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Playstation 3 system

The Sony Playstation 3 system is available with two dissimilar hard drive options in United States and Japan in November 2006, as well as in Australia in March 2007. The later date for the Australian and European launches (and those planned for Africa, the Middle East and Russia) has been responsible for delays in blue laser diode production. However, the console will be out in Japan on 11th November 2006. The 20 Gigabytes model will cost 49,980 yen (roughly about USD 429), and it is USD 85 lower than the original price of 59,800 yen that Sony Computer Entertainment announced for the game console at the E3 2006 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). Sony Computer Entertainment will allow Japanese retailers decide their price for the 60Gigabytes version. The new Sony Playstation 3 will be out in the America on 17th November 2006. In the US, the 20Gigabytes version will cost USD 499, and the 60Gigabytes version will cost for USD 599. In Europe, the 20 Gigabytes version will cost for Euro 499, and the 60 Gigabytes version will cost Euro 599. In Australia, the 20 Gigabytes version will cost AU$829.95, and the 60 Gigabytes version will cost AU$999.95.

The new Sony Playstation 3 system will have enough power stemming from a 3.2 Gigahertz Cell processor that includes a single PowerPC based core together with synergistic processing units. Moreover, the Cell is the outcome of a joint effort among Toshiba, Sony and IBM. The main PowerPC core has 512 Kilobytes L2 cache and the SPE has 256 Kilobytes of its memory to collaborate with. The Central Processor Unit has the eighth SPE for "idleness," which means that every Cell chip will need seven working SPEs to bypass muster for the Playstation 3. The Cell processor is potent enough to make a new category of gameplay physics that is not possible to run on previous model console hardware including fluid and cloth simulations, and rigid body large scale interactions with thousands of objects bumping onscreen. Nowadays, personal computers in comparison need an add-on card or find a method to tap the GPU for physics processing in order to run Playstation 3 system-level physics effects. In addition, game developers will be able to utilize the Cell's SPEs to provide games new audio effects earlier only available on the desktop PC with dedicated audio processing.

The industry wide move to multi-core processing game platforms will have a big impact on game developers in the future. A lot of the responsibility will be upon the hardware manufacturers to design systems and using tools that will make it easier for software programmers to program games. Sony Computer Entertainment has declared that the Playstation 3 will use Open GL/ES, a specific API narrowly related to Open GL, and software programmers will have access to use the Cell's SPEs using C++ or C tools, rather than programming on the assembly level as they did with the Playstation 2.

Sony Computer Entertainment will pair with the Cell with a very potent graphics processor based on highly developed Nvidia technology. You might still remember that Nvidia did the video graphics for the first Microsoft Xbox system; however with reports of agreement disputes between Microsoft and NVIDIA, few were shocked when both of these reputable companies chose to switch dance partners for their next gaming console cycle.