Playstation2

Late this summer, Sony will release its brainchild product dubbed PlayStation2. This is a follow up to its predecessor PlayStation1. If you are familiar with the video game entertainment market, its usual that a company releases a new console every 4 to 5 years.

The Playstation2 is expected to revolutionize the video gaming industry in ways never imagined before. Who would have thought we would be able to watch DVD's on our video game player? Soon this summer we will be able to. How about connecting to the net and going online to play a buddy or just any competitor in California? Feel like downloading some mp3's? The new PlayStation2 will let you do all these things and more.

PlayStation2 will offer a variety of different ways of using their machine. Not only can you play revolutionizing games, but you can shop through your computer. Sony will offer in 2001 a connection to the Internet in which you can just surf the web. As I have mentioned, Sony has formatted the PlayStation2 to able to play DVD videos along with its games. One of the greatest things about the PlayStation2 is that you can play all your old Playstation1 games on it! Finally! After years and years of this backwards compatibility being in the dark, it is now possible with the PlayStation2. Not only your old games, but even your old controllers, memory cards and wires are going to be fully compatible with the system.

The PlayStation2 is expected to beat out its predecessor in every way including the books. Playstation1 accounted for 40% of all of Sony's profits in 1998. As of the first weekend of sales in Japan, Playstation2 had sold 980,000 units. All in one weekend! The lone fairly new competition that will be on the market before Playstation2 is the Sega Dreamcast. This was released in 1999 and has sold 4 million units since its release. Figure 4 million units in 52-weeks and then look at PlayStation2's numbers in Japan on one weekend.

Playstation2 will be extremely succesful because of it almost cult like following. In a recent study, a conclusion was made that 1 in four homes have a Playstation. That is close to 25 million units sold in the US alone. This all adds up to the 70 million units total sold in the world. And now the product is just more sellable with the DVD, Internet, and backwards compatibility available.

Specifications

Product Name: PlayStation2

Suggested Retail Price (Japan) 39,800 Yen ($370)

Available: March 4, 2000 (Japan)

Accessories included: "Dual Shock"2 analog controller

High capacity 8MB Memory Card

PlayStation2 Demo Disc

AV Multi Cable

AC Power Cord

Dimensions: 301mm (W) x 178mm (H) x 78mm (D) (12" x 7" x 3")

Weight: 2.1 kg (4 lbs. 10 oz.)

Media: PlayStation2 CD-ROM, DVD-ROM

PlayStation CD-ROM

Formats supported: Audio CD, DVD-Video

Interfaces: Controller Port (2)

Memory Card Slot (2)

AV Multi Cable Output (1)

Optical Digital Output (1)

USB Port (2)

I.Link (IEEE1394) (1)

Type III PCMCIA Card Slot

PlayStation®2 Basic Specifications and Features

CPU 128 Bit "Emotion Engine™"

System Clock Frequency 294.912 MHz

Main Memory Direct RDRAM

Memory Size 32MB

Graphics "Graphics Synthesizer"

Clock Frequency 147.456MHz

Embedded Cache VRAM 4MB

Sound SPU2

Number of Voices 48ch plus software

Sound Memory 2MB

IOP I/O Processor

CPU Core PlayStation CPU+

Clock Frequency 33.8688MHz or 36.864MHz (Selectable)

IOP Memory 2MB

Disc Device CD-ROM and DVD-ROM

Device Speed CD-ROM 24 times speed

DVD-ROM 4 times speed

Bibliography

http://www.playstation.com

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