PlayStation 3

It still is not known how Sony has achieved this (although Sony had developed a single-chip PS2 CPU/GPU solution, used in newer revisions of the "slim" PS2). Six Flags owes about $2.3 Billion in debt, and they have lost money every year since 2001. The PlayStation 3 will be compatible "on the chip" with PlayStation 2 and PlayStation games, without emulation. Headquartered in New York City, Six Flags is now the largest amusement park operator in the U.S. [18]. In 2000, Premier Parks changed its name to Six Flags, Inc. The Blu-Ray region code will be different from DVD region code. Premier then began to apply the Six Flags name to a number of smaller parks that had been expanded, including Darien Lake, Elitch Gardens, and Adventure World.

Blu-Ray movies played on the PS3 will use a region code. was purchased in whole on April 1, 1998 from Time Warner by Premier Parks. Sony's decision to stop region coding means consumers will be able to purchase PS3 games from anywhere in the world, which may turn out to be significantly cheaper than purchasing them exclusively from their home territory, or importing the system from Japan on launch. Six Flags Theme Parks Inc. According to Ephraim, “If you look at the fact that [the PlayStation 3] will support high-definition TV, which will be a global standard, there’s a good likelihood that it will be global region, as for example we’ve done with the PSP [PlayStation Portable].”. The chain is well-known in recent times for large and fast roller coasters, although the queue areas are often in the open air without much shading and without as many props as are typical for some queue areas in Walt Disney World. The PS3’s support for HDTV standards was cited as one of the key reasons the company has stopped the practice of region coding. The chain of parks changed hands several times, being sold to the Penn Central railroad, then to Bally Construction Corporation, and later on to the Time Warner company, among other owners.

Unlike its predecessors, the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2, the PS3 is tipped to allow gaming and movie playback from downloads or discs bought in any part of the world, rather than being limited to playing discs only from a specific region. The chain grew with the acquisition of other parks, such as the Great Adventure Park and Safari in Jackson, New Jersey, and Great America in Gurnee, Illinois, which had been founded by the Marriott hotel chain. PlayStation 3 games are unlikely to be region coded, according to Sony’s Australian managing director, Michael Ephraim. (Over time, all of those attractions, except for the railroad, would be replaced by other attractions, such as roller coasters, swing rides, log flumes, and shoot-the-chute rides, as well as an observation tower.). [17]. There was also an excursion aboard "French" boats through a wilderness full of moving puppets. However, the March 2006 issue of PSM magazine reports that Sony intends to launch an online service with the PS3 designed to compete with Microsoft's Xbox Live. Wynne at Arlington in Tarrant County, which featured (in the beginning) a Native American village, a gondola ride, a railroad, some Wild West shows, a stagecoach ride, and "Skull Island", a pirate-themed adventure attraction.

It also means that there will be different user interfaces for each game depending on the developer. The Six Flags chain began in 1961 with the creation of Six Flags Over Texas by Angus G. While this will give games publishers greater freedom in terms of what they are able to offer online, some say it may make it more difficult for Sony to control the quality of the online experience. . Instead, online services for PS3 games will be decentralized and left up to individual game publishers. The park took its name from the six flags that have flown over the state of Texas during its history (Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America). In an issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine, Sony denied rumors that it would be implementing a centralized online service similar to Microsoft’s Xbox Live. The first Six Flags amusement park, Six Flags over Texas, was built halfway between the cities of Fort Worth and Dallas in Arlington (Tarrant County), Texas, United States.

Sony has stated that the online service for the PlayStation 3 will use the same non-unified architecture as that of the PlayStation 2. There are 40 parks run by Six Flags, 24 of which carry the Six Flags name. Sony is providing developers with Linux toolchains where SN Systems will provide more customer-oriented Linux tools at an additional cost. Six, was featured in many advertisements in 2004 and 2005. In addition, Sony recently purchased SN Systems, a former provider of Microsoft Windows based development tools for a variety of console platforms including the PlayStation 2, GameCube, PSP and Nintendo DS to create additional Linux development tools. Their former spokesperson, Mr. The list of standards they are reported to be considering includes:. Six Flags NYSE: PKS is a chain of amusement parks and theme parks headquartered in New York City.

