PlayStation Portable
Manufacturer	Sony Computer Entertainment
Type	Handheld game console
Generation	Seventh generation
First available	JP December 12, 2004 NA March 24, 2005 KR May 2, 2005 EU September 1, 2005 AU September 1, 2005
System storage	Memory Stick PRO Duo
Connectivity	Wi-Fi (802.11b),[1] IrDA, USB
Units sold	Worldwide: 9.77 million (in the time between April 2006 and March 31 2007)[2] United States: 8.3 million (as of September 1, 2007)[3]
Units shipped	Worldwide: 25.39 million (as of March 31 2007) Japan: 6.92 million North America: 9.58 million Europe: 8.89 million[4]
Top-selling game	Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories[citation needed]

The PlayStation Portable (プレイステーション・ポータブル - , Pureisutēshon Pōtaburu^?, officially abbreviated as PSP) is a handheld game console released and currently manufactured by Sony Computer Entertainment. Its development was first announced during E3 2003, and it was officially unveiled on May 11, 2004 at a Sony press conference before E3 2004. The system was released in Japan on December 12, 2004, the United States and Canada on March 24, 2005 and in Europe and Australia on September 1, 2005. It is considered the first handheld video game system to use an optical disc format (Universal Media Disc).

A new slimmer and lighter version of the PlayStation Portable, titled Slim and Lite, was announced on July 11, 2007 and Sony's press conference at E3 2007. It was made available in the US, Europe and Japan in September 2007 with various colours and a very different box packaging to the original PSP. Among these versions three were physically shown at E3 2007: a white version with a Star Wars imprint, a piano black version and an ice silver version.

Variations and accessories

In Japan a base unit package or Core Pack was available at launch and was later released in North America and Europe.^[5] The Core Pack (or Base Pack in Australia) contains the console, a battery, and an AC adapter. The Core Pack retails for US$169.99,^[6] HK$1360, CDN$199.99,^{[verification needed]} EU€169.99, AU$279.99 and GB£129.99.^[7]

The Value Pack contains everything the core does, as well as a 32 MB Memory Stick Pro Duo, earphones with remote control, a slip-case, a wrist strap, and a Sampler Disc (in some territories). The Value Pack retails for USD $219, CDN $249.99, GBP £150.99, JPY ¥26,040, HKD $1660, SGD $335.00, EUR €209, AUD $349.95 and NZD $429.00. In some areas, the Value Pack has been superseded by the Entertainment Pack, containing the items of the Core Pack plus a copy of ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails, the UMD movie Lords of Dogtown, and a 1 GB Memory Stick Pro Duo. The Giga Pack is similar to the value pack, except that the Memory Stick Pro Duo is upped to 1 GB; it also includes a USB Cable and stand. It retails for JPY ¥29,800, USD $299, CDN $349, and GBP £214. The Giga Pack is still available in all territories except North America, as the deal was based on a special offer that ended after the 2005 holiday season. Various other packages also exist.

Optional accessories offered by Sony include the PlayStation Portable headset, carrying case, extended-life 2200 mAh battery, headphones with remote control, battery charger, car adapter, accessories pouch and cleaning cloth, AC adapter, and system pouch and wrist strap.

Colors

The PlayStation Portable is currently available in six colors. They are in black, ceramic white, pink, metallic blue, silver, and champagne gold. The ceramic white variation is available in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe, while the pink variation is available only in Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. The silver and metallic blue variations were released on 14 December 2006 and 21 December 2006 respectively in Japan and Hong Kong exclusively. Metallic Silver and Gold colors are due out later this year in Europe.^[8] A "champagne gold" colored PSP was released in Japan and Hong Kong on 22 February 2007.^[9] The PSP was available in a camouflage livery in the MGS:PO special packaging on October 30 2006.

