In past one decade Sony has sold around 190 million PlayStation consoles across the world. The estimated units of software sold are around massive 2 billion. As the next generation avatar of its highly successful PlayStation series, Sony unveiled PlayStation 3 at technology fest E3 in Los Angeles. It is stated to release near christmas this year.

The initial specs of the system look impressive though the real difference will be discovered once the system is in market.

Sony touts it to be far more powerful than the recently launched Xbox 360.In a recent interview to Impress PC Watch, Kutaragi revealed that the PlayStation 3 will become an "entertainment supercomputer" for the home moving far beyond the traditional image of just a gaming console.

"We haven't been creating our PlayStations for the sake of games. Our belief, and the motivation behind running our company, has been to applying the power of computers to entertainment and enjoyment, he added.

How far Sony will deliver on its promises only time will tell but new PS3 has certainly upsurged a new found interest in gaming industry. Taking clue from Sonys presentation in E3 we have analysed what will be in offer for you next summer.

Design

The new PS3 is an extension of its previous versions and designed in saloon shaped. Personally though its not as elegant as the PS2 or for that matter to Xbox 360 but it is good, my personal impression is that the design team is led by a Japanese as it is consistent with most of the futuristic designs coming out of Japan lately. Sony has revealed that it will be available in three colours White, Silver and Black.

The biggest surprise comes in the design of the controller. The new wireless controller comes with long handles. Has Sony worked on ergonomics is not known but initial impression is that long handles will improve the handling aspect. Will it help in playing for long hours, is yet to be seen.

Under the Hood

This is what matters in technology, the real substance beneath the lid. Sony has really worked hard to maintain its advantage in this segment. The new system is powered by highly-vaunted Cell, a new generation chip developed by Sony in collaboration of IBM and Toshiba. The PS3's CELL consists of a 64-bit PowerPC core running at 3.2 GHz and enhanced by eight 32-bit "synergistic processing units," capable of performing 218 teraflops almost twice that of Xbox 360.

PlayStation 3 will be the first console to use a Blu-ray optical disc drive. This will replace the more traditional DVD drive found on the PS2.

Blu-ray technology uses a blue violet laser to read and write data. As this blue laser has a shorter wavelength than its red counterpart, it's possible to store much more data on Blu-ray discs, almost 6 times more than on today's DVD. Fortunately, the new Blu-ray drive will also be compatible with older technology. So PS3 owners will be able to watch their DVDs and play their older PS1 and PS2 games on their new console. So dont just throw your old CDs and DVDs. The graphic will be created by nVidia graphics called the RSX (Reality Synthesizer), and will trump the Xbox 360 with 1080p graphics support. Just imagine most present day games use 400p, so the next generation graphics could be as close to what you guys saw in mega movies like Finding Nemo and the Incredibles.

Emphasizing on it Mr Kutaragi said that with PS3, our intentions have been to create a machine with supercomputer calculation capabilities for home entertainment. PS 3 also boost a 256MB system RAM 3.2GHz, and 256MB GDDR VRAM at 700MHz and a 2.5-inch hard drive (i.e. laptop hard drive) attachmenta first for a Sony launch.

Connectivity

Weve long since known that two things result in the best performance: lots of bandwidth, and specialized hardware. Cell did its bit, the next challenge for Sony is to make PS3 supremely connective. If Xbox was better than PS2 even though marginally at something, it was in its online connectivity. The success of the PS3 hugely depends upon how compatible will it be to online environment. The future belongs to MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game).

Final Take

The $500 price tag may be dearer compare to Xbox but given PlayStation base among the gamers I believe it will sail through.