PSP to have 30M of RAM

[London Geezer]

No, seriously, i though it was kinda thin..... large and thin... i don't want something as big as a bloody Gamegear.... or a Linx

What if you have to put in three thick lithium batteries to make it last 6 hours?

*imagines PSP connected to a back-pack-power generator a la Ghostbusters.......*

 

[V3]

No, seriously, i though it was kinda thin..... large and thin... i don't want something as big as a bloody Gamegear.... or a Linx

Look carefully. The design and shape hide its true size.

I don't think its GG size, but probably Linx. Its bigger than GBA that's for sure.

 

[Deadmeat]

...

Well, the logical decision would be to remove system eDRAM and put a cheap 32 MB DDR DRAM next to PSP ASIC, to match PSX2's memory capacity... This would certainly be the most cost effective upgrade you can think of..

 

[Evil_Cloud]

No, seriously, i though it was kinda thin..... large and thin... i don't want something as big as a bloody Gamegear.... or a Linx

What if you have to put in three thick lithium batteries to make it last 6 hours?

*imagines PSP connected to a back-pack-power generator a la Ghostbusters.......*

Or even better. PSP is going to use a bulldozer battery, and you get a free bulldozer with it!

Now serious, I think that battery life is crucial for the succes of handheld consoles. What use would a PSP be when you can't watch your film to the end? :/

 

[Megadrive1988]

now with 30 MB of memory, PSP surpasses Dreamcast. in pretty much everything, I think, except resolution, which is obvious, and actually a good thing.

 

[Squeak]

According to the old specs all the RAM listed was embedded, they did not talk about an SoC design for nothing .

I hope that this new RAM ( which even if it were external it would have to provide like 2.6 GB/s, without wasting too much power and without long latency ) is embedded as it is a more future proof solution.

So you reckon they are going to start production in 2008 when 22nm becomes cheap enough?

 

[Vince]

So you reckon they are going to start production in 2008 when 22nm becomes cheap enough?

Why? Have you seen the cell size on eDRAM in 90nm and below?

 

[Squeak]

So you reckon they are going to start production in 2008 when 22nm becomes cheap enough?

Why? Have you seen the cell size on eDRAM in 90nm and below?

Mips core, GPU, TnL, IO AND 30Mb on the same die just sound very very optimistic.

 

[akira888]

So you reckon they are going to start production in 2008 when 22nm becomes cheap enough?

Why? Have you seen the cell size on eDRAM in 90nm and below?

Here's a napkin calculation:

0.331 (square microns)/bit @ 90nm according to NEC.

30MB * 8bits/byte = 240 Mbits

240E6 * 0.331 = 79.44 mm^2

Still a bit big; most likely an external (24MB) - internal (~6MB) RAM combo. IMHO the best solution as far as the cost, size, speed, and power tradeoffs are concerned.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/3bsvo

 

[Megadrive1988]

it would be so nice if it was all eDRAM

but either way, it's good that Sony listened to developers, increasing the total amount of memory. that's the most important thing.

that makes it at least twice that Sony increased the memory of a Playstation. the first was back in 1994 when they doubled the main memory of PS1 from 1 MB to 2 MB, after developers said they could do more with 2 MB main memory. ......that was according to Next Generation / EDGE magazine.


maybe a RAM increase will happen a third time. Sony should also listen to developers when it comes to PlayStation 3, if Sony again tries to skimp on RAM.

(re: developers, you should bitch like crazy to Sony about PS3, even if it has a decent amount of memory )

 

[Vince]

Here's a napkin calculation:

Thanks Akira. But, I already did it before opening my mouth - it usually prevents me from looking like a total ass, but lately...

Sony and Toshiba's co-developed eDRAM for 90nm is called ASC9 Which you can find at the link.

It has a cell size of 0.195um2. Care to recalculate? Nah, truthbetold, I'm not 100% sure this is the eDRAM technology being utilized, I think Sony also has a voltage-sensitive one developed with Mitsubishi or some such company, I just can't find it.


