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PlayStation

Original model design and logo of the PS1.
Manufacturer	Sony Computer Entertainment
Product family	PlayStation
Type	Video game console
Generation	Fifth generation era
Retail availability	JP December 3, 1994[1] NA September 9, 1995[2] EU September 29, 1995[3] AUS November 15, 1995[4]
Discontinued	March 23, 2006
Units sold	125 million (as of July 20, 2008)[5]
Units shipped	102.49 million, including 28.15 million PS one units (as of March 31 2005)[6]
Media	CD-ROM
CPU	MIPS R3000A-family R3051 @ 33.8688 MHz
Storage capacity	Memory card
Best-selling game	Gran Turismo, 10.85 million shipped (as of April 30 2008)[7][8]
Successor	PlayStation 2

The PlayStation (abbreviated PS, PSone,^[9] PS1, or PSX^[11]) is a 32-bit fifth generation video game console released by Sony Computer Entertainment in December 1994.^[1]

The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of console and handheld game devices, which was first created and released in Japan. Successor consoles and upgrades include the Net Yaroze, PS one, PSX, PocketStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and the PlayStation 3. On March 31, 2005, the PlayStation and PS one reached a combined total of 102.49 million units shipped,^[6] becoming the first video game console to reach 100 million.^[12] As of July 20, 2008, the PlayStation has sold 102 million units.^[5] Sony ceased production of the PlayStation on March 23, 2006, over 11 years after it was first produced.^[13]

Contents 1 History 2 Launch 3 Titles 4 Variants 4.1 PS one 4.2 Consumer models 4.3 Specialty models 5 Successors 6 Technical specifications 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

The first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986 in Japan where it was created. Nintendo had been attempting to work with disc technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems. Its rewritable magnetic nature could be easily erased (thus leading to a lack of durability), and the discs were a copyright infringement danger. Consequently, when details of CDROM/XA (an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously) came out, Nintendo was interested. CD-ROM/XA was being simultaneously developed by Sony and Philips. Nintendo had later declined Phillips. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was signed, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of PlayStation", was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound synthesis set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.^[14]

Sony also planned to develop a Super Famicom-compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.

The SNES-CD was to be announced at the May 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, after turning down their idea. Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknownst to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.

After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand alone console. As a result, Nintendo filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in U.S. federal court, to obtain an injunction against the release of the PlayStation, on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name. The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the new Sony PlayStation was revealed. However, it is theorized that only 200 or so of these machines were ever produced.^{[citation needed]}

By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the "Sony Play Station" would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, and the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the "PlayStation" concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped and the space between the names was removed, thereby ending Nintendo's involvement with the project.

[edit] Launch

The PlayStation was launched in Japan on December 3, 1994, North America on September 9, 1995,^[2] Europe on September 29, 1995,^[3] and Oceania in November 15, 1995.^[4] The launch price in the American market was US$299^[2] (a price point later used by its successor, the PlayStation 2),^[15] and Sony enjoyed a very successful launch with titles of almost every genre, including Battle Arena Toshinden, Warhawk, Air Combat, and Philosoma, and Ridge Racer. Almost all of Sony's and Namco's launch titles went on to spawn numerous sequels.

[edit] Titles

As of September 30, 2007, a total of 7,918 software titles have been released worldwide (counting games released in multiple regions as separate titles).^[16] As of March 31, 2007, the cumulative software shipment was at 962 million units.^[17] The very last game for the system released in the United States was FIFA Football 2005. However, it can be noted that on 07/26/07 in Japan and 03/18/08 in the US, Metal Gear Solid: The essential Collection was released which contained new printings of the Playstation 1 game Metal Gear Solid. The discs were in the Playstation format and playable on Playstation and PS One's.^[18]

The OK and Cancel buttons on most of the Japanese PlayStation games are reversed in their North American and European releases. In Japan, the button (maru, right) is used as the OK button, while the button (batsu, wrong) is used as Cancel. North American and European releases have the button or the buttons as the OK button, while either the or the buttons are used as Cancel (some titles like Xenogears used the button for cancelling actions and selections). However, a few games such as Squaresoft's Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy VII (although the button was used for the OK button), and Final Fantasy Tactics, Namco's Ridge Racer Type 4 and Konami's Metal Gear Solid, have the buttons remain in the same Japanese configurational layout. Some games like Japanese version of Gran Turismo had used different control similar to North American games. These Japanese button layouts still apply to other PlayStation consoles, such as the PlayStation Portable (PSP), PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3. This is because in the early years Sony America (SCEA), Sony Europe (SCEE) and Sony Japan (SCEJ) had different development and testing documents (TRCs) for their respective territories.

