PLAYSTATION
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
* Instruction Cache 4 KB
* Data Cache 1 KB (non associative, just 1024 bytes of mapped fast SRAM)
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
* Resolutions from 256×224 to 640×480
* Adjustable frame buffer
* Unlimited color lookup tables
* Maximum of 24-bit color depth
* 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)
NINTENDO DS
* Mass: 275 grams (9.7 ounces).
* Physical dimensions: 148.7 x 84.7 x 28.9 mm (5.85 x 3.33 x 1.13 inches).
* Screens: Two separate 3-inch TFT LCD, resolution of 256 x 192 pixels, dimensions of 62 x 46 mm and 77 mm diagonal, and a dot pitch of 0.24 mm. The gap between the screens is approximately 21 mm, equivalent to about 92 "hidden" lines. The lowermost display of the Nintendo DS is overlaid with a resistive touchscreen, which registers pressure from one point on the screen at a time, averaging multiple points of contact if necessary.
* CPUs: Two ARM processors, an ARM946E-S main CPU and ARM7TDMI co-processor at clock speeds of 67 MHz and 33 MHz respectively. The ARM946E-S CPU processes 3D rendering and the ARM7TDMI processes 2D rendering for DS games and Game boy Advance gameplay.
* RAM: 4 MB of Mobile RAM
* Voltage: 1.65 volts required
* Storage: 256 kB of Serial Flash Memory
* Wireless: 802.11 + Nintendo Original Protocol
* Wi-Fi: Built-in 802.11 Wireless Network Connection (802.11b/g compatible with WEP encryption support only)
The system's 3D hardware performs transform and lighting, texture-coordinate transformation, texture mapping, alpha blending, anti-aliasing, cel shading, and z-buffering; however, it uses point (nearest neighbor) texture filtering, leading to some titles having a blocky appearance. The system is theoretically capable of rendering about 120,000 triangles per second at 60 frames per second, which is comparable to the Nintendo 64.[citation needed] Unlike most 3D hardware, it has a set limit on the number of triangles it can render as part of a single scene; the maximum amount is about 6144 vertices, or 2048 triangles per frame. The 3D hardware is designed to render to a single screen at a time, so rendering 3D to both screens is difficult and decreases performance significantly. The DS is generally more limited by its polygon budget than by its pixel fill rate. There are also 512 kilobytes of texture memory per screen, and the maximum texture size is 1024x1024 pixels.
The system has 656 kilobytes of video memory[20] and two 2D engines (one per screen). These are similar to (but more powerful than) the Game Boy Advance's single 2D engine; however, the cores are divided into the main core and sub core. Only the main core is capable of vertex 3D rendering.
The Nintendo DS has compatibility with Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11. The unit also supports a special wireless format created by Nintendo and secured using RSA security signing (used by the wireless drawing and chatting program PictoChat for the DS). Wi-Fi is used for accessing the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, where users can use the internet or compete with other users playing the same Wi-Fi compatible game.