Also, what should tip one off is that Toshiba's been shipping a 90nm SoC, which is TX99-Based and contains "The SOC includes 32MB of trench cell-based embedded DRAM (eDRAM) used as graphics memory"

 

[Megadrive1988]

I don't think its GG size, but probably Linx.

Lynx II -1991 -or- original Lynx -1989

8)

 

[Squeak]

Well, maybe I am wrong (I'd only be happy if I was), it just seems incredible that with 180nm they could just about fit a RISClike rasteriser with 4Mb RAM onto a die with acceptable yields. Now all of sudden they can fit what amounts to a whole nowgen console onto the same (~) space.

 

[nAo]

It has a cell size of 0.195um2. Care to recalculate?

46.9 mm^2

 

[Deadmeat]

...

FYI, SCEI's self-claimed "90 nm" PSX2OAC uses around 28 mm2 and IBM's BlueGene ASIC uses similar area for 4 MB of eDRAM....

 

[Deadmeat]

The "home server" version of PlayStation 3, which has "all-singing, all-dancing features with maybe a hard disk drive", could retail for "whatever it might be, 600 or 700 Euros"

If I were you, I would be more concerned about this comment than PSP memory size....

 

[Teasy]

now with 30 MB of memory, PSP surpasses Dreamcast. in pretty much everything, I think, except resolution

What are PSP's rumoured specs? Can someone give me a quick roundup please (fillrate, mem bandwidth, pps ect).

 

[Vince]

The "home server" version of PlayStation 3, which has "all-singing, all-dancing features with maybe a hard disk drive", could retail for "whatever it might be, 600 or 700 Euros"

If I were you, I would be more concerned about this comment than PSP memory size....

Why? a PSX2 concerns me how? If Sony wants to release a PS3 and then a PSX2 - which if it's analogous to PSX is a PS3 core with a big HDD and rewritable Blu-Ray - we'd assume this is bad how?

PS. I'll get to the BlueGene ASIC soon enough.

 

[Megadrive1988]

What are PSP's rumoured specs? Can someone give me a quick roundup please (fillrate, mem bandwidth, pps ect).

PSP fillrate: 668M pixels/sec or some number like that. its slightly higher than Gamecube's fillrate - I dunno if PSP's fillrate figure is with texture or what. Dreamcast's fillrate was only 100M pixels/sec but we have to give it the equivalent of 200~300M because of its deferred rendering. still, PSP is at least as strong as Dreamcast fillrate-wise. Even if PSP's 668M pixels/sec is without texture, and if 1 texture cuts the fillrate in half (as with PS2), we still have over 300M pixel/sec with texture (worse case).
going by just numbers alone. in all likelihood, PSP beats Dreamcast in terms of fillrate.

PSP geometry: 33M verts/sec peak. that *might* mean 11 million polygons peak. depending on if/how polygons are sharing vertices. but i can't explain that too well. someone else can. Edit: PSP's 33M verts/sec might be similar to Nintendo DS's 4M verts/sec, in that, the actual amount rendered and displayed on-screen is far lower. DS gets only 120,000 polys on screen, from its 4M verts/sec peak. so we will have to see how much PSP can actually put on screen. PSP's 33M verts/sec is probably as close to realworld (re: not close) as PS2's 66M verts/sec is to PS2's realworld on screen amount.

PSP memory bandwidth: 2.6 GB/sec (iirc) with the eDRAM. I don't know how or if this has changed with PSP's RAM increase.

I think it's safe to say PSP games will be pushing at least several million polygons/sec. somewhere under 10 million but more than Dreamcast's 1-5 million, though. (some DC games were under 1M pps) And PSP will of course push far higher than either PS1 or N64, both of which were under 200,000 polygons/sec with texture + features.

PSP now has around 8.5 times the amount of RAM that PS1 had. (30 MB / 3.5 MB) we should see, very very roughly, probably 10~20x the performance of PS1/N64.

 

[Deadmeat]

...

This is all good, except for the price tag of 48,000 Yen and 250 pounds...