Playstation 4: Is It Worth It?

Earlier this week, Sony FINALLY announced the long-awaited Playstation 4. According to Wkkipedia:

The PlayStation 4 will feature a semi-custom single-chip processor (APU) developed by AMD in coordination with Sony.^[13] The console's APU integrates a semi-custom AMD CPU, a semi-custom AMD GPU, as well as a GDDR5 memory controller.^[11] The technology in the PlayStation 4 will be relatively similar to the hardware found in personal computers in many respects.^[14] This familiarity should make it easier and less expensive for game studios to develop games for the PlayStation 4.

The central processing unit (CPU) will have eight x86-64 cores based on the upcoming Jaguar CPU architecture. This processor marks a change from the "powerful but difficult to develop for" Cell processor found in the PlayStation 3.

The graphics processing unit (GPU) will consist of 18 compute units based on GCN (Graphics Core Next) for a total of 1152 stream processors, resulting in a theoretical peak performance of 1.84 TFLOP/s. This computing power can be used for graphics, simulation, or a combination thereof. The GPU will also include dedicated graphics technology for seamless compression and decompression of video media. Eurogamer calls the graphics technology in the PlayStation 4 "impressive" and an improvement from the difficulties developers experienced on the PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation 4 will contain 8 GB of GDDR5 unified system memory, allowing for 176 GB/s of bandwidth. 16 times the system RAM found in the PlayStation 3, this amount of RAM is said to be welcome for developers and is expected to give the console considerable longevity. The unified memory architecture allows the CPU and GPU to access a consolidated memory, removing the requirement for separate dedicated CPU and GPU memories. The split architecture on the 

PlayStation 3 was said to have proven problematic. The RAM choices are said to have added significantly to the PlayStation 4's bill of materials.

The read-only optical drive will read Blu-ray discs at 6x (marking an upgrade from 2x speeds found on the PlayStation 3) and DVDs at 8x. Eurogamer believes that the Blu-ray drive will be dual-layer (capable of reading 50 GB discs) and not quad-layer (capable of reading 100 GB discs). A hard disk drive will be included, although Sony has not yet announced the size.

The PlayStation 4 will feature 802.11 b/g/n network connectivity as well as Ethernet. An unknown number of USB 3.0 ports will be included, as will Bluetooth 2.1. An auxiliary port will also be included for connection to the PlayStation 4 Eye. The system will come bundled with a mono headset, which can be plugged into the DualShock 4. Output options will be HDMI, analog AV-out, and optical S/PDIF audio out. The console will support 4K resolution output for photos and videos but games can not be rendered at that resolution.^[22][23] Eurogamer believes that 1080p will be the standard resolution for PlayStation 4 games.

The console will also include a secondary custom chip which will handle downloading, uploading and social features. This chip will allow the system to seamlessly download games in the background, even when the main system is powered off (standby mode).

 One problem: What does all of this mumbo-jumbo even MEAN?!?

^{And as always, Rage on.}