Psp Tv Tuner

Sony recently released the specs for the Playstation Portable, aka the PSP, which isn't slated for release until late 2004. When Sony first discussed the PSP at last May's E3 Expo, most people initially thought that Sony was targeting Nintendo's Gameboy line of portable gaming devices. But if you take a look at the specs, it's clear that the Gameboy isn't the primary target. Let's walk through the laundry list of features and see what we can learn beyond the raw specs.

Handheld Digital Entertainment Center If you take a quick look at the high level specs, which is more of a features list, it's clear that this device is much more than a gaming system. 21st Century Portable System Integrates all forms of digital entertainment 3D-CG Game 7.1 channel audio, 3D Sound ATRAC3 plus, AAC, MP3 audio file formats for Music AVC/WMP file formats for Picture / Movie 16:9 Widescreen TFT LCD Embedded Wireless LAN (802.11) Li-ion Battery Extension for GPS, Digital Tuner

Sony doesn't discuss how it might connect externally to the world, but it's likely that you'll be able to connect it to your home entertainment system. After all, 7.1-channel audio isn't particularly useful from tinny, built-in speakers or headphones. It's also a good bet that this connection will be run out of the PSP via S/PDIF, or maybe even over USB 2.0.

The audio encoding technology is also interesting, because of what's stated and what's not stated. ATRAC3 Plus is a technology Sony's used in its past generation of MiniDisc music players, but what's more significant is the AAC codec, which was created by Dolby Labs. AAC is also used in Apple's iPod, and Apple's iTunes music service. As a codec, AAC has both fans and detractors, but one benefit from Sony's perspective is the strong DRM (digital rights management) that's a key part of AAC.

What's missing from the picture is support for Microsoft's Windows Media technology, WMA. This isn't really a big surprise, as the two companies are increasingly viewing each other as competitors.

Another interesting feature is the 16:9 display. The final resolution of the display is 480x272 pixels, but 16:9 is a widescreen format that's suitable for watching movies or HDTV content. Couple that with a potential connection to a digital TV tuner, and you now have a portable HDTV device.

Wrapping up the features list is embedded 802.11, though which variant wasn't clearly stated. While no details of the software package were forthcoming, some of these features put the system squarely in PDA territory.

Turn the page for details on storage and the rest of the hardware. Sony will be offering an optical storage system with the PSP, and it looks to be more robust than a bare disc, but also should offer stronger content protection -- again, not a big surprise, given that Sony also owns music and film production companies.

Drive Technology: Large Capacity (3x CD-ROM, around 1.8GB) Media for Game/Music/Movie/Publishing Lower Manufacturing Cost Repeat Ordering System Parental Lock System Regional Code System Copy Protection

Universal Media Disc (UMD) Laser Diode:660nm Dual Layer : 1.8GB Transfer Rate: 11Mbps Shock Proof Secure ROM by AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) Unique Disc ID

The parental lock is certainly there because the device will be able to play back movies, some of which may not be suitable for kids. It also alludes to the fact that the target audience is not the same as the Gameboy's, since gaming content may also be more adult in nature.

Unfortunately the PSP will continue to perpetuatethe regional code system, which is a headache for an increasingly international audience. Given that this is a portable device, region encoding is even more of a headache, as the PSP is likely to be popular with travelers. Finally, the repeat ordering system looks to be aimed at the market for occasional use (rentals), similar to the ill-fated DiVX discs of a few years ago (not the codec by the same name).

CPU Horsepower to Spare Sony is making use of the venerable MIPS architecture, which powers is the basis for the PlayStation 2's Emotion Engine chip, and is quite common in embedded consumer electronics devices.

PSP CPU Core MIPS R4000 32bit Core 128bit Bus 1~333MHz @1.2V Main Memory :8MB (eDRAM) Bus Bandwidth: 2.6GB/sec Instruction and Data Caches FPU, VFPU(Vector Unit):@2.6GFlops 3D-CG Extended Instructions

PSP Media Engine MIPS R4000 32-bit Core 128bit Bus 1~333MHz @1.2V Sub Memory:2MB(eDRAM)@2.6GB/sec I-Cache, D-Cache 90nm CMOS

The use of 90nm process technology may be one of the gating factors for the PSPs late 2004 launch. But 90nm may be necessary in order to meet the power budget. Dual CPU cores running at 333MHz can eat power, even with aggressive power management, but the 1.2V low power requirement can mitigate that a bit. The use of embedded DRAM is interesting, but 8 + 2 MB seems pretty light by modern standards; Sony didn't announce whether or not some external memory would also be built into the system. Given that PocketPCs have 64MB or more these days, and given the target applications, it's not clear that 10MB will be enough, so the PSP will likely have some standard memory that's external to the core.

