GDCE 2004 - Consoles

Developing for PSP - George Bain (SCEE)

This was a well attended session with people keen to see the new PSP console. Some of the architecture was described but nothing really new:

Playstation experience handheld.
WIFI capability
New 1.8 GB disk that is cheap and fast to make with very good copy protection.
Inside - game engine and media engine.
R4000 32-bit core CPU .
The GPU is almost as powerful as a PS2 but not quite. It has 2 MB Ram. The library for coding the GPU is like a high level OpenGL. It has surface tessellation to reduce the amount of data needed in the 3D models.
USB 2 connection - allows connection to a PC or a PS2 etc.
Programming the PSP is similar to the old PS 1 programming. Hardware programming. Some high level information provided but you are basically just given a manual. There is currently only a software emulator development kit but a hardware one is coming soon. The emulator includes battery emulation. Cost of a development kit is roughly 5,600 Euros.
For more developer information see: www.technology.scee.net

When the PSP was revealed there was quite a rush to take photos. Some demos were shown but I was not that impressed, they seemed rather poor graphically although I am sure they will be improved. Someone asked about the battery life. The speakers reply was to wonder how these rumours ever got started and that there was no problem with battery life. The emulator does provide a battery emulator.

Really we will need to wait until the Tokyo show to get fuller details.