ps3

The PlayStation 3 (officially marketed PLAYSTATION 3,[5] commonly abbreviated PS3) is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment, and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles.
A major feature that distinguishes the PlayStation 3 from its predecessors is its unified online gaming service, the PlayStation Network,[6] which contrasts with Sony's former policy of relying on game developers for online play.[7] Other major features of the console include its robust multimedia capabilities,[8] connectivity with the PlayStation Portable,[9] and its use of a high-definition optical disc format, Blu-ray Disc, as its primary storage medium.[10] The PS3 was also the first Blu-ray 2.0-compliant Blu-ray player on the market.[11]
The PlayStation 3 was first released on November 11, 2006 in Japan,[12] November 17, 2006 in North America,[13] and March 23, 2007 in Europe and Oceania.[14][15] Two SKUs were available at launch: a basic model with a 20 GB hard drive (HDD), and a premium model with a 60 GB hard drive and several additional features[16] (the 20 GB model was not released in Europe or Oceania).[17] Since then, several revisions have been made to the console's available models.[18]









HiStOrY

Sony officially unveiled the PlayStation 3 to the public on May 16, 2005, during the E3 2005 conference.[19] A functional version of the system was not present there,[20] nor at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2005,[21] although demonstrations (such as Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots[20]) were held at both events on devkits and comparable PC hardware.[20][21] Video footage based on the predicted PlayStation 3 specifications was also shown (notably a Final Fantasy VII tech demo).[22]
The initial prototype shown in May 2005 featured two HDMI ports, three Ethernet ports and six USB ports;[23] however, when the system was shown again a year later at E3 2006, these were reduced to one HDMI port, one ethernet port and four USB ports, presumably to cut costs.[16][24] Two hardware configurations were also announced for the console: a 20 GB model and a 60 GB model, priced at $499 (€499) and $599 (€599), respectively.[16] The 60 GB model would be the only configuration to feature an HDMI port, Wi-Fi internet, flash card readers and a chrome trim with the logo in silver.[16] Both models were announced for a simultaneous worldwide release: November 11 for Japan, and November 17 for North America and Europe.[25]
On September 6, 2006, Sony announced that the PAL region (Europe and Oceania) PlayStation 3 launch would be delayed until March 2007, due to a shortage of materials used in the Blu-ray Disc drive.[26]
At the Tokyo Game Show on September 22, 2006, Sony announced that it would include an HDMI port on the 20 GB system, but a chrome trim, flash card readers, silver logo, and Wi-Fi would not be included.[27] Also, the launch price of the Japanese 20 GB model was reduced by over 20%,[28] and the 60 GB model was announced for an open pricing scheme in Japan.[28] During the event, Sony showed 27 playable PS3 games running on final hardware.[29]



LaUnCh

The PlayStation 3 was first released in Japan on November 11, 2006 at 07:00.[12] According to Media Create, 81,639 PS3 systems were sold within 24 hours of its introduction in Japan.[30]
Soon after its release in Japan, the PS3 was released in North America on November 17, 2006.[13] Reports of violence surrounding the release of the PS3 include a customer shot,[31] campers robbed at gunpoint,[32] customers shot in a drive-by shooting with BB guns,[33] and 60 campers fighting over 10 systems.[34]
On January 24, 2007, Sony announced that the PlayStation 3 would go on sale on March 23, 2007 in Europe, Australia, the Middle East, Africa and New Zealand.[14][15] The system sold about 600,000 units in its first two days.[35] On March 7, 2007, the 60 GB PlayStation 3 launched in Singapore with a price of S$799.[36] The console was launched in South Korea on June 16, 2007 in a single version equipped with an 80 GB hard drive and IPTV.[37]





