At its PlayStation Meeting event in Tokyo today, Sony dropped an assortment of bombs regarding its upcoming PSP handheld game machine. The full specifications for the system were revealed, as well as new dates for its future display and release.

Sony's presentation consisted of a number of slides running down the system's various characteristics and capabilities. Some were already announced at E3 and afterwards, but the full picture has not been available until now. The PSP will include:

UMD - Universal Media Disc 60mm Laser Diode: 660nm Dual Layer : 1.8GB Transfer Rate: 11Mbps Shock Proof Secure ROM by AES Unique Disc ID

The UMD was shown in more or less this same detail at E3. It will also include advanced copyright protection schemes, a parental lock feature -- which indicates that games and movie discs will be coded with content ratings -- and, disappointing eager importers, a region lockout.

PSP CPU Core MIPS R4000 32-Bit Core 128 Bit Bus 1~333 MHz @ 1.2v 8 MB Memory (eDRAM) Bus Bandwidth: 2.6 GB/sec I-Cache / D-Cache FPU, VFPU (Vector Unit): @ 2.6 GFlops 3D-CG Extended Instructions

PSP Media Engine MIPS R4000 32-Bit Core 128 Bit Bus 1~333 MHz @ 1.2V Sub Memory: 2MB (eDRAM) @ 2.5 GB/sec I-Cache / D-Cache 90nm CMOS

PSP Graphics Core 1 3D Curved Surface + 3D Polygon Compressed Textures Hardware Clipping, Morphing Hardware Tessellator Bezier, B-Spline (NURBS) 4×4 / 16×16 / 64×64 sub-division

PSP Graphics Core 2 Rendering Engine + Surface Engine 256-bit Bus, 1-166 MHz @1.2V VRAM: 2MB (eDRAM) Bus Bandwidth: 5.3GB/sec Pixel Fill Rate: 664 million pixels/sec Max. 33 million polygons/sec (textured and lighted) 24bit Full Color: RGBA

PSP Sound Core Reconfigurable DSPs 128 Bit Bus 166 MHz @ 1.2V 5 Giga Operations/Second 3D Sound, Multi-Channel Synthesizer, Effecter...

AVC Decoder AVC (H.264) Decoder Main Profile Baseline Profile @ Level1, Level2, Level3 2 Hours (High Quality) ~ DVD Movie 4 Hours (Standard Quality) ~ CS Digital

Communication Wireless LAN 802.11 IrDA Memory Stick USB 2.0 ports

It's still not clear which flavor of the 802.11 wireless networking standard the PSP will employ, but Sony will likely clarify that detail soon. Whatever the exact details, the system's wireless LAN support could allow everything from wireless gaming between friends up close to full-blown online gameplay and content downloading, if the system were connected to a wireless access point with internet access.

The system's physical design has yet to be unveiled, but Sony has nailed down its basic interface. It will include the same four face buttons as the PlayStation 2 controller, two shoulder buttons, start and select buttons, and a single analog joystick -- the digital directional pad appears to have finally gone the way of the dodo.

PC-based development tools will be released to third parties this fall, with additional libraries due out before the end of the year. Sony plans to release the actual development version of the hardware in the spring of 2004. The development system is to be similar to that of the original PlayStation -- relatively easy to code for, with significant middleware and tools support from Sony.

The system itself will make its public debut at E3 next May. Sony then plans to unveil the first PSP game titles at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2004, and remains committed to a simultaneous worldwide release for the system in the fourth quarter of 2004.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.