Model Numbers

On the base of the PSP is the model number of the unit. This number indicates the intended region the unit was designed for. These model numbers are as follows:

• PSP1000 - Japan
• PSP1001 - USA
• PSP1002 - Australia
• PSP1003 - United Kingdom
• PSP1004 - Europe, Middle East, and Africa
• PSP1005 - Korea
• PSP1006 - Hong Kong
• PSP1007 - Taiwan
• PSP1008 - Russia
• PSP1009 - China

Camera, GPS and Digital TV Receiver

The PSP Camera and PSP GPS attachment were first announced for the PSP in March 2006.^[10]

Called the Quick Shot (ちょっとショット, Chotto Shot^?), the PSP Camera supports video and photo taking. The camera was released in Japan on November 1 2006 for ¥5,000 (approximately $42 USD). The PSP camera has also been released in Singapore on the same month for SGD various and Europe in 2006 for £34.99 under the name of the Go!Cam. Included with the camera is the Go!Edit software for the PSP that can be used to enhance captured movies and photos with sound effects and graphical features.

The GPS receiver features support for GPS-enabled games such as a projected re-release or update of Hot Shot Golf, as well as Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. The GPS Receiver went on sale in Japan December 7, 2006^[11] for ¥6,000 (approximately $50 USD), and is set for release in Europe under the name Go!Explore in 2008.^[12]

Both the Camera and GPS peripherals have been confirmed for the U.S. but no date has been stated.^[13]

Also announced at E3 2007, was a new Digital TV 1seg add-on tuner/receiver peripheral for the current and new slim PlayStation Portables. It will launch alongside the slim PSP, in Japan only (September 20 2007), with a retail price of ¥6,980 ($57). It will also include cables for TV tuning.

Web browser

The PSP Web Browser

The PlayStation Portable web browser is an embedded microbrowser. It is a version of the NetFront browser made by Access Co. Ltd. and was released for free with the 2.00 firmware upgrade on July 27, 2005 in Japan, August 24, 2005 in North America.

The browser supports most normal web technologies, such as CSS. There are 3 different rendering modes, "Normal", "Just-Fit", and "Smart-Fit". "Normal" will display the page with no changes, "Just-Fit" will attempt to shrink some elements to make the whole page fit on the screen and preserve layout, and "Smart-Fit" will display content in the order it appears in the HTML, and with no size adjustments; instead it will drop an element down below the preceding element if it starts to go off the screen.

The browser also has full HTTP cookie and form support, as well as basic JavaScript capabilities. However there is an input limit on form fields, making the entering of large amounts of text, such as when editing a Wikipedia article, nearly impossible.

Version 2.70 of the PSP firmware also introduced basic Flash playing capabilities to the browser, however the player was only version 6, three iterations behind the current desktop version 9.

Initial character encoding support was limited to Cyrillic (ISO-8859-5), Japanese (EUC-JP), Japanese (Shift JIS), Korean (EUC-KR) and Western (ISO-8859-1). The version 2.50 firmware upgrade added Unicode (UTF-8) and Auto-Select as options in the browser's encoding menu, and also introduced the saving of input history for online forms. Version 2.60 added Simplified Chinese (GB18030) and Traditional Chinese (Big5) to the encoding menu.

The browser has a very basic user interface consisting of 2 bars that are hidden during browsing and only displayed when the user taps "". The top bar of the interface displays the page title (which scrolls if it is too long to fit on the screen) and the current address. The bottom bar displays 10 icons: File, Back, Forward, Refresh, Home, Bookmarks, History, View, Tools, and Help. File, Bookmarks, History, View, and Tools all open submenus while Help displays a diagram of the PSP system itself indicating the function of each button whilst using the browser.

The browser also has limited tabbed browsing support, with a maximum of three tabs. Pages are opened in new tabs either when a website tries to open a link in a new window using target="blank" or when the user selects a link and holds down rather than just tapping it. The user switches between tabs by holding "" and tapping the shoulder buttons.

If a page requires too many resources, the browser will refuse to load it.

Games

Main articles: List of PlayStation Portable games and List of PlayStation Network games

In addition to playing PlayStation Portable games, there have been new releases of downloadable PlayStation games that can be played via emulation for the PlayStation Portable. Currently, the only official way to access this feature is through the PlayStation Network service for PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation Portable's analog stick, often referred to as the analog "nub", is a circular disc which slides rather than tilts. The analog stick can also be easily removed and replaced with an alternative third party stick.

