PS4

 PlayStation 4 (PS4) is an upcoming video game console from Sony Computer Entertainment. Announced as the successor to PlayStation 3 during a press conference on February 20, 2013, it will launch on November 15, 2013, in North America, and November 29, 2013, in Europe and Australia, and will compete with Nintendo's Wii U and Microsoft's Xbox One, as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles.

Moving away from the complicated Cell architecture of the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 will feature a simpler AMD processor, in hopes of attracting a broader range of developers and support for the system. Sony also plans to place more focus on social gameplay, incorporating a "share" button on the new controller and making it possible to view in-game play streamed live from friends. The console will focus on interactivity with other services and devices, including Gaikai, a cloud-based gaming service that will offer streaming video game content; PlayStation App, which will connect smartphones and tablets into a second screen to enhance gameplay; and PlayStation Vita, which will be able to play a majority of the games through Remote Play.

According to lead architect Mark Cerny, development on Sony's eighth-generation video game console began as early as 2008. Less than two years earlier, PlayStation 3 had launched after months of delays due to issues in production.The delay placed Sony almost a year behind Microsoft's Xbox 360, which was already approaching 10 million units sold by the time the PS3 launched.PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan said Sony wanted to avoid repeating the same mistake with PS3's successor.

In 2012, Sony began shipping development kits to game developers consisting of a modified PC running the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit chipset.These development kits were known as Orbis. In early 2013, Sony announced that an event known as PlayStation Meeting 2013 would be held in New York City on February 20, 2013, to cover the "future of PlayStation".Sony officially announced PlayStation 4 at the event. They revealed details about the console's hardware and discussed some of the new features it will introduce.Sony also showed off real-time footage of games in development, as well as some technical demonstrations. Sony released more information about the console and presented the device itself in June 2013 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

The company revealed release dates for North America, Central America, South America, Europe & Australia as well as final pieces of information at the Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany on August 20, 2013. The console will be released on November 15, 2013 in the United States and Canada, followed by further releases on November 29, 2013, in Australia, Europe, North America, Central America & South America.The PS4 has also been scheduled for a December 2013 launch in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia, ahead of the console's Japanese début on February 22, 2014.

PlayStation 4 will use a processor developed by AMD in cooperation with Sony. It will combine a central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU), as well as other components such as a memory controller and video decoder. The CPU consists of two quad-core Jaguar modules totaling 8 x86-64 cores.The GPU consists of 18 compute units to produce a theoretical peak performance of 1.84 TFLOPS.The system's GDDR5 memory is capable of running at a maximum clock frequency of 2.75 GHz (DDR equaling 5500 MHz). The console will contain 8 GB of GDDR5 memory, 16 times the amount of RAM found in the PS3 and is expected to give the console considerable longevity. It also includes secondary custom chips that handle tasks associated with downloading, uploading, and social gameplay. These tasks can be handled seamlessly in the background during gameplay or while the system is in sleep mode. The console also contains an audio module, which can support in-game chat as well as "a very large number" of audio streams for use in-game.

Its read-only optical drive is capable of reading Blu-ray Discs at speeds of up to three times that of the PS3's.The console will feature a hardware on-the-fly decompression module boosting optical disc reading speed and buffer unread data when a game is not actively accessing the optical drive, forming part of Sony's PlayGo strategy. Like PlayStation 3, the Blu-ray Disc drive should be capable of reading 16-layer 400 GB discs. Although the console will support photos and videos at 4K resolution, the system is not expected to be able to render games beyond 1080p.The console will include a 500 gigabyte hard drive for additional storage,which can be upgraded by the user.

PlayStation 4 will feature WiFi and Ethernet connectivity, Bluetooth, and two USB 3.0 ports. An auxiliary port will also be included for connection to the PlayStation Camera, a motion detection digital camera device first introduced on the PS3. A mono headset, which can be plugged into the DualShock 4, will come bundled with the system. Audio/video output options include HDMI TV and optical S/PDIF audio. The console does not have an analog audio/video output.

Although not available on the system at launch, the PS4 will feature a 'Suspend mode' feature. This places the console in a low-power state, while allowing users to immediately resume their game once the console is awoken. The console will also be able to download content such as game and OS updates while it is in this state.