HARDWARE

The PlayStation 3 is convex on its left side, with the PlayStation logo upright, when vertical (the top side is convex when horizontal), and has a glossy black finish.[87] Playstation designer Teiyu Goto stated that the Spider-Man font-inspired logo "was one of the first elements [SCEI president Ken Kutaragi] decided on and the logo may have been the motivating force behind the shape of PS3".[88]
The PlayStation 3 features a slot-loading 2x speed Blu-ray Disc drive for games, Blu-ray movies, DVDs, CDs, and other optical media.[89] It was originally available with hard drives of 20 and 60 GB (only the 60 GB model was available in PAL regions).[17][90] An 80 GB model has since been introduced in NTSC regions,[91] and a 40 GB model has been introduced in all regions.[92][93] All PS3 models have user-upgradeable 2.5" SATA hard drives.[94]
The PlayStation 3 uses the Sony, Toshiba, IBM-designed Cell microprocessor as its CPU, which is made up of one 3.2 GHz PowerPC-based "Power Processing Element" (PPE) and eight Synergistic Processing Elements (SPEs).[95] The eighth SPE is disabled to improve chip yields.[96][97] Only six of the seven SPEs are accessible to developers as the seventh SPE is reserved by the console's operating system.[97] Graphics processing is handled by the NVIDIA RSX 'Reality Synthesizer', which can output resolutions from 480i/576i SD up to 1080p HD.[89] The PlayStation 3 has 256 MB of XDR main memory and 256 MB of GDDR3 video memory for the RSX.[98]
The system has Bluetooth 2.0, gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 and HDMI 1.3a built in on all currently shipping models.[89] Wi-Fi networking is also built-in on the 40, 60 and 80 GB models while a flash card reader (compatible with Memory Stick, SD/MMC, and CompactFlash/Microdrive media) is built-in on 60 GB and CECHExx 80 GB models.[89][98] The system supports up to 7 controllers that are connected via Bluetooth 2.0 technology.[99]
The PS3's hardware has also been used to build supercomputers for high-performance computing.[100] Terra Soft Solutions has a version of Yellow Dog Linux for the PlayStation 3,[101] and sells PS3s with Linux pre-installed,[102] in single units, and 6 and 32 node clusters.[103] In addition, RapidMind is pushing their stream programming package for the PS3.[104] Also, on January 3, 2007, Dr. Frank Mueller, Associate Professor of Computer Science at NCSU, clustered 8 PS3s. Mueller commented that the 256 MB of system RAM is a limitation for this particular application, and is considering attempting to retrofit more RAM. Software includes: Fedora Core 5 Linux ppc64, MPICH2, OpenMP v 2.5, GNU Compiler Collection and CellSDK 1.1.[105][106][107]
On March 22, 2007, SCE and Stanford University released the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folding@home project for the PlayStation 3.[108] This program allows PS3 owners to lend the computing power of their consoles to help study the physical process of protein folding.



ACCESORIES

Numerous accessories for the console have been developed including the wireless Sixaxis and DualShock 3 controllers, the BD Remote, the PlayStation Eye camera and the PlayTV DVB-T tuner/digital video recorder accessory.[109][110]
At its press conference at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, Sony announced the DualShock 3 (trademarked DUALSHOCK 3), a PlayStation 3 controller with the same function and design as the Sixaxis, but with vibration capability included.[111] Hands-on accounts describe the controller as being noticeably heavier than the standard Sixaxis controller, and capable of vibration forces comparable to the DualShock 2.[112] It was released in Japan on November 11, 2007,[113] in North America on April 15, 2008,[114] in Australia on April 24, 2008, in New Zealand on May 9, 2008, in Europe on July 2, 2008,[115] and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on July 4, 2008. During E3 2009, Sony unveiled plans to release a motion controller in 2010.









sOfTwArE



Operating system
Main article: PlayStation 3 system software
Sony has included the ability for the operating system, referred to as System Software, to be updated.[116] The updates can be acquired in several ways:
If the PlayStation 3 has an active Internet connection, updates may be downloaded directly from the PlayStation Network to the PS3 and subsequently installed. Systems with active Internet will automatically check online for software updates each time the console is started.
Using an external PC, a user may download the update from the official Playstation website, transfer it to portable storage media, and install it on the System.
Some game discs come with system software updates on the disc. This may be due to the game requiring the update in order to run. If so, the software may be installed from the disc..









Photo Gallery
Photo Gallery is an optional application, which is installed separately from the system software at 105MB. It was introduced in system software version 2.60 and provides a range of tools for sorting through and displaying the system's pictures. The key feature of this application is that it can organize photos into groups according to various criteria. Notable categorizations are colors, ages, or facial expressions of the people in the photos. Slideshows can be viewed with the application, along with music and playlists.

