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Sony's new handheld official specs...

IceDigger - Jul 29, 2003

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klakalou

Jul 31, 2003

Sony's new handheld official specs...

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by Myname@Jul 29, 2003 @ 08:56 PM



 What in the hell is a gigaflop? Is it like ET on the Atari?

a gigaflop is what i hope this thing does.

Tagrineth

Jul 31, 2003

Sony's new handheld official specs...

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by schi0249@Jul 31, 2003 @ 12:21 PM



 Remember, the GBA can plays the older games.  That does limit what they could do with the unit itself.

No, it doesn't.

The reverse-compatible hardware is inactive while in GBA mode.

		Fabrizo		Jul 31, 2003
			Sony's new handheld official specs... I read the specs for this thing back when they were released at E3, and my immidiate reaction was that they are complete BS. Heres why: PSP: More mhz then DC or PS2 (333mhz vs PS2 300mhz, and DC 200mhz) Mini disks that can hold more data then GCN mini-dvd's (1.8gb vs 1.5gb) 33 Million polygons per sec (compared to PS2's 20/m) playback of ATRAC3 plus, AAC, and mp3 formats, as well as 3D and 7.1 channel sterio sound. USB 2.0 port backlit screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio Wireless online play by themselfs some of these things don't seam too unlikly to be put into a next-gen portable system, but not all of them. On the off chance that Sony can include all of this in a 'portable' package, the cost would be insane (think upwords of $300 or $400), and even then, actualy getting such a system to have a decent ammount of playtime would be quite difficult without including a very large, very heavy, laptop-like battery pack.

Daniel Eriksson

Jul 31, 2003

Sony's new handheld official specs...

	
	
		
		
			My concers is that this thing is unlikely to flop, due to the "PLAYSTATION" scribble engraved on it, and the fact it can do 3D. The masses will love that things instantly, even if it ends up requiring a portable fusion reaction, become as big as a shoes box and costs the same as a brand new PS2.

Sadly this is quite true...

However, the GBA has good enough gfx for me. Some games like V-Rally 3 and Ecks vs Sever looks really nice. Also, Nintendo is working on an extra FX-chip to include in the GBA-casettes. This will give it even better gfx.

And as for sony´s new handheld, I think it will flop...

ExCyber

Jul 31, 2003

Sony's new handheld official specs...

	
	
		
		
			More mhz then DC or PS2 (333mhz vs PS2 300mhz, and DC 200mhz)

This is most likely a top speed spec for the CPU that won't be seen in routine operation.

	
	
		
		
			Mini disks that can hold more data then GCN mini-dvd's (1.8gb vs 1.5gb)

Not too far-fetched if the discs are dual-layer.

	
	
		
		
			33 Million polygons per sec (compared to PS2's 20/m)

The way that spec is placed and phrased in the article makes it sound very much like that's a theoretical fill rate maximum, comparable to the 75M number Sony was originally tossing around for PS2.

	
	
		
		
			playback of ATRAC3 plus, AAC, and mp3 formats, as well as 3D and 7.1 channel sterio sound.

All can probably be done in software (assuming that for the 7.1 playback they mean using the 3D faking to map 8 channels of source data; I don't even want to imagine a handheld with 8 speakers).

	
	
		
		
			USB 2.0 port

Fun fact: USB 2.0 is just a standard. USB peripherals (and IIRC hosts too) are not required to have anything to do with the 480MBps transfer speed.

	
	
		
		
			Wireless online play

This would likely kill play time; for kicks, try a comparison of cell phones' talk times to their standby times, or take a gander at some battery life specs for 802.11-equipped handhelds; a 70% or more drop is not uncommon when those transceivers actually have to do something. Granted, Sony might be able to mitigate this a bit by reducing transmission power to whatever's necessary to cover a 25ft radius or so...

		antime		Jul 31, 2003
			Sony's new handheld official specs... The spec list says the CPUs are 32-bit. Do they perhaps mean MIPS32 4K and not R4000? Anyway, I think you shouldn't look at the GBA for comparison but rather at devices like portable DVD players. The specs (7.1 sound et al) look more like they're describing a portable entertainment system than a handheld console.

Tagrineth

Jul 31, 2003

Sony's new handheld official specs...

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by antime@Jul 31, 2003 @ 03:59 PM



 The spec list says the CPUs are 32-bit. Do they perhaps mean MIPS32 4K and not R4000?



Anyway, I think you shouldn't look at the GBA for comparison but rather at devices like portable DVD players. The specs (7.1 sound et al) look more like they're describing a portable entertainment system than a handheld console.

They are 32-bit R4000i processors.

And a portable DVD player like device could never hope to compete with GBA.

		antime		Jul 31, 2003
			Sony's new handheld official specs... Who says they're trying to? Also, I thought all R4000s implemented the MIPS III architecture.

		ExCyber		Aug 2, 2003
			Sony's new handheld official specs... Perhaps they mean that the physical data bus is 32 bits wide? That's an important number for the hardware engineers as it determines what/how they can hook things up and how much PCB real estate it will take to do so. 64-bit does seem a bit (heh) excessive by that measure, and it'd probably just mean that a cache fill takes twice as many cycles from the internal CPU perspective.

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