[edit] Variants

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[edit] PS one

The PS one (also PSOne), launched in 2000, is Sony's smaller, redesigned version of its PlayStation video game console. The PS one is considerably smaller than the original PlayStation (dimensions being 38 mm × 193 mm × 144 mm versus 45 mm × 260 mm × 185 mm). It was released on July 7, 2000,^[19] and went on to outsell all other consoles—including Sony's own brand-new PlayStation 2—throughout the remainder of the year.^[20] Sony also released a small LCD screen and an adaptor to power the unit for use in cars. The PS one is fully compatible with all PlayStation software. There were three differences between the "PS One" and the original, the first one being cosmetic change to the console, the second one was the home menu's Graphical User Interface, and the third being added protection against the modchip by changing the internal layout and making previous-generation modchip devices unusable. The PS one also lacks the original PlayStation's parallel and serial ports. The serial port allowed multiple consoles to be connected for multiplayer or for connecting a console to debugging software.

[edit] Consumer models

Model:	Case:	BIOS:	Hardware:	Region:	A/V Direct Out:	Parallel Port:	Serial Port:	Sound Scope:
SCPH-1000	Original (Grey)	Unknown (09/22/94)	Rev. A	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-1001	Original (Grey)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-1002	Original (Grey)	2.0 (05/10/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-1002	Original (Grey)	2.1 (07/17/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-1002	Original (Grey)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-3000	Original (Grey)	1.1 (01/22/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-3500	Original (Grey)	2.1 (07/17/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5000	Original (Grey)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5001	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5002	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5003	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5500	Original (Grey)	3.0 (09/09/96)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5501	Original (Grey)	3.0 (11/18/96)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5502	Original (Grey)	3.0 (01/06/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5503	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5552	Original (Grey)	3.0 (01/06/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5903	Original (White)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-7000	Original (Grey)	4.0 (08/18/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7001	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7002	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7003	Original (Grey)	3.0 (11/18/96)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7500	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7501	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7502	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7503	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-9000	Original (Grey)	4.0 (08/18/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	No	Yes	Yes
SCPH-9001	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	No	Yes	Yes
SCPH-9002	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	No	Yes	Yes
SCPH-9003	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	No	Yes	Yes
SCPH-100	PS one (White)	4.3 (03/11/00)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	No	No	Yes
SCPH-101	PS one (White)	4.5 (05/25/00)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	No	No	Yes
SCPH-102	PS one (White)	4.4 (03/24/00)	Rev. C	PAL	No	No	No	Yes
SCPH-102	PS one (White)	4.5 (05/25/00)	Rev. C	PAL	No	No	No	Yes
SCPH-103	PS one (White)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	No	No	Yes

[edit] Specialty models

Model:	Case:	BIOS:	Hardware:	Region:	A/V Direct Out:	Parallel Port:	Serial Port:	Sound Scope:
DTL-H1000	Original (Blue)	Unknown (09/22/94)	Rev. A	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1000H	Original (Grey)	1.1 (01/22/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1001	Original (Blue)	2.0 (05/07/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1001H	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1002	Original (Blue)	2.0 (05/10/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1100	Original (Blue)	2.2 (03/06/96)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1101	Original (Blue)	2.1 (07/17/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1102	Original (Blue)	2.1 (07/17/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1200	Original (Green)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1201	Original (Green)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H1202	Original (Green)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. C	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H3000	Original (Black)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H3001	Original (Black)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
DTL-H3002	Original (Black)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

[edit] Successors

Sony's successor to the PlayStation is the PlayStation 2, which is backward compatible with its predecessor in that it can play almost every PlayStation game. Unlike emulators that run on a PC, the PlayStation 2 actually contains the original PlayStation processor, allowing games to run exactly as they do on the PlayStation. For PlayStation 2 games this processor, called the IOP, is used for input and output (memory cards, DVD drive, network, and hard drive). Like its predecessor, the PlayStation 2 is based on hardware developed by Sony itself.

