Sony Playstation 3 - Gaming Console

The PlayStation 3 game console coming out from Sony Computer Entertainment is the third one in the row of game consoles launched by the electronic giant. Marketed officially as PLAYSTION3, and commonly abbreviated as PS3, the third home video game console competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. Released first on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America and Asia, and March 23, 2007 in Europe and Oceania, the game console enjoys a third place in sales and marketing. The PlayStation 3 is considered as the first console with next-generation primary storage media, Blu-ray Disc, in spite of its supporting to DVDs, CDs, HDDs and with some models SACDs. The PlayStation 3 game console can also play back content from Blu-ray Disc (BD) at a bit rate of multiplex 48Mbps, the maximum bit rate defined in BD standards.

The Sony Playstation 3 game console along with the features of the 20 GB model, the 60 GB model also carries along with it additional features including internal IEEE 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, multiple flash card readers (SD/MultiMedia Card, CompactFlash Type I/Type II, Microdrive, Memory Stick/PRO/Duo) and a chrome colored trim. The hardware used for the 80 GB model released in South Korea was almost same to the 60 GB model released in Europe and Australia. It was only the size of the hard drive that was differing. The North American 80 GB model excluded the PlayStation 2 "Emotion Engine" chip following the South Korean and European models, instead by providing PS2 compatibility via software emulation, which reduced the level of compatibility. It was found that the 40 GB model had two USB ports instead of the four USB ports on other models, and excludes a multi memory card port, SACD support, or any backwards compatibility with PlayStation 2 titles.

Until now Sony has not released any official Wi-Fi or flash memory card readers for the 20 GB system, although plans for such add-ons are in place. The second generation PS3s (40 GB) use Cell CPUs of 65nm while at the same time the first generation PS3s (60 GB) use Cell CPU of 90nm. This shows that the system runs cooler requiring less power to operate.