PS2 specs.. kind of interesting IMO

[fkloster]

CPU
128-bit Emotion EngineÔ

System Clock Frequency
294.912 MHz

Cache Memory
Instruction: 16KB, Data: 8KB + 16KB (ScrP)

Main Memory
Direct Rambus (Direct RDRAM)

Memory Size
32MB

Memory Bus Bandwidth
3.2GB per Second

Co-processor
FPU (Floating Point Unit)


Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 1,

Floating Point Divider x 1

Vector Units
VU0 and VU1

Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 9,

Floating Point Divider x 3

Floating Point Performance
6.2 GFLOPS

 

[samgau]

The only thing that bugs me about the PS2 is them using RDram... think of the price difference if they used sdram instead...

 

[fkloster]

<< think of the price difference if they used sdram instead >>



Ummm, $115 bones for 128mb rimm c/o pricewatch doesn't sound to crazy to me!

 

[randomlinh]

well, consider they were insanely high prices for us when the ps2 was in development.....

however, i'm sure they got one hell of a deal for using RDRAM.

 

[HaVoC]

The extrapolation of large price differentials between RDRAM and SDRAM in the PC DRAM market to the console market is invalid. Consoles use considerably less memory than the PC and as such, one or two RAMUS chips are needed. RAMBUS offers better granularity than SDRAM which is why I think Sony chose it. If you don't understand granularity, check out Ars-Technica. As a result, manufacturing and testing becomes much more economical and the performance advantage of RAMBUS obtained to a good memory controller decsign then made it a good decision to use in the PS2.

 

[Wingznut]

Don't the N64's use RDRAM also?

 

[BDawg]

The N64 uses some sort of rambus memory, but I'm not sure that it's RDRAM.

 

[Erasmus-X]

The N64 has 4MB of Rambus memory, which can be upgraded to 8MB with an expansion pack.



<< think of the price difference if they used sdram instead.. >>



Setting this forum's general hatred for Rambus aside, that's still not a valid argument. Sony is already selling the console for almost $200 less than it's costing them to make it. Where they actually profit are with games and accessories. PS2s can also play DVDs relatively flawlessly; a good DVD player can cost you around $250US. Plus, Sony has plans to release updates for the PS2's software based DVD player, including progressive component output (for all those folks with digital TVs). That's something you'll usually find only on $500+ DVD players.

I'm enjoying my PS2.....even though there's not a whole lot of interesting launch titles (I'm personally getting tired of arcade fighters), I think it was worth every penny. Better at $300 than buying it off a scalper.

 

[Remedy]

The PS2 processor is also known as the infamous RISC processor. From what i know at the Sony show i was told that its processor is just as powerful as a p3 550 or 667.

 

[lupin]

what's up with that 128 bit CPU ?

that sounds too high, considering the Itanium is only 64 bit.

 

[fkloster]

Pretty cool uh?

 

[Soccerman]

ahh..

remember a while back we were told there was a 2560 bit connection to the RAM? hehe.. if they were talking about external RAM, then not only did they add an extra 0 to it, they probably got the original 256 wrong.. that is, unless THIS RAM is not using a 16 bit wide bus (like PC's DRDRAM).

as for DRDRAM, I have only one complaint about the technology, the latency. if they could have devised a way to keep latency LOW, ie at SDRAM or lower levels, I would be alot more satisfied with getting a system with DRDRAM.

as for the company RAMBUS, they really needed to go about things a different way. what they were doing seemed bullish.

overall, DRDRAM is not worth it STILL, simply because it doesn't perform as fast as DDR SDRAM (due to low latency).

I think the only reason DRDRAM is low priced right now is becuase of the Playstation 2 (fscking sony.. how low can u go?).

 

[Noriaki]

The N64 used Concurrent RDRAM which was the successory to Direct RDRAM (it might have been Base RDRAM..but I don't think so)

It's that cute, we have BRDRAM, CRDRAM and DRDRAM.

I think sony's choice in Rambus was an excellent choice.
Is a RIMM more expensive than a DIMM? Well yes maybe it is.

But look at the per pin bandwidth of Rambus compared to SDRAM.
for each pin you use that's a trace Sony has to drag all the way across the PS2's already crowded motherboard. In this way they are using only 2 rambus chips, which is 32 data pins, where as SDRAM would need many many more to match bandwidth (assuming PC800 Rambus, and PC100 SDRAM, it would be 128 data pins) of course there are more than 32 traces, you need power and grounding, but it's very expensive to drag traces along the motherboard, because if you have many traces it can require more layers on the motherboards PCB which can drastically increase cost.

 

[fkloster]

...and also isn't the memory controller embedded? Wouldn't that reduce latency to the lowest denominator? Very short distance for electricity to travel?

 

[samgau]

Wow people....quite a reaction to my statement... so i stand corrected...
I'm not being bugged anymore by the fact....&quot;allright&quot; ala big daddy