The third generation of the PlayStation known as the PlayStation 3 (abbreviated PS3), was launched on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America, and March 23, 2007 in Europe. The PlayStation 3 was initially backward compatible with all games that were originally made for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, but due to the removal of the PlayStation 2 Emotion Engine Chip after the introduction of the 40 GB version, the capability to play PlayStation 2 discs is limited now to software emulation, and the capability to play original PlayStation games is still possible. While PS3 games are not region-locked, PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games still only play on a PS3 console from the same territory.

[edit] Technical specifications

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Central processing unit

MIPS R3000A-compatible (R3051) 32bit RISC chip running at 33.8688 MHz

The chip is manufactured by LSI Logic Corp. with technology licensed from SGI. The chip also contains the Geometry Transformation Engine and the Data Decompression Engine.

Features:

• Operating performance of 30 MIPS
• Bus bandwidth 132 MB/s
• 4 KB Instruction Cache
• 1 KB non-associative SRAM Data Cache

Geometry transformation engine

This engine is inside the main CPU chip. It gives it additional vector math instructions used for the 3D graphics.

Features:

• Operating performance of 66 MIPS
• 360,000 flat-shaded polygons per second
• 180,000 texture mapped and light-sourced polygons per second

Sony originally gave the polygon count as:

• 1 million flat-shaded polygons per second;
• 500,000 texture mapped and light-sourced polygons per second.

These figures were given as a ballpark figure for performance under optimal circumstances, and so are unrealistic under normal usage.

Data decompression engine

This engine is also inside the main CPU. It is responsible for decompressing images and video. Documented device mode is to read three RLE-encoded 16×16 macroblocks, run IDCT and assemble a single 16×16 RGB macroblock. Output data may be transferred directly to GPU via DMA. It is possible to overwrite IDCT matrix and some additional parameters, however MDEC internal instruction set was never documented.

Features:

• Compatible with MJPEG and H.261 files
• Operating Performance of 80 MIPS
• Directly connected to CPU Bus

Graphics processing unit

This chip is separate to the CPU and handles all the 2D graphics processing, which includes the transformed 3D polygons.

Features:

• Maximum of 16.7 million colors (24-bit color depth)
• Resolutions from 256×224 to 640×480
• Adjustable frame buffer
• Unlimited color lookup tables
• Maximum of 4000 8×8 pixel sprites with individual scaling and rotation
• Emulation of simultaneous backgrounds (for parallax scrolling)
• Flat or Gouraud shading, and texture mapping

Sound processing unit

Features:

• Can handle ADPCM sources with up to 24 channels and up to 44.1 kHz sampling rate

Memory

• Main RAM: 2 MB
• Video RAM: 1 MB
• Sound RAM: 512 KB
• CD-ROM Buffer: 32 KB
• Operating System ROM: 512 KB
• PlayStation Memory Cards have 128 KB of space in an EEPROM

CD-ROM drive

Features:

• 2x, with a maximum data throughput of 300 KB/s
• XA Mode 2 Compliant
• CD-DA (CD-Digital Audio)

[edit] See also

• Libcrypt
• PlayStation Demo Discs
• PlayStation Sound Format
• Runix
• PlayStation palmar hidradenitis

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: PlayStation

• PlayStation Home (Europe)
• PlayStation Home (US)
• PlayStation Home (Japan)
• Canadian PlayStation Website Home
• SCEA PlayStation Products Home
• PlayStation at the Open Directory Project
• The PlayStation Museum, dedicated to preserving the history of the PlayStation, complete with retail and prototype game screenshots and information
• The Playstation Datacenter, a complete Playstation 1 games database with game screenshots, controls, cheats, covers, etc.

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