More news on Sony and their PlayStation 2
console as they have announced a PlayStation
handheld device, called the PlayStation Portable or 'PSP' for short. The PSP is
scheduled for Q4 of 2004 and will be Sony's first entry in the handheld gaming
market:
Sony has yet to show anybody what PSP looks like (they themselves may not yet know), we do know quite a lot about the technology behind it. It will play games from Universal Media Discs (UMD), which are 1.8GB, 60mm optical discs housed in a minidisk-style plastic cartridge, and like GBA there will be no region encoding (although given Sony's active role in restricting importers, we wouldn't put it past them to worm something in). The console will be powered by the latest 90nm semiconductor technology, with PSone-surpassing graphics under the control of NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline), and a capacity for around two hours of high resolution MPEG4-based FMV "at DVD quality", all of which will be pumped out onto a 4.5", 480x272 pixel TFT LCD widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio). It is also expected that the button layout will eventually resemble DualShock, with a few changes made to fit the smaller size of the console. And like Nintendo, "connectivity" is a real buzzword for Sony. With PSP's USB 2.0 port, the handheld will be able to connect to the PS2 and other PSP consoles, and the console's use of Memory Stick (over Memory Card) for data storage means we can look forward to "networking applications and data transportability in a wireless environment". Whatever they plan for that to mean. |
The details Sony has announced sound very
promising. Unfortunately we'll have to wait at least a year before we can see
the PSP for real. For now you can read the complete article here.
Source: The Register
