PS3: 60 gig or 80 gig?

(from the Hardware vs. Software department)

Hi everyone,

I'm posting this information in my blog because there's been a lot of churn on these facts, and I need to document all of this information with as much real data as possible, before it gets lost. Most people will find this pretty esoteric, but if you want to see how global companies operate, read on!

Cheers,
Paul

---

The Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) is backwards compatible with the PlayStation 2 (PS2) and PlayStation (PS1). However, Sony has developed two different ways of doing backwards compatibility using either a hardware or a software solution.

Originally, the PS3 was to use pure software emulation via its powerful Cell microprocessor for PS2 and PS1 backwards compatibility. It is theorized that PS1 titles still may only utilize software emulation, based on this original development decision. However, sometime during the development process, this plan was partially abandoned in favor of a hardware solution for PS2 compatibility.

Therefore, at their November 2006 launch, the original North American and Japanese 20 gig and 60 gig PS3s had a custom PS2 Emotion Engine (EE) + Graphics Synthesizer (GS) chip on their motherboards for backwards compatibility. This custom EE+GS chip was later replaced on the European and Korean models with a single PS2 GS chip in a motherboard revision before their respective product launches, due to the increased performance of the EE software emulator, and to save money on the manufacturing costs. Interestingly, the two different motherboard revisions are apparently not interchangeable - the hardware units can't be "switched off" to become software units.

Since these models relied on software EE emulation, and this type of emulation is quite complex, the percentage of compatible PS2 games were lower for these machines at launch. Each successive System Software revision, however, has seen continual improvement in PS2 backwards compatibility percentages for these hybrid software emulation PS3s. Direct comparisons between the two different designs were initially hard to quantify, since there was only one motherboard design released in a region, and games differ too much between these regions.

The software emulator's difficulties with PS2 backwards compatibility was not a big issue for North American users since all models sold since launch, including the almost immediately discontinued 20 gig model, had the EE in hardware on the motherboard. This situation would soon change when Sony dropped the price of the 60 gig PS3 to $499 in North America and introduced a new 80 gig model at $599. Early press reports revealed that the 80 gig model would be using the EE-less motherboard, and therefore would rely on software emulation for PS2 compatibility. It also was quickly revealed that the 60 gig model was being price reduced because it was being phased out. Sony stated that they would only offer the 60 gig model until stocks ran out.

Sony recently started offering an on-line service for checking compatibility between the North American EE 60 gig models (including the discontinued 20 gig) and the non-EE 80 gig models. Curmudgeon Gamer has recently gone through their game library with this web service, and posted some interesting results. In their findings, the PS1 compatibility results are identical, lending some credence to the theory that the PS3 uses pure software emulation for PS1 titles. However, the PS2 compatibility results are quite different, with the hardware EE 60 gig model seemingly much more backwards compatible.

In summary, if backwards compatibility is important, it might be a good idea to pick up one of the 60 gig PS3s before stocks run out. PS1 compatibility appears identical between the two revisions, but PS2 compatibility seems to benefit from having the EE present, as in the 60 gig model.

UPDATE: added additional hardware GS information, per recent Sony documentation.

Jobs Offers Apple Lisa Early Adopters Store Credit

(from the If it's too good to be true...it probably is department)

Hi everyone,

A friend sent me this tongue-in-cheek post this morning. Made me laugh:

Jobs Offers Apple Lisa Early Adopters Store Credit

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. If you don't know what I'm talking about:
Steve Jobs gives all iPhone owners $100 back

CXA2075

(from the Paul's Smarter Brother department)

Hi everyone,

It's a little known fact, but my brother David is a silicon chip designer. At one point in his career, he worked for Sony and designed an RGB-to-Video (NTSC/PAL) chip for the PlayStation called the CXA2075.

Well, yesterday, I was poking around on the web, and found the data sheet for it (PDF). Very impressive Dave!

There's still a number of people who use it, too.

Dave's own recollections can be found here.

Cheers,
Paul

Foxkeh!

(From the OMG - this is teh cut3z ! department)

If you haven't seen this, you should. This is from Firefox in Japan. More browsers need cute mascots like this:



You can find out more here at their homepage.

Cheers,
Paul

More about the Original Adventure source code

(from the YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD department)

Hi everyone,

You might have seen this posting on Slashdot (or in my RSS headlines) about the original FORTRAN Adventure source code being found in an archive.

Originally written by Will Crowther, Adventure was the first text adventure game. Most people are familiar with a subsequent version that was expanded and edited by Don Woods.

Long thought lost, Crowther's original source code has been located in a backup of Don Woods' Standford student account from 1977.

Matthew T. Russotto has already translated the PDP FORTRAN to g77 (GNU FORTRAN 77) - which means that most modern gcc installations should be able to compile it.

He has a link here: http://www.russotto.net/~russotto/ADVENT/

I've gone ahead and compiled it on my PlayStation 2 Linux box (mips binary) - and on my laptop under Cygwin (x86 binary). I've never used GNU FORTRAN before - very interesting. I might have to peep the source code a bit - last time I used FORTRAN was in 1983 in college.

In the meantime,

$ ./advf4-11.exe
PAUSE  INIT DONE statement executed
To resume execution, type go.  Other input will terminate the job.
go
Execution resumes after PAUSE.
WELCOME TO ADVENTURE!!  WOULD YOU LIKE INSTRUCTIONS?

yes
SOMEWHERE NEARBY IS COLOSSAL CAVE, WHERE OTHERS HAVE FOUND
FORTUNES IN TREASURE AND GOLD, THOUGH IT IS RUMORED
THAT SOME WHO ENTER ARE NEVER SEEN AGAIN. MAGIC IS SAID
TO WORK IN THE CAVE.  I WILL BE YOUR EYES AND HANDS. DIRECT
ME WITH COMMANDS OF 1 OR 2 WORDS.
(ERRORS, SUGGESTIONS, COMPLAINTS TO CROWTHER)
(IF STUCK TYPE HELP FOR SOME HINTS)

YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK
BUILDING . AROUND YOU IS A FOREST. A SMALL
STREAM FLOWS OUT OF THE BUILDING AND DOWN A GULLY.

go east
YOU ARE INSIDE A BUILDING, A WELL HOUSE FOR A LARGE SPRING.
THERE ARE SOME KEYS ON THE GROUND HERE.
THERE IS A SHINY BRASS LAMP NEARBY.
THERE IS FOOD HERE.
THERE IS A BOTTLE OF WATER HERE.

Cheers,
Paul

Tea Rules (of Etiquette)

(from the Miss Manners Says department)

Hi everyone,

The BBC mentioned something about a tea room with "Scary" rules in Brighton. Having been to Brighton a number of times, I had to know more.

Thanks to the miracle of the Internet, I found the tea room, and I found the rules. See how many of these you can follow:

The Tea Cosy Tearooms Etiquette

Cheers,
Paul

XBOX 360 Thermal Design

(from the It's sure toasty in here department)

Hi everyone,

Saw a great on-line article about the thermal design of the Xbox 360. You should check it out - especially if you're a current Xbox 360 owner.

Fragile Part of Xbox 360? Thermal Design Expert Investigates

Cheers,
Paul

P.S. Don't worry about installing Japanese fonts if it asks you - the site is in English.