PlayStation technical specifications



The PlayStation technical specifications describe the various components of the original PlayStation video game console.

Central processing unit (CPU)
LSI CoreWare CW33300-based core
 * MIPS R3000A-compatible 32-bit RISC CPU MIPS R3051 with 5 KB L1 cache, running at 33.8688 MHz.
 * The microprocessor was manufactured by LSI Logic Corp. with technology licensed from SGI.
 * Features:
 * Initial feature size (process node) was 0.5 micron (500 nm).
 * 850k – 1M transistors
 * Operating performance: 30 MIPS
 * Bus bandwidth 132 MB/s
 * One arithmetic/logic unit (ALU)
 * One shifter
 * CPU cache RAM:
 * 4 KB instruction cache
 * 1 KB data cache configured as a scratchpad

Geometry Transformation Engine (GTE)
 * Coprocessor that resides inside the main CPU processor, giving it additional vector math instructions used for 3D graphics, lighting, geometry, polygon and coordinate transformations – GTE performs high-speed matrix multiplications.
 * Operating performance: 66 MIPS
 * Polygons per second (rendered in hardware):
 * 90,000 with texture mapping, lighting and Gouraud shading
 * 180,000 with texture mapping
 * 360,000 with flat shading

Motion Decoder (MDEC)
 * Also residing within the main CPU, enables full screen, high quality FMV playback and is responsible for decompressing images and video into VRAM.
 * Operating performance: 80 MIPS
 * 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.
 * It is directly connected to a CPU bus.

System Control Coprocessor (Cop0)
 * This unit is part of the CPU. Has 16 32-bit control registers.
 * Modified from the original R3000A cop0 architecture, with the addition of a few registers and functions.
 * Controls memory management through virtual memory technique, system interrupts, exception handling, and breakpoints.

Memory

 * 2 MB main EDO DRAM
 * Additional RAM is integrated with the GPU (including a 1 MB framebuffer) and SPU (512 KB), see below for details.
 * Cache RAM for CPU core and CD-ROM. See the relevant sections for details.
 * Flash RAM support through the use of memory cards, see below.
 * BIOS stored on 512 KB ROM

Graphics processing unit (GPU)
32-bit Sony GPU (designed by Toshiba)
 * Handles display of graphics, control of framebuffer, and drawing of polygons and textures
 * Handles 2D graphics processing, in a similar manner to the 3D engine
 * RAM:
 * 1 MB VRAM (later models contained SGRAM) for framebuffer
 * 2 KB texture cache (132MB/s memory bus bandwidth, 32-bit wide)
 * 64 bytes FIFO buffer
 * Features:
 * Adjustable framebuffer (1024×512)
 * Emulation of simultaneous backgrounds (to simulate parallax scrolling)
 * Mask bit
 * Texture window
 * Dithering
 * Clipping
 * Alpha blending (4 per-texel alpha blending modes)
 * Fog
 * Framebuffer effects
 * Transparency effects
 * Render to texture
 * Offscreen rendering
 * Multipass rendering
 * Flat or Gouraud shading and texture mapping
 * No line restriction
 * Colored light sourcing
 * Resolutions:
 * Progressive: 256×224 to 640×240 pixels
 * Interlaced: 256×448 to 640×480 pixels
 * Colors:
 * Maximum color depth of 16,777,216 colors (24-bit true color)
 * 57,344 (256×224) to 153,600 (640×240) colors on screen
 * Unlimited color lookup tables (CLUTs)
 * 32 levels of transparency
 * All calculations are performed to 24 bit accuracy
 * Texture mapping color mode:
 * Mode 4: 4-bit CLUT (16 colors)
 * Mode 8: 8-bit CLUT (256 colors)
 * Mode 15: 15-bit direct (32,768 colors)
 * Mode 24: 24-bit (16,777,216 colors)
 * Sprite engine
 * 1024×512 framebuffer, 8×8 and 16×16 sprite sizes, bitmap objects
 * Up to 4,000 sprites on screen (at 8×8 sprite size), scaling and rotation
 * 256×256 maximum sprite size
 * Special sprite effects:
 * Rotation
 * Scaling up/down
 * Warping
 * Transparency
 * Fading
 * Priority
 * Vertical and horizontal line scroll

Sound processing unit (SPU)
16-bit Sony SPU
 * Supports ADPCM sources with up to 24 channels
 * Sampling rate of up to 44.1 kHz
 * 512 KB RAM
 * PCM audio source
 * Supports MIDI sequencing
 * Digital effects include:
 * Pitch modulation
 * Envelope
 * Looping
 * Digital reverb

I/O system and connectivity
CD-ROM drive Two control pads via connectors Backup flash RAM support Video and audio connectivity Serial and parallel ports Power input
 * 660MB maximum storage capacity, double speed (CLV) CD-ROM drive
 * 2×, with a maximum data throughput of 300 KB/s (double speed), 150KB/s (normal)
 * 32 KB data buffer
 * XA Mode 2 compliant
 * Audio CD play
 * CD-DA (CD-Digital Audio)
 * Rated for 70,000 seek operations
 * Expandable with multitap connector
 * Two removable cards
 * Each card has 128 KB flash memory
 * OS support for File Save, Retrieve and Remove
 * Some games (like "Music 2000") can use Memory Cards as main RAM, to store data for real time processing, bypassing the 2MB RAM limit.
 * AV Multi Out (Composite video, S-Video, RGBS)
 * RCA Composite video and Stereo out (SCPH-100x to 5000 only)
 * RFU (SCPH-112X) DC out (SCPH-100x to 5000 only)
 * S-Video out (SCPH-1000 only)
 * Serial I/O (used for PlayStation Link Cable SCPH-100x to 900x only)
 * Parallel I/O (N/A) SCPH-100x to 750x only)
 * 100 V AC (NTSC-J); 120 V AC (NTSC-U/C); or 220–240 V AC (PAL)
 * 7.5 V DC 2 A (PSone only)