Sublicensed technologies includes:. Six Flags Astroworld in Houston (closed in 2005). The list of open standards includes:. in 2004). The PlayStation 3, unlike the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 systems, is based on publicly-available application programming interfaces. Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in Aurora (Sold to Cedar Fair, L.P. Sony has selected several technologies and arranged several sublicensing agreements to create the software development kit for developers. Six Flags Autoworld in Flint (closed in 1985).

However, Epic stated in response that they are working to release the PC version first and that the PS3 version has no priority for release over the PC version. Six Flags Power Plant in Baltimore (closed in 1989). In the January issue of the same publication, it was stated that Epic Games is working hard to get Unreal Tournament 2007 ready for the proposed launch in Spring 2006. Six Flags Atlantis in Hollywood (sold in 1989; destroyed by Hurricane Andrew in 1992). In the November issue of PSM Magazine, SCEA Chief Operating Officer Jack Tretton mentioned both Lair and Warhawk as launch titles, although Sony would not expand further on his comments. Movie World Madrid in Madrid. At this time, only three games have been mentioned as PS3 launch titles: Lair from Factor 5, Warhawk from Incognito Entertainment, and Unreal Tournament 2007 from Epic Games. Warner Bros.

One of the most, if not the most anticipated PS3 game up to this point is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, which had its first trailer shown at the Tokyo Game Show 2005 event. Six Flags La Ronde in Montréal. Controversial games developers Rockstar North have also hinted that they are planning the provisionally named Grand Theft Auto 4, primarily for the PS3. Six Flags México in Mexico City, Distrito Federal. Since they aren't working on a remake then this will most likely be Final Fantasy XIII. Six Flags Splashtown in unincorporated Harris County (Spring), near Houston. Square Enix is however listed for a Final Fantasy game along with 70 other Japanese developers during TGS 2005. Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Arlington.

Also shown at E3 was a video of Final Fantasy VII 's opening sequence remade in PlayStation 3 graphics, at the time recent to the show, Square Enix stated no plans for a remake. Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. In the E3 2005 Press Conference, Sony showed some pre-rendered and some real-time videos of games in development with the codenames Eyedentify, Vision Gran Turismo and MotorStorm. Six Flags Over Texas (the original park) in Arlington near Dallas and Fort Worth. Some anticipated ones include Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Killzone PS3, Resident Evil 5, Devil May Cry 4, Shin Megami Tensei, Armored Core 4 , Unreal Tournament 2007 and Tekken 6. White Water Bay in Oklahoma City will no longer be Six Flags properties at the end of the 2006 season. Most developers have already announced games for the PS3. Frontier City in Oklahoma City.

The actual number in development, though undeniably fewer, should still be very high. The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom in Lake George. As of October 2005, there are already over 150 PS3 games announced by multiple developers and publishers, like SCEA, Electronic Arts, Konami, Namco, Capcom, Square Enix and many others. Six Flags Darien Lake in Darien, near Buffalo. According to DevStation Conference, the PS3 will use the Cross Media Bar already used in the PlayStation Portable and PSX devices. Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey, between New York City, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sony has appealed this decision and will be able to sell its products while the case is under appeal. Six Flags Saint Louis in Eureka, near Saint Louis (formerly Six Flags Over Mid-America).

