PS4 Dev Kit Specs, Controller, and Multiple User Accounts Detailed

[ComeTurismO]

IGN says it was given a collection of 90 odd PDF documents which detail many specs from the January 2013 PS4 development kits.

four dual-core AMD64 "Bulldozer" processors which should combine for a total of eight CPU cores
AMD R10xx GPU
Four USB 3.0 ports
Two Ethernet connections
A Blu-ray drive
A 160GB HDD
HDMI and optical audio outputs.
The recent flurry of rumours and prior development kit leaks would seem to back this up.

Though not a lot is know about either console at this point it would appear to be quite similar to the xbox "720" rumours that hit a couple of days back. Could we be looking at terms like PS720 being constructed to match the PS360 of this generation?

We wish to note that this is "development hardware" which, despite usually bearing a resemblance to the ultimate hardware, is far from a sure fire "this is what will be in the PS4" and may indeed be above (developers code and them optimise) or below what eventually winds up in device to be sitting under your screen in a year or so; for instance two network ports is common in high end motherboards which would be necessary to sport processors in an arrangement as mentioned above.

On the software front it seems Sony is heading down the multiuser path. Whether it means a return to some nice splitscreen (see also their 3d but with full screens for each player idea they have kicked around at various points) and associated saves tied to given profiles (and all the other stuff that goes with that) also remains to be seen but the latter is a fairly safe bet.
IGN

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Sounds good, but rumor, obviously. I don't have much to say about this, because I'm sure this is a rumor, and the specs aren't promising.

 

[Valwin]

is all lies ps4 will be a stream console

 

[ShadowSoldier]

So really, the controller thing is just what Xbox has been doing since 05?

 

[EJames2100]

So really, the controller thing is just what Xbox has been doing since 05?

With Xbox you have to manually do it each time you join up.
From the sounds of it, it seems to say that each controller will be more permanently linked to the account if chosen too.

Might be completely wrong of course.

How long til a console is normally released after the dev kits have been released ?

 

[Rizsparky]

Godammit looks great.... wait for the PS4 or buy a WiiU...

 

[The Catboy]

Looking at the rumored parts for both the PS4 and 720, they both look like they are going to extremely expensive.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

is all lies ps4 will be a stream console

I was under the impression it would be a river console.

 

[shakirmoledina]

I can't see still whether it is going to have 8gb or not. seriously, this could be a server.
dual core with 8 cores?

 

[FAST6191]

Looking at the rumored parts for both the PS4 and 720, they both look like they are going to extremely expensive.

Expensive I can deal with (read wait 3 years by which points hacks and/or cheaper/second hand models appear in the shop down the road)- the tendency when things get to that level to buy the "working fine but technically failed quality control" parts that tends to happen at that level is a different matter.

 

[BORTZ]

I can't see still whether it is going to have 8gb or not. seriously, this could be a server.
dual core with 8 cores?

Well considering we can't get information moving any faster than we already have it going, we have to use multiple cores... So the more cores means we can have more threads going... Although I agree that is a bit excessive. It has to last another 5-6 years till the PS5 though.

 

[shakirmoledina]

oh sorry I didn't read the 4x dual cores. I fail to understand the architecture. hope they don't make it nimble as the ps3 with what one dev described it 'wacky boot up sequence'.

 

[Qtis]

oh sorry I didn't read the 4x dual cores. I fail to understand the architecture. hope they don't make it nimble as the ps3 with what one dev described it 'wacky boot up sequence'.

If they can change the way the hardware performs in terms of the OS and such, I can see this working for quite a while. With sufficient RAM and quick data transfer rates between components, I can see larger worlds and better graphics with higher FPS going around

 

[chyyran]

So, it's also using an x86_64 CPU like those X720 specs posted earlier? That should make porting between the 2 consoles and PC easy.

Looking at the specs, I'm afraid of another large power gap, or at the very least, an extremely different architecture between the PS4/X720 and the WiiU. I'm not exactly sure about the WiiU's GPGPU specs, but I assume it'll be more difficult to port games to WiiU simply because of it's design. As well, the WiiU lacks in RAM compared to these specs.

Hopefully I'm wrong I don't want to see a situation where the WiiU gets left out like the Wii

I'm not saying the Wii's library was bad, the Wii had the most unique library out of all three, but in all honesty, the Wii was left out from a lot of third parties. Most of its library consists of first and second party titles.

 

[Eerpow]

As well, the WiiU lacks in RAM compared to these specs.

Uh?
These specs didn't reveal any RAM info, the Wii U has 2GB of RAM which is more than enough for a console. There was a RAM speed rumor that turned out false if that's what you're thinking about.
And about comparing the systems, we don't really know much about the Wii U besides some really basic info that can be flipped however you like and these specs don't tell us much either. Besides this is just a rumor, the little we know about the Wii U is confirmed at least.

Let's see how things turn out in terms of multiplats, I'm pretty positive about it in any case.

 

[The Catboy]

@Ron
They are presenting some pretty powerful hardware, I would worry more about the price gap for all the systems. How much is this going to cost them to make and how much will it cost us to buy them?

 

[chyyran]

Uh?
These specs didn't reveal any RAM info, the Wii U has 2GB of RAM which is more than enough for a console. There was a RAM speed rumor that turned out false if that's what you're thinking about.
And about comparing the systems, we don't really know much about the Wii U besides some really basic info that can be flipped however you like and these specs don't tell us much either. Besides this is just a rumor, the little we know about the Wii U is confirmed at least.

Let's see how things turn out in terms of multiplats, I'm pretty positive about it in any case.

Source within the Source (Kotaku) specifies 8GB of RAM, 2.2GB VRAM. WiiU has 1GB available unified RAM (2GB total, 1GB reserved for sysmenu).

Of course, this is a rumour, and should be treated as such, but for the purpose of discussion, according to these specs, there is quite a gap.

@Ron
They are presenting some pretty powerful hardware, I would worry more about the price gap for all the systems. How much is this going to cost them to make and how much will it cost us to buy them?

This, I expected Sony to create something more affordable, especially now in their current position.

 

[Deleted_171835]

@Ron While the Wii U only has 1GB available to the OS, that amount can easily be reduced over time.

And the PS4 won't have 8GB of ram, it's just because it's a devkit that it has double. It's 4GB.

 

[Foxi4]

Another one of those x86_64 rumours? *sighs*

I should start adding citations and links to my posts to save time discrediting them. This ain't happening.

 

[Gahars]

BREAKING NEWS: Rumors now claim the PS4 will run entirely on pixie dust, dreams, and the power of love.

 

[ferofax]

BREAKING NEWS: Rumors now claim the PS4 will run entirely on pixie dust, dreams, and the power of love.

LIES! You need rainbow for that. I don't see any mention of any rainbows of a respectable spectrum anywhere in the spec sheet.