PlayStation 4 (codename Orbis) technical hardware investigation (news and rumours)

Cernium

Should be 28nm TSMC.

In terms of physical space, yes. Though I'm not sure how the number of layers factors in.

 

They have an external SATA controller again...? How bizarre! Surely AMD must have been part of developing the southbridge, they've tons of integrated SATA experience. Also, getting AES encryption that way would be ineffective I would think, because if sony goes that way you could just tap unencrypted data off of the PCIe lanes connecting to the controller.

 

GDDR5 doesn't require the trace lengths to be matched (as DDR3 does), the interface can take care of timing differences arising from that by measuring and compensating the phase delay. Layouting GDDR5 on a board is indeed simpler and usually leads to a more compact result than with DDR3 despite the higher frequencies involved. But it is impressive how much Sony took advantage of this (edit: that they distribute the chips to both sides of the PCB helps too of course, may require one or two layers more, who knows).

Let's wait until we see a teardown of a final XB1. If MS couldn't reduce the amount of components a lot compared to the test kits, Sony compensates probably the higher price for the GDDR5 with its simpler and cleaner board design .

 

...but the higher signal rate of GDDR5 would certainly ask for additional PCB screening.

 

The PCB is basically shielded on both sides by a metal frame. I guess it was not the slightest issue to hit some EMI regulations.

 

Same video in MP4 format and with a higher bit rate: http://condenastl3cdn.cust.footprint.net/videos/52783b2eee3ec9021500000f/high.mp4

For me, the only viewing option was a lower quality HD WebM version.

 

Wow at that comparison pic.

 

What I find the most surprising is that there's so few passive parts and glue logic on the PS4 motherboard. It looks like a "slim" iteration already.

 

The GDDR5 chips are roughly 59px*69px in the image I posted above - so the battery actually served pretty well

Measuring based upon the relative size of the GDDR5 chips, I get a slightly bigger 19,4mm* 18,6mm for the APU - so ~360mm².

Given that the resolution isn't that high and the original perspective wasn't that great to extrapolate measurements, that's just a rough estimation, of course. But the ballpark seems about right.

 

Thats a huge improvement compared to what they did with the PS3. Sony shows a completely different face. Its like a totally different company. And that I mean it from a positive POV. They learned from their past mistakes and they transformed. They took the correct direction in every area. They ticked everything in the check list
They managed to cram up such a wonderfully simple yet powerful architecture in such a compact and slick design. Its amazing how clean and simplified the PS4 motherboard looks. And it is impressive that in that little box there's also the power supply

 

Single sided board vs dual sided board...mystery solved. With that said MS has come a long way with laying out their boards and component quality not to mention their inhouse Surface tablet designs. SONY seems to be doing what they do best over the last several decades in CE...mechanical/electrical integration.

 

GDDR5 chips seems to be samsung. the bin suffix looks like 03 so it's 6Gbps. Why would they drop the speed to 5.5 ?

 

No.

 

It's not double sided?

 

I'm very very impressed with how well built, designed and executed PS4's design is!

There power supply is also very impressive.

Consider me stunned!

 

Both are at least double sided. It's impossible to make such a circuit with single-sided board. Both the PS4 and XB1 are probably 3 or 4 layers.
As soon as you see vias (the little dots when the path goes through the board) it means 2 or more layers.

 

If anyone is interested

Red Box - GDDR5, 1 power phase

Yellow Box -CPU, 2 power phases

Blue Box - GPU, 5 power phases + GDDR 5, 1 power phase

White Box - South Bridge + Other chips, 1 power phase

 

I don't think the X1 board is double sided, it has too many components on the top side for that to be the case IMO. We'll have to wait for an official tear down of a production X1 console. Most if not all PC motherboards are single sided so I'm not seeing why they need a dual sided board. BTW I'm not talking about number of layers. The only time you'll use a dual sided board is if you're trying to keep the board size small which means you have less room per side for surface mount components therefore have to mount on both sides.

 

I just want to know whether we can buy that screw from Sony store or Gamestop.

 

If the PSU is 12V to keep the current reasonable, one of those regulator has to be a strong 5V for SATA, USB, and AUX power. Unless the PSU has a 5V too?
EDIT: never mind, I was thinking about the Fat which was 12V only. The PS3 slim has 2A 5V too. That makes more sense