PS4 Specs And System Architecture

Today at Sony's event in New York City officially announcing the PlayStation 4, among the details unveiled were the specifications going into the hardware behind their latest console, as detailed by lead system architect Mark Cerny, who made the presentation shortly before announcing the game he's directing—Knack—for the PlayStation 4. The new console sees a return of the developer best known for its Crash Bandicoot games. 

The PlayStation 4 will feature 8 GB of memory, local hard drive, an x86 GPU, and an enhanced PC GPU. It was also have a secondary custom chip that will allow background processing: no more waiting for a download to finish before playing a game. Sony did not formally announced what companies they'll be going with with the CPU and the GPU, but released the specific hardware specifications in a separate press release on their corporate website. The specs read as follows:

Main Processor: Single-chip custom processor
CPU: x86-64 AMD "Jaguar', 8 cores
GPU: 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD next-generation RAdeon-based graphics engine
Memory: GDDR5 8GB
Hard Drive: Built-in
Optical Drive (read only): BD 6xCAV, DVD 8xCAV
I/O: Super-Speed USB (USB 3.0), AUX
Communication: Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T), IEEE 8.02.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 (EDR)
AV output: HDMI, Analog-AV out, Digital Output (optical)

With more than just words to show us, Sony showcased the power of the PS4 in full with the many games they presented today, including a new Killzone game, a new Infamous, Destiny, and Watch Dogs, some of which were demoed in real time on stage. The power of PS4 is clear to see, and rivals even games on current-gen PCs. It's far better than anything else we've seen in the console environment.  

The PlayStation 4 is expected for the holiday season of 2013.

Be sure to read this post for our full coverage of the PlayStation 4.