Sony lost, and has been required to pay considerable royalties to Immersion and suspend the sale of the controllers, including all PlayStation and PlayStation 2 console packages containing them. Six Flags New England in Agawam, near Springfield and Hartford, Connecticut. While Microsoft settled out of court, Sony continued to defend the case. and Baltimore. In March 2005, Sony and Microsoft were sued by force-feedback company Immersion for patent infringement for the use of vibration functions in their controllers. Six Flags America in Largo, near Washington, D.C. Also possibly complicating the controller design is Sony's ongoing legal battle with Immersion Corporation of San Jose. Six Flags New Orleans in New Orleans (Status uncertain due to Hurricane Katrina).

Their downplays concerning a rumor suggesting Sony would unveil a revamped PS3 controller at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2006 were sound, as the controller was not shown in any form during the event. Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville. Though Sony itself had previously admitted at this past E3 that the controller design for their PlayStation 3 console was not finalized, GameSpot believes any purported changes will not be substantial. Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, between Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The PS3's specifications, and E3 display units, don't support DualShock controller ports. Six Flags White Water in Marietta, near Atlanta. The number of ports to support such backward compatibility would most likely be limited to one, although this is also an unconfirmed rumour. Six Flags Over Georgia (the second park) in Austell, near Atlanta.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that the PS3 may in fact support the older DualShock 2 controllers, however, this is thought to be true due to the PlayStation 3 striving to attain backwards compatibility. Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver. [13]. Six Flags Waterworld in Sacramento. Some people pointed that the controller bears a similar resemblance to the old Alps Interactive 3rd party controller which was originally made for the PlayStation. Six Flags Marine World in Vallejo, near San Francisco. ^[12] In an interview with Edge, SCEE's Chris Deering echoed these statements by describing the E3 controller as "just a design study". Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Valencia, adjacent to Six Flags Magic Mountain.

According to the Japanese video game publication Famitsu, Sony Computer Entertainment chief technical officer Masayuki Chatani said that the controller design is a "prototype, so there could be some small adjustments.". Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, near Los Angeles. However, some suggest that the controller, while a little un-traditional in contrast to the DualShock and DualShock 2 controllers, might provide adequate comfort for extended hours of play. The design of the controller has been likened to a boomerang or a banana by many observers (or even less flattering likenesses). SCEI's press release indicates that controller connectivity to the PlayStation 3 can be provided via:.

Finally, whether the PS3's advantage in floating-point performance will be readily apparent in games depends entirely on whether developers are able to effectively make use of the system's unique architecture. Floating point calculations are very important for graphics, multimedia, and game physics, but considerably less important for other tasks like artificial intelligence. It should also be noted that floating-point performance is a single-dimensional metric for comparing computers, and that many other considerations (including integer performance, memory size and bandwidth, etc.) determine the "overall" performance of a computer system. The floating-point capacity of the PS3 will significantly exceed that of the XBox 360, although it should be noted that Microsoft's console, due to its 3 symmetric fully featured processor cores (which are very similar to the Cell's PPE), may fare better on dynamically branching code, like that used for artificial intelligence.

It should be noted that this figure is an estimate based on ideal, 100% efficient operation of the processor. The seven SPEs in the PS3, in addition to the VMX unit in the PPE, would yield a total combined single-precision floating point performance of 218 GFLOPS (the same figure quoted by Sony). According to an in-depth report compiled by IBM, the theoretical peak performance of a single SPE is 25.6 GFLOPS. Additionally, programmers may find it difficult, initially, to optimize their game engines to make the best use of the highly parallel architectures of both systems, further reducing real-world performance.

Inevitably, real-world performance for both systems will be lower. The performance statistics given for the PS3 and XBox 360 in Sony's presentation were based on the theoretical maximum performance of the systems. It was unclear how these numbers were exactly calculated, possibly based on addition of the floating point capabilities of the processing units in the Cell CPU and those of the RSX GPU. The figures are likely rounded estimations.

In their official press release, the same statistic regarding the PS3 as a whole was reported to be over 2.1 TFLOPS. The presentation shows that one PS3 Cell CPU alone is capable of 218 GFLOPS, compared to the Xbox 360's Xenon CPU's 115 GFLOPS. In a slide show at their E3 conference, Sony presented the "CPU floating point capability" of the PlayStation 3's Cell CPU, and compared it to other CPUs. This gives the RSX an effective 48 GB/s when sending data to/from GPU and RAM.