Demos

Main article: List of PlayStation Portable game demos

Demos for commercial PlayStation Portable games can be downloaded and booted directly from the Memory Stick PRO Duo. Demos are also sometimes issued in UMD format and mailed out or given to customers at various retail outlets as promotional content. Demos can also either be downloaded to a personal computer and later transferred into the "GAME" file on the PSP's Memory Stick or downloaded directly to the PSP using the PSP's system browser.

Greatest Hits titles

Main article: List of Sony Greatest Hits games

During E3 2006, Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that the Greatest Hits range of budget titles were to be extended to the PSP system. On July 25, 2006, Sony CEA released^[14] the first batch of Greatest Hits titles. The PSP Greatest Hits lineup consist of games that have sold 250,000 copies or more and have been out for 9 months. Every PSP game in this lineup will retail for $19.99 each.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced at around the same time the availability of a number of titles under the Platinum range for €24.99 each in the Eurozone and £19.99 in the UK.

Multimedia playback

MagicGate Memory Stick Slot

PSP Slim MagicGate Memory Stick Slot

Full screen resolution (480×272) video playback from Memory Stick

The Playstation Portable is also able to play back movies on a UMD Universal Media Disk format. PlayStation Portable's audio player supports a number of audio codecs, including ATRAC, AAC, MP3, and WMA, and has the option to be played with or without a set of five visualizations. The image viewer will display several common image formats including JPEG, Bitmap, and PNG. However, image viewing is limited by the file size and resolution of the image and any image exceeding a file size or resolution cannot be displayed. This is usually the case with attempting to show DSLR images on a PlayStation Portable.

MPEG-4 and AVC video formats are also compatible with PlayStation Portable. With reasonable video and audio bit-rate settings (a resolution of 320×240, a video bit rate of 500 Kb per second, and an audio sampling rate of 22050 Hz) a 22-minute video file is roughly 55 MB, enough to fit on a Memory Stick Duo as small as a 64 MB. At the same rate, a hundred-minute feature film can fit on a 256 MB Memory Stick. As of firmware update version 3.30, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile video files of the following sizes can be played: 720×480, 352×480, and 480×272. Many video files, both free-to-distribute and copyrighted, have been encoded for the PlayStation Portable and are available on the Internet. Game and movie trailers are increasingly available, even from studios' official websites.

There are numerous software applications and hardware devices specifically designed for PlayStation Portable's various media-centric applications. One of the best known software is PSPVideo9, which has the ability to convert any video file to a watchable psp format. Interestingly enough, any videos downloaded to a psp are viewable through a streaming USB connection to any Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, which then makes them viewable on a television.

Wireless networking

The PlayStation Portable can connect to a wireless network through Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b. This allows 2-16 players with PlayStation Portables to create a local, ad-hoc network for multiplayer gameplay, and also allows the PSP user to connect to the internet via an internet-connected Wi-Fi router. By connecting to the internet, players can compete against other players also connected to the internet, or browse the web and download files to the Memory Stick via the built-in Access Co. NetFront browser. Use of wireless network features unfortunately increases the power consumption and results in a lower battery life.^[15] Homebrew developers have made Microsoft Windows like portals through the browser to make it look like their PSP systems were running Windows.

The PlayStation Portable features a standard IrDA port located on the top left of the device. To date, the only games or applications to leverage this feature have been homebrew. This can be used to control many TVs as well as other infrared devices. The port is absent from the new PSP slim redesign, which was probably removed due to the lack of any official software that utilised it. Instead, the Wifi switch has moved to the top where the port previously was, so gamers do not accidentally turn wifi off when browsing the web, playing online, etc.

Internet connectivity

Main article: List of PlayStation Portable Wi-Fi games

The PlayStation Portable's main menu allows the user to configure the system for use across the Internet or an intranet via a wireless connection, known as infrastructure mode. The PlayStation Portable's menu can recognize protected and non-protected wireless networks within its range, and supports connecting to WEP and WPA encrypted networks.