Graphical user interface
Main article: XrossMediaBar — PlayStation 3 XMB
See also: Linux for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 3 System Software — Compatible media formats
The PlayStation 3 version of the XrossMediaBar (pronounced Cross Media Bar, or abbreviated XMB) includes nine categories of options. These are: Users, Settings, Photo, Music, Video, Game, Network, PlayStation Network, and Friends (similar to the PlayStation Portable media bar). The PS3 includes the ability to store various master and secondary user profiles, manage and explore photos with or without a musical slide show, play music and copy audio CD tracks to an attached storage device, play movies and video files from the hard disk drive, an optional USB mass storage or Flash card, or an optical disc (Blu-ray Disc or DVD-Video), compatibility for a USB keyboard and mouse, and the web browser supporting in/compatible file download function.[119] Additionally, UPnP media will appear in the respective audio/video/photo categories if a compatible media server is detected on the local network. The Friends menu allows mail with emoticon and attached picture features and video chat which requires an optional PlayStation Eye or EyeToy webcam.[120] The Network menu allows online shopping through the PlayStation Store and connectivity to the PlayStation Portable via Remote Play.[120]









gAmEs



The PlayStation 3 launched in North America with 14 titles, with another three being released before the end of 2006.[148] After the first week of sales it was confirmed that Resistance: Fall of Man from Insomniac Games was the top-selling launch game in North America.[149][150] The game was heavily praised by numerous video game websites, including GameSpot and IGN, both of whom awarded it their PlayStation 3 Game of the Year award for 2006.[151][152] Some titles missed the launch window and were delayed until early 2007, such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, F.E.A.R. and Sonic the Hedgehog. During the Japanese launch, Ridge Racer 7 was the top-selling game, while Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire also fared well in sales,[153] both of which were offerings from Namco Bandai. The PlayStation 3 launched in Europe with 24 titles, including ones that were not offered in the North American and Japanese launches, such as Formula One Championship Edition, MotorStorm and Virtua Fighter 5. Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm were the most successful titles of 2007,[154][155] and both games subsequently received sequels in the form of Resistance 2 and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.[156][157]
At E3 2007, Sony was able to show a number of their upcoming video games for the PlayStation 3, including Heavenly Sword, Lair, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Warhawk and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune; all of which were released in the third and fourth quarters of 2007. They also showed off a number of titles that were set for release in 2008 and 2009; most notably Killzone 2, Infamous, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, LittleBigPlanet and SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation.[158] A number of third-party exclusives were also shown, including the highly-anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots,[159] alongside other high-profile third-party titles such as Grand Theft Auto 4, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Assassin's Creed, Devil May Cry 4 and Resident Evil 5. Two other important titles for the PlayStation 3, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, were shown at TGS 2007 in order to appease the Japanese market.[160][161]
Sony have since launched their budget range of PlayStation 3 titles, known as the Greatest Hits range in North America,[162] the Platinum range in Europe[163] and The Best range in Japan.[164] Among the titles available in the budget range include Resistance: Fall of Man, MotorStorm, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Call Of Duty 3, Assassin's Creed and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. As of July 2009 Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Devil May Cry 4, Army of Two, Battlefield: Bad Company have also joined the list. When they are put on the "Greatest Hits" list the new unused copies retail for $30 USD and are re-shipped in a new red case.
As of March 31, 2009, there have been 174.9 million games sold for the PlayStation 3.[165]

Stereoscopic 3D
In December 2008 the CTO of Blitz Games announced that they would bring stereoscopic 3D gaming and movie viewing to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with their own technology.[166] According to Blitz Games, SCE confirmed that they intend to support stereoscopic 3D games and Blu-ray movies and that the functionality will be introduced to the PlayStation 3 via a firmware update in 2009.[167] This technology was first demonstrated publicly on the PS3 in January 2009 at the Consumer Electronics Show. Journalists were shown Wipeout HD and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue in 3D as a demonstration of how the technology might work if it is implemented in the future.[168]