Since the RSX is connected to the XDR DRAM and GDDR3 RAM similar to a Turbo Cached GPU it can access both memory locations at the exact same time. NVidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang stated during Sony's pre-show press conference at E3 2005 that the RSX will be more powerful than two GeForce 6800 Ultra video cards combined. Custom RSX or "Reality Synthesizer" design co-developed by NVIDIA and Sony:. The 8th SPE is there for redundancy: if one of the other 7 are defective the 8th SPE will activate and stand in for the defective part.

Only 7, however, are active. 3.2 GHz Cell processor with 8 Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs). ^[9]. According to a press release by Sony at the May 16, 2005 E3 Conference, the specifications of the PlayStation 3 are as follows.

Please see the section entitled overall floating-point capability for more details on this. Real-world performance for both systems will naturally be less, and the specifications of the PS3 may undergo major changes before the system is launched. These comparisons are based on estimates of theoretical maximum performance. The amount of completely programmable floating point capacity afforded by the Cell microprocessor is higher than the Xbox 360's CPU, while the floating-point performance of the two systems' GPUs, which are designed specifically for graphics rendering tasks, are somewhat closer to parity.

This comparison is based on the theoretical combined floating point capacity of the Cell microprocessor and the RSX GPU in the PS3 compared to the combined capacity of the Xenon CPU and Xenos GPU in the Xbox 360. A simple comparison of the system architectures appears to indicate that the floating point capability of the PS3 is estimated to be greater than that of the Xbox 360. The current nature of pricing in the video game industry is to sell the hardware at a loss, at least initially, and then recoup the losses from game sales and developer licensing. Although manufacturing costs for Blu-Ray and the cell are unknown, it is safe to say like most new systems, they will lose money from the first year.

This means that buyers should be able to purchase a PlayStation 3 at a lower price than its actual manufacturing cost. $494) to make, not including labor, and they expect Sony to sell the PlayStation 3 for less than its manufacturing cost. Merrill Lynch Japan estimates the PS3 manufacturing costs at 54,000 yen (U.S. An Inquirer article details internal Sony development[8].

It is likely that standalone players will be released prior to PS3. Sony Blu-Ray standalone players are to be released early summer^[7]. Sony office press releases indicate a 2006^[6] launch. ¥12,500 for the Super Famicom).

In the same magazine, Ken Kutaragi was interviewed, and expressed little concern over the PS3's possibly high launch price, believing that customers would be willing to pay extra for a superior product, as they had in the past for the original PlayStation (¥39,800 vs. In contrast Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, says the PS3 will not be expensive and that it will be competitively priced against the Xbox 360.^[5]. So we're going to have to do our best [in containing the price]". "But we're aiming for consumers throughout the world.

I think everyone can still buy it if they wanted to," said Kutaragi to a mostly Japanese crowd. The system's retail price is not known.^[3][4] Sony Computer Entertainment president and "father of the PlayStation" Ken Kutaragi points out "It'll be expensive" and "I'm aware that with all these technologies, the PS3 can't be offered at a price that's targeted towards households. A functional version of the console was not at E3 or the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005, although some demonstrations were held on devkits and videos of soon-to-be released games created to run on systems with the same specs as the PS3 were presented, such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 3. The PS3 was officially unveiled on May 16, 2005 by Sony during the E3 conference, where the console was first shown to the public.

. At the moment, little more is known in public about the PS3 apart from its hardware specifications and reports that it will be based on open APIs for game development. Sony has announced that the PS3 will be backward compatible with earlier PS1 and PS2 games. Specifically, Sony representatives have informed video game store clerks to expect a North American shipment in the summer of 2006, also quoted as "somewhere between June and September." It is the successor to the PlayStation 2 and will mainly compete against the Nintendo Revolution and Xbox 360.