Use of infrastructure networks in PlayStation Portable software began with a small number of titles at the U.S. launch, supporting online play. South Korean PlayStation Portables have shipped with software providing web browsing and multimedia streaming features, but only through company-owned Wi-Fi hot spots, and with a monthly fee.^[16]

Sony's LocationFree Player allows users to stream live television broadcasts (or other video content) to their PlayStation Portable, within their WiFi network, or remotely via the Internet.

RSS feeds

The RSS features allow the user to download video web feeds or listen to podcasts from websites. RSS or podcast content can be saved to the Memory Stick Duo. Audio (and more recently video,) content can be streamed and played "live." After the release of firmware 3.50, there is now a RSS Guide function.

Ad-hoc networks

Ad-hoc wireless networking allows for up to 16 PlayStation Portables within range to communicate directly to each other (typically for multi player gaming). One unit acts as the host for a game, which is available to other PlayStation Portable units within that system's range, and appears in a list when the client PlayStation Portable searches for available hosts. One can also use an Ad-Hoc network to send images from one PlayStation Portable to another by use of the "send" and "receive" functions that appear in the "PHOTO" menu.

Gamesharing

Main article: List of PlayStation Portable Gamesharing games

Some titles for the PlayStation Portable support a feature dubbed "gamesharing," which facilitates a limited set of multi player features between two PlayStation Portables with only one copy of the game UMD. A reduced version of the game being shared is transferred to the PlayStation Portable without a UMD via the PlayStation Portable's Wi-Fi connection, whereupon it is loaded into RAM and runs.

Such "gameshare versions" of titles usually have their feature set reduced because of technical limitations. This is mainly due to transfer times^{[citation needed]} since data for the game must be transferred to the second PlayStation Portable wirelessly, at a rate of 11 megabits per second.

Design and specifications

Technical specifications

The PlayStation Portable was designed by Shin'ichi Ogasawara (小笠原伸一) for the Sony Computer Entertainment subsidiary of Sony Corporation. Early models were made in Japan but in order to cut costs, Sony has farmed out PlayStation Portable production to non-Japanese manufacturers, mainly in China.

The unit measures 170 mm (6.7 inches) in length, 74 mm (2.9 inches) in width, and 23 mm (0.9 inches) in depth, and has a mass of 280 grams (a weight of 0.62 lb) including the battery. The Samsung (previously Sharp) branded TFT LCD screen measures 110 mm (4.3 in) diagonal with a 16:9 ratio and a 480×272 pixel resolution capable of 16.77 million colors. It has four possible brightness settings, the brightest of which is disabled in the older firmware versions unless on A/C power.

The PlayStation Portable's main microprocessor is a multifunction device named "Allegrex" that includes a 32-bit MIPS32 R4k-based CPU, a Floating Point Unit, and a Vector Floating Point Unit. Additionally, there is a processor block known as "Media Engine" that contains another 32-bit MIPS32 R4k-base CPU, hardware for multimedia decoding (such as H.264), and a programmable DSP dubbed "Virtual Mobile Engine". The secondary CPU present in the Media Engine is functionally equivalent to the primary CPU save for a lack of a VPU. The MIPS CPU cores are globally clocked between 1 and 333 MHz. During the 2005 GDC, Sony revealed that it had capped the PlayStation Portable's CPU clock speed at 222 MHz for licensed software. Its reasons for doing so are unknown, but are the subject of some speculation. Various homebrew tools enable users to operate at 333 MHz, generally leading to a higher frame rate at the expense of battery life. On June 22, 2007, Sony Computer Entertainment confirmed that the firmware version 3.50 does in fact remove this restriction and allows future games to run at the full 333 MHz speed. It does not affect already-released games.^[17]

The system has 32 MiB main RAM and 4 MiB embedded DRAM. The 4 MiB of eDRAM consists of 2MiB dedicated to the Graphics Unit and 2MB dedicated to the Media Engine secondary processor. There is no memory management unit for either CPU. No evidence of a TLB has been found. The co processor that normally manages the TLB-based MMU seems to be a custom effort by Sony and has no integrated memory. Both CPUs contain 16KiB of two-way set associative instruction cache and data cache respectively. There is additionally 16KiB of scratchpad RAM which, while faster than main RAM, is not nearly as fast as the integrated cache.