So how good will the 3D hardware be? Turn the page to find out The graphics core looks to be divided into a geometry section and a rendering component.

PSP Graphics Core 1 3D Curved Surface + 3D Polygon Texture Compression Hardware Clipping, Morphing, Bone (8) Hardware Tessellator Bezier, B-Spline (NURBS) (curved surfaces) 4x4, 16x16, 64x64 sub-division

PSP Graphics Core 2 Rendering Engine + Surface Engine 256-bit Bus, 1-166MHz @1.2V VRAM : 2MB(eDRAM) Bus Bandwidth : 5.3GB/sec Pixel Fill Rate: 664Mpixels/sec Max 33 million polygons/sec (T&L) 24-bit RGBA Full Color

This is actually pretty aggressive for a handheld device, and if the features mentioned are actually in hardware, the 3D performance should be pretty good. The 33 million polygons per second number sounds small next to GeForceFX 5900 levels – which are closer to 200 million. Bear in mind, however, that the screen size will also be pretty small. Similarly, the fill rate should be more than adequate, given that the engine only has to push a bit over 130,000 pixels (480x272) at 32-bit color.

The geometry engine looks to be designed to minimize data set size, and will likely scale up the complexity through hardware re-tessellation and through some method for sub-dividing surfaces and then converting them to higher-order curved ones. It's unlikely, though, that the PSP will make use of true subdivision surface techniques. The 2MB of embedded DRAM for the frame buffer is probably sufficient for the small screen.

Audio, Video and the Rest The audio core seems to be tuned for multi-channel, and will probably offer some type of multi-channel synthesis for headphones, either Dolby Headphone or something similar.

PSP Sound Core: VME Reconfigurable DSPs 128-bit Bus 166MHz @1.2V 5 Giga Operations /sec 3D Sound, Multi-Channel Synthesizer and DSP Effect s

The video decoder specs are pretty sketchy, but given the small screen size, it's likely that the video quality will be good enough. What's interesting is the quoted battery life for DVD mobile playback. In fact, the term "DVD mobile" itself is interesting, and perhaps is a clue at how Sony will be positioning the storage component. It's likely that the 1.8GB optical disc technology may find its way into other devices.

AVC Decoder AVC (H.264) Decoder 2Hours (High Quality)~DVD Mobile 4Hours (Standard Quality)~CS Digital

The Ins and Outs It's unfortunate that Sony continues to push the Memory Stick in the face of other standards with broader support, such as SD media. Noticeable by its absence is FireWire. In the past, Sony has been a proponent of FireWire (which it dubs "iLink"). Also notable is the position of USB 2.0 both as an I/O interface and a communication interface. USB 2.0 Memory Stick Extension Port (reserved) Stereo Head phone Out

Communication Wireless LAN (802.11) IrDA USB 2.0

So is this a killer device, or just a yawner? Turn the page for our final analysis. These specs certainly make the tech geek in all of us drool, but they're also very aggressive. But we have some concerns:

Battery Life: Even given the 1.2V power draw and the suggestion that a two-hour movie can be played back, battery life will be a key determinant to PSP's eventual success or failure.

Size: It's also unlikely that the PSP will be as compact as a Gameboy Advance SP. In fact, there's some concern that it might be bigger than the average Pocket PC or larger Palm device. There are still a lot of unknowns, however. For example, like the Archos AV320 jukebox, much of the I/O could be in an external module that doesn't always need to be carried around.

In addition to the interesting media playback options, Sony clearly stated that this will be a gaming device -- even replicating Playstation-style buttons on it. But the game content will likely be broader than that on Nintendo's handheld.

It will also be interesting to see Microsoft's response to the PSP. Microsoft is unlikely to cede such potentially rich territory to Sony, and Microsoft has been rumored to have a portable gaming device in the works. We may well end up with an "Xboy " by next year's E3, along with whatever Nintendo pulls out of its hat -- but that's only speculation on our part.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.

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