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Playstation 3

PlayStation 3 has new ground-breaking new microprocessor at the heart of the PS3, the powerful graphics processor that supports hi-def graphics at unprecedented resolutions and the console's controller makeover, among other things.

Sony designed the PlayStation 3 to be more than just a video game console. It supports all kinds of digital entertainment and is basically a home-entertainment computer. This computer sports a specially designed CPU called the Cell processor. Sony, Toshiba and IBM worked together to develop the Cell processor. It's their answer to the growing trend toward multi-core processing, in which manufacturers place as many processors as possible onto one chip. The Cell processor is scalable for different performance needs. The one used in the PlayStation 3 crams 234 million transistors onto a single die. For comparison, one of the most powerful desktop PC CPUs available in 2005, the $1,000, dual-core Pentium Processor Extreme Edition, just barely breaks the 200-million-transistor mark.

PS3 GPU: RSX "Reality Synthesizer"

Because graphics are so important to computers, there are microprocessors dedicated only to creating and displaying computer graphics. This processor is called the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). One of the most anticipated aspects of the PlayStation 3 is the new GPU that was created for it the RSX "Reality Synthesizer.

Sony designed the RSX with graphics-card manufacturer Nvidia. The RSX is based on Nvidia's GeForce graphics technology. It's a 550-MHz, 300-million-transistor graphics chip. To put that in perspective, according to this Nvidia press release, the number of transistors on the RSX is "more than the total number of transistors in both the central processing units and the graphics processing units of the three leading current-generation systems, combined."

Unlike the GPU in the Xbox 360, the RSX is built on the traditional independent vertex/pixel shader architecture. Shaders are...