PlayStation 4 technical specifications
Accelerated processing unit
The PlayStation 4 features a semi-custom accelerated processing unit (APU) developed by AMD in coordination with Sony[1], which contains a CPU, GPU, memory controller and several secondary modules on a single die.
Central processing unit
The central processing unit (CPU) consists of eight x86-64 cores based on the upcoming Jaguar CPU architecture from AMD.[1]
Graphics processing unit
The graphics processing unit (GPU) consists of 18 compute units to produce a theoretical peak performance of 1.84 TFLOPS.[2] This processing power can be used for graphics, physics simulation, or any other tasks suited for general purpose compute.
Though based on AMD's GCN architecture, there are several known differentiating factors between the PS4's GPU and current-gen PC graphics cards featuring first-gen GCN architecture:
- An additional dedicated 20GB/s bus that bypasses L1 and L2 GPU cache for direct system memory access, reducing synchronisation challenges when performing GPGPU compute tasks.
- L2 cache support for simultaneous graphical and asynchronous compute tasks through the addition of a 'volatile' bit tag, providing control over cache invalidation, reducing the impact of simulatanious graphical and general purpose compute operations.
- An upgrade from 2 to 64 sources for compute commands, improving compute parallelism and execution priority control. This enables finer-grain control over load-balancing of compute commands including superior game-engine integration.
Other hardware accelerated modules
Currently confirmed hardware modules include:
| Module Name | Purpose/Capability | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| Zlib decoder module | Provide on-the-fly decoding of compressed data from the BD optical drive | |
| Audio module | Capable of off-loading in-game chat and decoding "many" MP3 audio streams for in-game use | |
| Upload/Download module | Capable of uploading and downloading data to the hard disk in-parallel to normal operations or whilst the console is in standby | |
| Video decode/encode module | Capable of decoding/encoding various video formats on-the-fly with minimal system resource |
References
- ^ a b Taylor, John (February 21, 2013). "AMD and The Sony PS4. Allow Me To Elaborate". Retrieved February 25, 2013.
- ^ Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (February 21, 2013). "SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC. INTRODUCES PLAYSTATION®4 (PS4™)". Retrieved February 25, 2013.