The World of Computing and Solutions

Sony wants to outdo Microsoft in just about every aspect. The company has taken more time to perfect its technologies, but it’s debatable whether some are really ready for prime time. In an address at the Tokyo Game Show in mid-September, Sony international game chief Ken Kutaragi criticized PC’s for having “bigger and bigger operating systems” and for losing their “real-time responsiveness”. he said that in the future PS3 will be able to do numerous nongame functions, such as personalized agents for shopping and search.

NEW GUI, NEW WAYS OF BROWSING:
Sony’s Kaz Hirai, president of the U.S. game division, added that the PS3’s Web browser will offer a different kind of experience. Hirai noted that the browser will enable a user to open a page and then set it aside on a portion of the widescreen TV. the user will then able able to open the subsequent Web pages across the center of the screen.
“When you see this in action, it chances the experience of static Web pages”. “We’ve always said that we are the first and foremost about entertainment. We are not necessarily looking to replace the PC, which is primary a productivity tool in the den. the PS3 is geared for entertainment in the living room in the home. We ar not overtaking the PC,”, he said.

The PS3 will have a graphical user interface that resembles the “Cross Media Bar” on the PlayStation Portable. With that interface, the user can quickly scroll through a variety of functions for various kinds of entertainment.

SUITABLE, YET MIND BLOWING GRAPHICS:

Sony’s $599 verion of the box will offer 1080p HD resolution and HDMI connectors. That will enable it to cram about twice as many pixels onto a screen than the Xbox 360.
The machines two teraflops of floating-point performance - twice that of the Xbox 360 - will drive the 3D experience. The bulk of compute cycles are provided by nVidia’s RSX graphics Chip.

Hirai says you’ll notice the details in human faces, which will look so real that you’ll be able to tell from a game character’s face whether he’s lying or telling the truth.

SONY CHOOSES BLU-RAY:
Sony’s Blu-ray HD storage differentiates the PS3 from the Xbox 360. Blu-ray discs store 50 gigabytes of data, compared wtih 9GB on an Xbox 360 DVD Disc and 30GB on Microsoft’s add-on HD DVD accessory. But it also adds several hundred dollars of cost. That’s why the high-end PS3 will debut at $599 for a version withh an 60GB hard drive, 5.1 dolby surround sound, built-in Wi-Fi, and slots for memory cards. The Cheaper $499 version comes iwth 20GB hard drive. Sony recently decided to add an HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) connector to the 1080p HD resolution it.

PlayStation 3:

Pricing: $499 (with 20GB hard drive); $599 (with 60GB hard drive,Wi-Fi, memory stick, SD, Compact-Flash slots)
Release Date: November 17th 2006.
Floating-point Operations: 218 GFLOP’s or about 2 TFlop’s
Main Memory: 256MB XDR RAM
Graphics Memory: 256MB GDDR3 VRAM
Microprocessor: Cell Broadband Engine, or “The Cell”
Description of cores/processing elements: PowerPC-based core at 3.2Ghz. One VMX Vector unit per core. Seven DSP’s (or SPE’s) at 3.2Ghz. Seven 128b 128 SIMID GPR’s. Seven 256KB SRAM for DSP’s. 512KB Level 2 cache.
Graphics Chip: RSX at 550MHz
Hard drive: 20GB or 60GB
Controller Type: Support for up to seven wireless game controllers or USB 2.0 ports
HD Support (HDMI, resolutions): 2 channels, Blu-ray support, upto 1080p

Nintendo’s Wii comes as close as possible to a pure gaming experience on a console. Even though the console stores games on DVD’s, players can’t watch DVD movies on the machine, it’s been said from the vice president of marketing and corporate communications at Nintendo of America that they had to cut costs and decided that most consumers could get a DVD player at Wal-mart for under $50. So adding a DVD playback would not of been good value. The Nintendo Wii also will not support HDTV resolutions, topping out at just 480p.

Nongamer bait: The Wii Channels

Nintendo made one concession to practically by bundling in a basic version of Opera Web browser. That lets gamers browse the Web and connect to various Internet-based “Nintendo Wii channels” using the built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. Nintendo wants to bring nongamers into the Wii environment, and that means getting them comfortable with its innovative, motion-sensing controller. Nintendo wants to use the Wii channels to entice nongamers into trying out the machine.

The machine boots into the Wii Channel Menu and includes the Mii Channel, Photo Channel, Internet Channel, Forecast Channel, Shop Channel, News Channel and a message board.

The Mii Channel lets you create a fun caricature of yourself. That Mii avatar can be used across a variety of Wii games and software. You can store your Mii portrait directly inside the Wii Remote itself. And you can take that Wii remote to a friends house to play another Wii console.

The Photo Channel allows you to display digital pictures stored on an SD memory card on the TV Screen. You can also use the Wii Remote to manipulate the photos in fun aways: you can zoom or create mosaics, puzzles, slide shows. You will aos be able to draw the phots, add stamps and copy and paste objects into the photos as well.

The Wii Message board is a calender that family members can use to communicate with each other. It also allows you to connect to people outside of the home via the WiiConnect24 Wi-Fi Service. You can trade pictures and text messages with cell phone users, or download a new map or weapon for a game.

The Forecast Channel delivers the latest local weather reports seconds after turning on the Nintendo Wii Console. You can also navigate a 3D globe to view forecasts in other cities around the world. The News Channel gives you news in a variety of categories.

The Wii Shop Channel is where you go to buy Wii points, which resemble the gamer points on Xbox Live. You can redeem these points to download classic video games from Nintendo’s extensive back catalog in the Virtual Console.

the Wii Console has 512 megabytes of internal flash memory, two USB 2.0 ports, and built-in Wi-Fi capability. It has a bay for an SD memory card to let players expand the internal flash memory. Nintendo hasn’t said what accessories will be available to expand the entertainment experience. Nintendo will enable connectivity between the Nintendo DS and the Wii over Wi-Fi connections.

Pricing around $250
Release date: 19th November 2006.
Floating-point Operations: 1 FPU (supports 32-bit single precision and 64-bit double precision)
Main memory: 64MB of GDDR3 external main memory, 512MB of internal flash memory.
Graphics memory: 3MB embedded graphics memory. 24MB internal main memory.
Microprocessory: IMB PowerPC, called “Broadway”.
Description of cores/processing elements: operating speed of 729 MHz. 32KB 8-way L1 data cache. 256 2-way L2 cache.
Graphics Chip: ATI graphics processor called “Hollywood” at 243 MHz.
Hard drive: none; slot for SD memory card (upto 8 GB)
Controller types: Support for up to four Wii wireless (via bluetooth) controllers; also backward compatible with four Nintendo GameCube Controllers.
HD Support(HDMI, Resolutions): DVD (12-cm disc) capability, up to 480p, 16:9 widescreen support.