-custom accelerated processing unit (APU) developed by AMD in cooperation with Sony.Its APU will be a single-chip that combines a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU), as well as other components such as a memory controller and video decoder.The CPU consists of eight x86-64 cores based on the upcoming Jaguar architecture from AMD. The GPU consists of 18 compute units to produce a theoretical peak performance of 1.84 TFLOPS. This processing power can be used for graphics, physics simulation, or a combination of the two. The console also includes secondary custom chips that handle tasks associated with downloading, uploading, and social gameplay. These tasks can be handled seamlessly in the background during gameplay or while the system is in sleep mode.Though not much is currently known of the PS4's audio capabilities, the console also contains a dedicated hardware audio module, which can support in-game chat with minimal external resources as well as "a very large number" of MP3 streams for use in in-game audio. |
| PS4 Console |
The PS4 will contain 8 GB of GDDR5 unified system memory with a maximum bandwidth of 176 GB/s.This is 16 times the amount found in the PS3, and is expected to give the console considerable longevity.The unified memory architecture allows the CPU and GPU to access a consolidated memory, removing the need for separate, dedicated memory pools.
The read-only optical drive will read Blu-ray discs at 6x CAV for a maximum read speed of 27 MB/s – a significant upgrade from the PS3's 2x speeds that were capped at 9MB/s.To further enhance optical drive performance, the PS4 will feature a hardware on-the-fly Zlib decompression module, allowing for greater real-term bandwidth, whilst at the same time, the console will continuously cache data onto its hard disk, even buffering unread data when a game isn't actively accessing the optical drive, forming part of Sony's PlayGo strategy.Early reports indicate that the Blu-ray Disc drive will not be capable of reading quad-layer 100 GB discs, a new Blu-ray Disc technology designed to support 4K resolution. Although the console will support photos and videos at 4K resolution, the system is not expected to be able to render games beyond 1080p. The console will include a 500-gigabyte hard drive for additional storage, which can be upgraded by the user.
The PlayStation 4 will feature 802.11 b/g/n wireless network connectivity, Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T), Bluetooth 2.1, and two USB 3.0 ports. An auxiliary port will also be included for connection to the PlayStation Camera, a motion detection digital camera device first introduced on the PS3. A mono headset, which can be plugged into the DualShock 4, will come bundled with the system.Audio/video output options include HDMI and optical S/PDIF. The PlayStation 4 does not have an analog audio/video output.