The Playstation 3 was designed by Teiyu Goto, who has worked with Sony for almost 20 years and has had a hand in designing every Playstation console.
The original PS3 weighs approximately 3.2kg (11 lb), with its dimensions being 325 mm (width) x 98 mm (height) x 274 mm (depth). It is convex on its left side and has a glossy black finish. The font is inspired by the font used in the Spiderman movies.
In August of 2009, a slim version of the PS3 was announced, which weighs around 3.2 kg (7.1 lb), and its dimensions are approximately 290 mm (width) x 65 mm (height) x 290 mm (depth). It is also quieter when turned on.
In September of 2012, a super slim version of the PS3 was announced, which has a sliding disc cover instead of the slot-loading drive the other two versions had. It weighs 2.1 kg (4.6 lb) and its dimensions are 290 mm (width) x 60 mm (height) x 230 mm (depth).
| Features | 60 GB (NTSC) | 20 GB (NTSC) | 60 GB (PAL) | 80 GB (NTSC) | 40 GB (PAL, NTSC) | 40 GB (PAL, NTSC) | 80 GB (PAL, NTSC) | 160 GB (PAL, NTSC) | 120/250 GB "Slim" (PAL, NTSC) | 120/250 GB "Slim" (PAL, NTSC) | 160/320 GB "Slim" (PAL, NTSC) | 160/320 GB "Slim" (PAL, NTSC) | 120/250/500 GB "Super Slim" (PAL, NTSC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model number(s) | CECHAxx | CECHBxx | CECHCxx | CECHExx | CECHGxx CECHHxx | CECHJxx | CECHKxx CECHLxx CECHMxx | CECHPxx CECHQxx | CECH-20xxA CECH-20xxB | CECH-21xxA CECH-21xxB | CECH-25xxA CECH-25xxB | CECH-30xxA CECH-30xxB | CECH-40xxA CECH-40xxB CECH-40xxC |
| GPU process | 90 nm | 90 nm | 90 nm | 90 nm | 90 nm | 65 nm | 65 nm | 65 nm | 65 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm |
| CPU process | 90 nm | 90 nm | 90 nm | 90 nm | 65 nm | 65 nm | 65 nm | 65 nm | 45 nm | 45 nm | 45 nm | 45 nm | 45 nm |
| PS2 emulation | Full | Full | Partial | Partial | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Front USB | 4+flash | 4 | 4+flash | 4+flash | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Power supply | 380 W | 380 W | 380 W | 380 W | 280 W | 280 W | 280 W | 280 W | 250 W | 230 W | 230 W | 200 W | 190 W |
CPU
The PS3 uses the Cell microprocessor, which is comprised of a 3.2 GHz PowerPC-based PPE (power processing element) and eight SPEs (synergistic processing elements). Six are accessible to developers, while the seventh is dedicated to the OS and security and the eighth is a spare. The Cell processor has shrunk from 90 nm to 45nm, resulting in a 34% reduction in power consumption.
GPU
The RSX, or Reality Synthesizer, is a proprietary GPU co-developed by Nvidia and Sony, being based on the NVIDIA G70 architecture. It is clocked at 550 MHz. The GPU has also shrunk from 90 nm to 40 nm.
DISC DRIVE
The Playstation 3's disc drive incorporates an all-in-one type drive, allowing the use of different formats. The Blu-ray disc read speed maximum is 2x, the DVD disc read speed maximum is 8x, and the CD disc read speed maximum is 24x.
STORAGE
At launch, the PS3 HDD came in two sizes, 20GB and 60GB. Later models introduced 40, 80, 120, 160, 250, 320 and 500 GB sizes. There's also a model introduced in 2012 in Europe that has 12GB of flash memory. Current models being sold have 250 and 500GB HDD. The PS3 allows the user to replace the stock HDD with any 2.5" SATA laptop HDD, perferably 5400 RPM drives.
AUDIO & VIDEO
All models of the Playstation 3 support multiple SDTV and HDTV resolutions, ranging from 480i/576i and up to 1080p. The PS3 can also support multiple formats in terms of audio, including up to 7.1 digital audio, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio and others.
NETWORKING
All Playstation models came with a built-in Ethernet port, as well as wi-fi out of the box (the 20GB model at the PS3's launch is the only model without wi-fi out of the box).
POWER SUPPLY
The power supply on the fat model PS3 is capable of delivering around 380 W, although output is around 170-200 W. For the slim model, the power supply was reduced to 250 W, with an output of around 80 W. The super slim model's power supply is reduced to 190 W, and its output is around 70 W.
BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
All Playstation 3 models are backwards compatible with Playstation games, although not all of them are backwards compatible with Playstation 2 games. The launch models (20 and 60GB ones) offered full backwards compatibility with PS2 games, through the hardware. Later on, this changed with the initial 80GB models, with software emulation for PS2 games. 40GB models, later 80GB ones and all future revisions do not offer backwards compatibility with PS2 games.
