STANFORD, CALIF. -- Sony Electronics cracked open the chip powering the forthcoming PlayStation Portable game player in a presentation here Tuesday, providing substantive details of the chip's design.
The chipset's designer did not comment, however, on the reasons for the PSP's delay. Sony has already said that the PSP will not ship in the U.S. until early 2005, and reports have surfaced that software makers don't believe the handheld will be released here until June 2005. Sony will ship the PSP in Japan later this year.
Not only will the PSP signal a new round in the console wars by challenging the established Nintendo Game Boy and new Nintendo DS, but the player will also begin the introduction of 3D-dedicated game into the handheld space.
The PSP will be based around four key blocks: the main CPU core, the media engine, the dedicated graphics processor, and the "Virtual Mobile engine," a reconfigurable assistant chip that will also be used in Sony's Walkman portable music player to conserve battery life. At press time, it wasn't clear whether each block would be integrated or broken out into a separate chip.
Some of the basic capabilities of the PSP player have already been disclosed. The game player will include a 4.3-inch widescreen TFT LCD, will contain a lithium-ion battery, and process AAC and MP3 music and AVC/@MP for pictures and movies. Games and other content will be stored on a 1.8-Gbyte UMD optical disc. The PSP is said to measure 70mm x 74mm x 23mm, and weigh 260 grams.
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Source:
ExtremeTech
