PlayStation technical specifications

The PlayStation technical specifications describe the various components of the original PlayStation video game console.

LSI CoreWare CW33000-based core¹

• MIPS R3000A-compatible 32-bit RISC CPU MIPS R3051 with 5 KB L1 cache, running at 33.8688 MHz.²
• The microprocessor was manufactured by LSI Logic Corp. with technology licensed from SGI.
• Features:
  • Initial feature size (process node) was 0.5 micron (500 nm).³
  • 850k – 1M transistors⁴
  • Operating performance: 30 MIPS⁵
  • Bus bandwidth 132 MB/s⁶
  • One arithmetic/logic unit (ALU)
  • One shifter
• CPU cache RAM:
  • 4 KB instruction cache²
  • 1 KB data cache configured as a scratchpad⁷

Geometry Transformation Engine (GTE)

• Coprocessor that resides inside the main CPU processor, giving it additional vector math instructions used for 3D graphics, lighting, geometry, polygon and coordinate transformations – GTE performs high-speed matrix multiplications.
• Operating performance: 66 MIPS⁶
• Uses fixed point arithmetic, different operations used different representations⁸
• Polygons per second (rendered in hardware):
  • 90,000 with texture mapping, lighting and Gouraud shading
  • 180,000 with texture mapping⁹
  • 360,000¹⁰ with flat shading

Motion Decoder (MDEC)

• Also residing within the main CPU, enables full screen, high quality FMV playback and is responsible for decompressing images and video into VRAM.⁵
• Operating performance: 80 MIPS¹¹
• Documented device mode is to read three RLE-encoded 16×16 macroblocks, run IDCT and assemble a single 16×16 RGB macroblock.
• Output data may be transferred directly to GPU via DMA.
• It is possible to overwrite IDCT matrix and some additional parameters, however MDEC internal instruction set was never documented.
• It is directly connected to a CPU bus.

System Control Coprocessor (Cop0)

• This unit is part of the CPU. Has 16 32-bit control registers.
• Modified from the original R3000A cop0 architecture, with the addition of a few registers and functions.
• Controls memory management through virtual memory technique, system interrupts, exception handling, and breakpoints.

• 2 MiB main EDO DRAM⁵
• Additional RAM is integrated with the GPU (including a 1 MB framebuffer) and SPU (512 KB), see below for details.
• Cache RAM for CPU core and CD-ROM. See the relevant sections for details.
• Flash RAM support through the use of memory cards, see below.
• BIOS stored on 512 KB ROM

32-bit Sony GPU (designed by Toshiba)¹²

• Handles display of graphics, control of framebuffer, and drawing of polygons and textures
• Handles 2D graphics processing, in a similar manner to the 3D engine
• RAM:
  • 1 MB VRAM⁵ (later models contained SGRAM) for framebuffer
  • 2 KB texture cache (132 MB/s memory bus bandwidth, 32-bit wide)
  • 64 bytes FIFO buffer
• Features:
  • Adjustable framebuffer (1024×512)
  • Emulation of simultaneous backgrounds (to simulate parallax scrolling)
  • Mask bit
  • Texture window
  • Dithering
  • Clipping
  • Alpha blending (4 per-texel alpha blending modes)
  • Fog
  • Framebuffer effects
  • Transparency effects
  • Render to texture
  • Offscreen rendering
  • Multipass rendering
  • Flat or Gouraud shading and texture mapping²
  • No line restriction
  • Colored light sourcing
• Resolutions:
  • Progressive: 256×224 to 640×240 pixels²
  • Interlaced: 256×448 to 640×512 pixels
• Acceptable video modes: 15kHz, 24kHz, 31kHz
• Colors:
  • Maximum color depth of 16,777,216 colors (24-bit true color)
  • 57,344 (256×224) to 153,600 (640×240) colors on screen
  • Unlimited color lookup tables (CLUTs)
  • 32 levels of transparency
  • All calculations are performed to 24 bit accuracy
• Texture mapping color mode:¹¹
  • Mode 4: 4-bit CLUT (16 colors)
  • Mode 8: 8-bit CLUT (256 colors)
  • Mode 15: 15-bit direct (32,768 colors)
  • Mode 24: 24-bit (16,777,216 colors)
• Sprite engine
  • 1024×512 framebuffer, 8×8 and 16×16 sprite sizes, bitmap objects
  • Up to 4,000 sprites on screen (at 8×8 sprite size), scaling and rotation²¹³
  • 256×256 maximum sprite size¹¹
• Special sprite effects:¹¹
  • Rotation
  • Scaling up/down
  • Warping
  • Transparency
  • Fading
  • Priority
  • Vertical and horizontal line scroll
• Pixel fillrate (theoretical maximum):¹⁴
  • 66 MPixel/s flat shaded polygons
  • 33 MPixel/s Gouraud shaded polygons
  • 33 MPixel/s for textured polygons with optional Gourard shading
  • Actual fill rate is lower due to polygon overhead or texture cache misses

16-bit Sony SPU⁵

• Supports ADPCM sources with up to 24 channels⁵
• Sampling rate of up to 44.1 kHz⁵
• 512 KB RAM⁵
• PCM audio source¹¹
• Supports MIDI sequencing¹¹
• Digital effects include:
  • Pitch modulation
  • Envelope
  • Looping
  • Digital reverb

CD-ROM drive

• 660 MB maximum storage capacity, double speed (CLV) CD-ROM drive
• 2×, with a maximum data throughput of 300 KB/s (double speed), 150 KB/s (normal)¹¹
• 32 KB data buffer¹⁵
• XA Mode 2 compliant
• Audio CD play¹¹
• CD-DA (CD-Digital Audio)
• Rated for 70,000 seek operations¹⁶

Two control pads via connectors¹¹

• Expandable with multitap connector¹¹

Backup flash RAM support

• Two removable cards¹¹
• Each card has 128 KB flash memory
• OS support for File Save, Retrieve and Remove¹¹
• Some games (like "Music 2000") can use Memory Cards as main RAM, to store data for real time processing, bypassing the 2MB RAM limit.

Video and audio connectivity

• AV Multi Out (Composite video, S-Video, RGBS)
• RCA Composite video and Stereo out (SCPH-100x to 5000 only)
• RFU (SCPH-112X) DC out (SCPH-100x to 5000 only)
• S-Video out (SCPH-1000 only)

Serial and parallel ports

• Serial I/O (used for PlayStation Link Cable SCPH-100x to 900x only)
• Parallel I/O (N/A) SCPH-100x to 750x only)

Power input

• 100 V AC (NTSC-J); 120 V AC (NTSC-U/C); or 220–240 V AC (PAL)
• 7.5 V DC 2 A (PSone only)