The PlayStation 3 is slated for release this year^[2]. The PlayStation 3 (PS3) (Japanese: プレイステーション3) is Sony's seventh generation era video game console in the market-leading PlayStation series. ^[16]. IPv6, the next generation of the Internet Protocol.

Kynogon's Kynapse 4.0 (PDF) "large scale A.I.". that aims to produce high-quality virtual foliage in real time. SpeedTree RT, a programming package produced by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. Cg, Nvidia's C-like shading language.

Alias Systems Corporation's 3D graphics programs [15]. Pixelux's Game Asset Synthesis Technology [14], a toolkit for advanced procedural synthesis. Havok's physics and animation engines. Epic's Unreal engine 3.0 framework.

Ageia's PhysX SDK, NovodeX. OpenVG, for hardware-accelerated 2D vector graphics. OpenMAX, a collection of fast, cross-platform tools for general "media acceleration," such as matrix calculations. OpenGL ES 2.0, the embedded version of the popular OpenGL graphics API.

COLLADA, an open, XML-based file format for 3D models. The Ability to Have 7 Controllers at Once. Parental Controls. Hub/Home Ethernet Gaming Network.

Simultaneous World Wide Web access and gameplay. MP3 and ATRAC download and playback. Digital photograph display (JPEG). EyeToy virtual object manipulation.

EyeToy voice command recognition. EyeToy interactive reality game. High-definition IP video conferencing. Two simultaneous High-definition television streams for use on a title screen for a HD Blu-ray Movie.

The ability for the PlayStation Portable to connect to the PlayStation 3 as a video-enabled controller. Bluetooth 2.0 (up to 7 controllers). USB 2.0 (wired). TCP/IP networking (wired ethernet).

Integrated for mesh networking and connectivity with the PlayStation Portable. 802.11g Wi-Fi. USB 2.0 (four front and two rear ports). Bluetooth 2.0.

IEEE 802.11g Wi-Fi. Three Gigabit Ethernet ports (Sony has indicated that because of cost reduction there is a possibility that the PlayStation 3 may act only as an accessory interface and hub and perhaps not as a router, as originally planned.)^[11]. 32 cm (L) x 24 cm (W) x 8 cm (H)^[10]. SD/MMC slot.

CompactFlash Type I and II slot. Memory Stick standard/Duo and standard/mini slots. Optional but not required for most games. Detachable 2.5" hard drive with Linux pre-installed.

CD: PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer) SACD HD. DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW. Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE, BD-RW. Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS, LPCM (DSP functionality handled by the Cell processor).

Multiple analog outputs (Composite, S-Video, Component video). S/PDIF optical output for digital audio. Two HDMI (Type A) outputs (Dual-screen HD outputs). Supported screen sizes: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p.

76.8 GB/s Cell FlexIO Bus (44.8 GB/s outbound, 32 GB/s inbound). 204.8 GB/s Cell EIB. 5 GB/s System Bus (Aggregated 2.5 GB/s upstream and downstream). 35 GB/s GPU to CPU (Aggregated 20 GB/s (write), 15 GB/s (read)).

22.4 GB/s GPU to GDDR-3 VRAM: 128 bits × 700 MHz × 2 accesses per clock cycle (one per edge). 25.6 GB/s GPU to XDR DRAM: 64 bits × 3.2 GHz. 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM clocked at 700 MHz. 256 MB Rambus XDR DRAM clocked at CPU die speed (3.2 GHz).

128-bit pixel precision offers rendering of scenes with high dynamic range imaging. 33 billion dot products per second (51 billion dot products with CPU). 74.8 billion shader operations per second (100 billion with CPU). 136 shader operations per clock.

Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines. Full high definition output (up to 1080p) x 2 channels. 1.8 TFLOPS (trillion floating point operations per second). Clocked at 550 MHz.