- Aug 24, 2001
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Just thought this was interesting. It's so similar that it is scary.
PS Comments
PS3 Comments
PS Comments
The PS2 will run on a 128-bit processor Sony calls the Emotion Engine. Combined with another under-development graphics processor, the PS2 offers high-speed graphics capabilities never before available in a consumer product. In a demonstration today, Sony and its software partners showed clips from under-development PS2 games in which surrounding scenery was reflected off of flowing water and the hair of characters was ruffled by the wind -- two capabilities that require intensive graphics processing.
The machine is also equipped with high-speed network interfaces. The console has one IEEE 1394 port and 2 USB ports which allow the machine to be hooked up to a range of peripheral devices such as a video camera or be connected to a server that could store videos or movies, Sony officials said.
The machine is also equipped with one Type III PC card slot. In 2001, Sony will ship a PC Card Ethernet adapter so that the PS2 can connect directly to the Internet via a cable modem, Sony's Kutaragi said. At the same time, the vendor will sell a high-capacity hard drive for the PS2, he added.
Though it is unclear what kinds of network services Sony is planning, Kutaragi said that he sees the PS2 as a new distribution system for music and movies. Sony Music Entertainment Japan's CEO Shigeo Maruyama told IDG News Service that his company is readying Internet music services for the PS2, but he would not provide details.
Sony did not have working models of the PS2 on hand at the packed announcement today and instead focused on the machine's design.
PS3 Comments
Ken Kutaragi, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, stated that the PlayStation 3 is to be an ?entertainment supercomputer? for the home.
?The PlayStation is not a game machine,? Kutaragi states, ?We?ve never once called it a game machine.?
?The PS3 is the product we have been aiming for since the establishment of SCEI. We haven?t been creating our PlayStations for the sake of games. Our belief, and the motivation behind running our company, has been to applying the power of computers to entertainment and enjoyment. We equipped the original PlayStation with a 3D graphics chip, and we equipped the PS2 with the Emotion engine. The PS3 isn?t designed to lean towards games. It?s not a computer for children. In the sense that our goal has been a computer that?s meant for entertainment, you could say that the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 had existed as steps towards the PlayStation 3.?
"With the original PlayStation," Kutaragi continues, "our intentions were to bring SGI-quality graphics into households. With the PS3, our intentions have been to create a machine with supercomputer calculation capabilities for home entertainment. That's why we teamed up with IBM, which is known for its supercomputers, and co-developed the Cell together with them and Toshiba."
"PCs that are currently available have been created as work tools. They've begun selling computers with media playback capabilities, such as the Media Center PC, but those just imitate the functions of home electronics. It's not like those machines have been created solely for entertainment. On the other hand, the PS3 has been created as a computer for entertainment. Entertainment refers to a lot of things, and not just to games. The PS3 will be able to provide powerful functions for all of the forms of entertainment."
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"We want to realize a new future in entertainment with the use of computers. For example, we showed the demo with the ducks moving in a physics simulation during the press conference. That was a virtual world that was being 'generated' inside the PS3. Just raising the graphics capabilities and output resolution won't change anything from the current world of video game consoles."
"Users will be able to store their content in an online storage server called the 'Cell Storage.' And the Cell processor, when it's not being used, can refine the content's quality. We call it the 'aging' process. For example, users can 'age' their Standard Definition (SD) video and up-convert it to High Definition (HD) video. We have many plans, but this 'Cell Storage' service is something that we definitely intend to launch. By using the Cell's security feature, users will be able to rip DVDs that include copyright protection and lay it in the storage area to refine its video quality."