Sony details PS4 hardware and features

Sony Computer Entertainment has formally introduced PlayStation 4 (PS4), its next generation computer entertainment system. PS4 will be available this holiday season.

The PS4 system architecture is distinguished by its high performance and ease of development. PS4 is centered around a powerful custom chip that contains eight x86-64 cores and a state of the art graphics processor. The GPU contains a unified array of 18 compute units, which collectively generate 1.84 Teraflops of processing power that can freely be applied to graphics, simulation tasks, or some mixture of the two.

PS4 is equipped with 8 GB of unified system memory. GDDR5 is used for this memory, giving the system 176 GB/second of bandwidth and providing a further boost to graphics performance.

PS4 provides dedicated, "always on" video compression and decompression systems that enables seamless uploading of gameplay. Gamers simply hit the SHARE button on the controller, scan through the last few minutes of gameplay, tag it and return to the game — the video uploads as the gamer plays.

PS4 also allows gamers to broadcast their gameplay in real-time to friends using live internet streaming services such as Ustream. During live broadcasts, friends can make comments on the streamed gameplay and, if a gamer gets stuck on a challenging level, friends can also join the game, for example by offering health potions or special weapons.

PS4 also integrates second screens, including PlayStation Vita (PS Vita), smartphones and tablets. A key feature enabled by second screens is Remote Play. With PS Vita, gamers will be able to seamlessly pull PS4 titles from their living room TVs and play them on PS Vita's display over Wi-Fi networks.

The system features "suspend mode" which keeps the system in a low power state while preserving the game session. With PS4, gamers just hit the power button again and are promptly back playing the game at the exact point where they left off. PS4 also enables games to be downloaded or updated in the background, or even in stand-by mode. The system takes it one step further by making digital titles playable as they are being downloaded. When a player purchases a game, PS4 downloads just a fraction of the data so gamers can start playing immediately, and the rest is downloaded in the background during actual gameplay.

By combining PlayStation Network with Gaikai Inc's cloud technology, it is SCE's goal to make free exploration possible for various games. In the future, gamers can immediately start playing a portion of the actual game they are interested in — not a stripped down demo. SCE is exploring opportunities enabled by cloud technology with the long-term vision of making PlayStation libraries available on PS4. The system will not be backwards compatible, but older titles may be streamed to the console in the future.

Finally, it is confirmed that the PS4 will not be "always-online", will not block used games initially, and will feature the much desired cross-game chat.

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