Description
In this year's PlayStation Meeting 2003, Sony Computer Entertainment announced a variety of details and specifications for its upcoming handheld gaming device, the PSP.
Sony's new console will compete against the GBA which has a stronghold in the handheld market. The new device will introduce many innovations to this particular gaming sector, including huge processing power from 2 microprocessors, 7.1 channel audio, an advanced 3D-effect graphics engine, a 4.5-inch 16:9-format TFT LCD screen and a wireless network system allowing users within a close area to play games together and download game characters.

According to SCE President Ken Kutaragi the two 32-bit MIPS R4000 will allow the PSP to process data 10 times faster than the PS One and at the same speed as PS2. One of the processos will be utilized as the main CPU while the other will sport its own 2MB memory and will be used to handle all media including movies and music. The handheld itself will carry 8MB of memory.
The GPU will feature 2MB of VRAM with a bus speed of 5.3GBps transfer rate. The PSP's theoretical polygon handling capacity will peak at 33 million polygons a second.
Another innovation introduced by the PSP to the handheld market will be the use of optical discs. Those discs, exclusive to Sony (Universal Media Discs), will be 60mm wide and have a maximum capacity of 1.8GB. Add to those features the wireless LAN and you have a pretty well-equipped little handheld which is expected to sell for, upon launch on Q4, 2004, 19,000 to 30,000 yen (USD 159 - 251), much higher than the GBA.

We plan to demonstrate our prototype version of the PSP at the E3 trade show in the United States next May, and a software line-up at the Tokyo Game Show, ahead of the worldwide launch in the fourth quarter of 2004, Kutaragi said.
Game developers are expected to start working on PSP titles this fall when SCE will start distributing PC-base software emulator tools.

It seems that the handhelds are about to follow the example of their bigger brothers, the living-room consoles which have created a market triarchy. Now with Nokia's N-Gage, preparing for a fall 2003 release, Sony's PSP planning for 2004 and Nintendo's GBA the established dominant force in the market, it seems the same number of competitors will fight it out for handheld supremacy.

Full PSP Technical Specs

CPU Core

MIPS R4000 32-Bit Core
128 bits bus
1~333 MHz @ 1.2V
8 MT main storage (OD RAM)
Bus Bandwidth: 2.6 GB/sec
Sub Memory: 2MB (OD RAM) @ 2.5 GB/sec
i-Cache/D-Cache
FPU, VFPU (Vector unit): @ 2.6 GFlops
3D-CG Extended Instructions
90nm CMOS

Graphics Core 1

3D Curved Surface + 3D Polygon
Compressed Texture
Hardware Clipping, Morphing, Bone(8)
Hardware Tessellator
Bezier, B-Spline(NURBS)
ex 4×4,16×16,64×64 sub-division
Reduce program /data
Reduce memory footprint & bus traffic

Graphics Core 2

?Rendaring Engine?+?Surface Engine?
256bit Bus, 1-166 MHz @1.2V
VRAM: 2MB(eDRAM)
Bus Bandwidth: 5.3GB/sec
Pixel Fill Rate: 664 M pixels/sec
Max 33 M polygon /sec(T&L)
24bit Full Color: RGBA

Sound Core

Reconfigurable DSPs
128 bits bus
166 MHz @ 1.2V
5 Giga operation/sec
3D Sound, Multi Channel
Synthesizer, Effecter

AVC Decoder

AVC(H.264) Decoder
Main Profile
Baseline Profile
@Level1,Level2,Level3
2Hours (High Quality)~DVD Mobie
4Hours (Standard Quality)~CS Digital
Input/Output
USB 2.0
Memory Stick
Extension Port (Reserved)
Stereo Head phone Out
Digital Keypad
Triangle, Circle, X, Square, L1, R1, Start, Select
One analog joystick

Communication

Wireless LAN(802.11)
IrDA
USB 2.0

System Features

Vector Floating Engines
Reconfigurable DSP Engine(VME)
Advanced 3D Graphics Engine
AVC(MPEG4) Decoder
AES Crypto System
1.8GB UMD
3D-CG Game
7.1ch Audio, 3D Sound
ATRAC3 plus, AAC, MP3 for Music
AVC/@MP for Picture/Movie
16:9 Widescreen TFT LCD
Embedded Wireless LAN (802.11)
Li-ion Battery
Extension for GPS, Digital Tuner, etc.

Sounds cool, but at that price it will never really compete with the Gameboy...the best selling video game console ever.

I probably wouldn't buy one.