PlayStation 4 Announced: PC-based AMD Hardware Inside

Sony takes a page from the PC for its next-gen gaming system.

As expected, Sony used its PlayStation 'See the Future' event to show off the next generation of PlayStation, also known as the PlayStation 4. In a radical departure from the rather "unique" system designs that Sony's employed in the past, PS4 seems to be largely designed around existing PC technology.

Sony says that the PS4 has been in development for five years, which is a bit surprising as the PS4 is based on x86 architecture with 8 cores, an integrated GPU, and 8GB of shared GDDR5 RAM. Sony used the word APU, which gives us pretty good confirmation that it's AMD inside. The graphical portion of the APU is said to deliver almost 2 TFLOPS of performance. The 8GB of unified memory is shared between the CPU and GPU and supplies over 170GB/s of bandwidth.

For storage, Sony is relying on a "large" local HDD, so it seems that capacity is preferred over an SSD's speed. There's also a brand new DualShock 4 controller with a curvier shape, enhanced rumble capabilities, a touchpad, a share button, and a headphone jack.

UPDATE2: AMD has published a blog talking a little bit more about its involvement with the PS4. Details are very light, but we'll let you know when we have more.

UPDATE1: More hardware specs:

Main Processor	Single-chip custom processor CPU :? x86-64 AMD "Jaguar",? 8 cores GPU : 1.84 TFLOPS,? AMD next-generation Radeon? based graphics engine
Memory	GDDR5 8GB
Hard Disk Drive	Built-in
Optical Drive (read only)	BD 6xCAV DVD 8xCAV
I/O	Super-Speed USB (USB 3.0) ?AUX
Communication	Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth? 2.1 (EDR)
AV output	HDMI Analog-AV out Digital Output (optical)

<Wireless Controller for PlayStation?4 (DUALSHOCK?4)>

External Dimensions		Approx. 162mm x 52mm x 98mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection)
Weight		Approx. 210g (tentative)
Keys / Switches		PS button, SHARE button, OPTIONS button, Directional buttons (Up/Down/Left/Right), Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square), R1/L1/R2/L2 button, Left stick / L3 button, Right stick / R3 button, Pad Button
Touch Pad		2 Point Touch Pad, Click Mechanism, Capacitive Type
Motion Sensor		Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer)
Other Features		Light Bar, Vibration, Built-in Mono Speaker
Ports		USB (Micro B), Extension Port, Stereo Headset Jack
Wireless Communication		Bluetooth? Ver2.1+EDR
Battery	Type	Built-in Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery
	Voltage	DC3.7V (tentative)
	Capacity	1000mAh (tentative)

<PlayStation?4 Eye>

External Dimension	Approx. 186mm x 27mm x 27mm (width x height x depth) (tentative)
Weight	Approx. 183g (tentative)
Video Pixel	(Maximum) 1280 x 800 pixel x 2
Video Frame Rate	1280x800 pixel @ 60fps 640x400 pixel @ 120fps 320x192 pixel @ 240fps
Video Format	RAW, YUV (uncompressed)
Lens	Dual Lenses, F value/F2.0 fixed focus
Capture Range	30cm??
Field-of-View	85?
Microphone	4 Channel Microphone Array
Connection Type	PS4 dedicated connector (AUX connector)
Cable Length	Approx. 2m (tentative)

Console hardware and controller aside, PS4 is going to be a pretty different experience compared to the PS3. For one, users will be able to broadcast their gaming to their friends who can post comments and offer help on how to get past particularly challenging portions of the game. PS4 will also allow you to play games as you download them and a feature called Remote Play will enable PS4 games on PS Vita (Sony this evening demonstrated Knack on PS4 and streamed to PS Vita). PS1, PS2, and PS3 games will be supported in that they'll be streamed from the cloud.

No pricing yet, and the only word in availability is "Holiday 2013." We don't even know what the console itself looks like, so there's still plenty more to come.

If you want to watch the entire presentation to see all the game demos, click here. Also check out our PS4 games recap.

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Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/playstation-4-ps4-amd-apu-hardware,21191.html

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