Sony’s PS4: what will it be like?

Sony’s PS4: what will it be like?

All year long, new gadgets and advancements, such as the PSV, have been thrilling and making all game lovers stand on their toes. Same is the anticipation for the Sony Computer Entertainment’s (SCE) future home video game console: the Play Station 4 (PS4). Inside reports state that Sony is thinking of naming the new console Orbis. Orbis is said to surpass the previous PlayStation 3 (PS3) in specifications. Let’s have a look at the options SCE has and may use in their next masterpiece.

Firstly, we shall talk about the processor. The Play Station 3 console was built with a cell based processing unit, clocking at 3.2 GHz and 8 Synergetic Processing Elements (SPE’s). Of these 8 SPE’s, 1 was used as a reserve and one for security purposes. The new PS4 console is believed to include a minimum of 16 SPE’s, as not only will the cell based processor decrease to 32nm, but it will also improve the optimal power to heat ratio, not to mention an awesome game quality resulting in an all new exciting gaming experience!

Next in line to the processor is the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). The PS3 was installed with a Nvidia built graphics card, the Reality Synthesizer, which paced at 550MHz with 256Mb GDDR3 clocked at 700MHz. Considering Sony’s good relations with Nvidia, it will be wrong to rule out possibilities that Sony will use the new 512 bit bus in-line to be released in 2013, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 700. This combined with the cell core shall produce magical speed and hence faster load time, less wait, reducing cranky user. Although some rumours suggest that Sony might acutally go with ATI.

The Random Access Memory (RAM): the current PS3 uses a 256MB XDR RAM which works somewhere between 2.5 GHz to 3.0 GHz. This is incredibly fast. Well as advancements are into place, obvious upgraded RAM shall be seen in the slick and shining new Play Station 4. Rumor has it that at least a 1GB XDR is expected in the PS4 if not to consider the latest XDR2 which has been in the market since the launch of the current gaming console, the PS3. XDR2 has improved latency and bandwidth, which help in its functioning at almost twice the speed of its lesser predecessor, the normal XDR. Hence the XDR2 or the cheaper, still equally efficient version, the GDDR6 could also be used but whichever one is installed, the primary choice should be from amongst these two.

Many people have predicted Sony Computer Entertainment to bring a change in the type of disc used as well. The latest technology, the Holographic Versatile Disc, can undoubtedly hold up to a 100 Gigabytes of data but Sony has spent a fortune on building the Blu-Ray technology. It would simply be a waste to replace it, not to mention the faster drive they shall need to read the 100 GB disc. The Blu-Ray can hold up to 50 Gb but still runs with plenty of empty space on the disc. Whoever needs a 100 Gb disc for no reason? The high definition disc drive would be an eye-candy but nonetheless, useless.