The 166 MHz graphics chip has 2 MiB embedded memory and through its 512 bit interface provides hardware polygon and NURBS rendering, hardware directional lighting, clipping, environment projection and texture mapping, texture compression and tessellation, fogging, alpha blending, depth and stencil tests, vertex blending for morphing effects, and dithering, all in 16 or 24 bit color. The graphics chip also handles image output. Specifications state that the PlayStation Portable is capable of rendering 33 million flat-shaded polygons per second, with a 664 million pixel per second fill rate.^[18]

Optical drive

See also: Universal Media Disc

The PlayStation Portable uses a drive compatible with Sony's proprietary Universal Media Disc format. Use of the drive increases battery drain by approximately 10% and the system has been criticized for having very slow data transfer speeds, translating into load times of more than 2 minutes in total for some games. However this has been improved with the redesigned PSP as it now has a longer battery life and faster loading times.^{[citation needed]}

Controls

Despite its movie and music playback capabilities, the PlayStation Portable has primarily gaming-oriented controls (as opposed to the controls typical to television remotes or MP3 players): two shoulder buttons, the PlayStation face buttons (, , , ), start and select buttons, a digital 4-directional pad, and an analog nub. There is also a row of secondary controls along the underside of the screen, for controlling volume, music settings (either switching the audio off and on in games or selecting different equalizer presets), screen brightness, and a "Home" button for accessing the system's main menu.

Battery life

PlayStation Portable's default battery life varies widely depending on application from less than 3 hours while accessing a wireless network and having screen brightness on its highest setting to more than 11 hours during MP3 playback with the screen turned off.^[19] An extended-life 2200 mAh battery will increase this by approximately 20%. A sleep mode is also available that uses minimal battery power to keep the system's RAM active, allowing for "instant on" functionality. A system in sleep mode (with a fully-charged battery) has been shown to lose an average of only 1% battery life per 24-hour period.

At E3 2007, new information about the "SLIM PSP" was released, including news that the new PSP will have improved battery life. This new PSP will use a thinner battery, its standard having a capacity of 2200 mAh vs 1800 of the original PSP. However, that information turned out to be false, as the new PSP, now known as the PSP Slim & Lite, actually uses a smaller capacity battery of 1200 mAh. Overall, the PSP Slim & Lite has the same battery life as the original console, due to the lower power consumption. Original batteries will be compatible with this new PSP, however, the battery cover will not be able to fit over the battery but Sony is reportedly working on a workaround.

Interface

The PlayStation Portable's main menu interface is the "XrossMediaBar" (XMB) used by recent Sony TVs, the PSX (DVR) hardware, and the PlayStation 3. It consists of a horizontal sequence of icons, in this case Settings, Photo, Music, Video, Game, and Network, which show a vertical sequence of sub-icons when highlighted.

The XMB allows the user to adjust settings, connect the device to a PC (via USB), connect to and browse the Internet, and play video, audio, and games. The XMB may be accessed at any time in a game by pressing the Home button, but the PSP must exit the currently running game due to memory limitations.

The PSP's default background color changes depending on the current month of the year. The user may also manually set the color or specify a background image from a connected Memory Stick (with firmware version 2.00+).^[20] Firmware 3.70 and higher include the Custom Theme feature, which lets a user change everything in the interface (Icons, Background). Currently, there are 10 official themes: Lemmings, Wipeout, "Cookies," "Pink," and 6 different themes based off of the game Pursuit Force.

PSP Slim & Lite

Main article: PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite

At E3 2007, Sony released information that a new version of the PSP would be released in September 2007, for all regions. The new PSP is 33% lighter (reduced from 280g to 189g) and 19% thinner than the original PSP system. The redesign now also features a TV Output, supports charging via USB, and double the onboard RAM (32MB to 64MB). It also caches UMD data in memory to decrease game loading times. The WLAN switch has been moved to the top where the old IR Receiver was to avoid accidental switching, and the speakers have been moved from the bottom of the unit to the face to combat the poor volume and audio quality of the old model.

System Software

Main article: PlayStation Portable System Software

Each PlayStation Portable runs a particular version of the PSP system software (Sony's name for the unit's firmware), which comprises the device's operating system and additional core functionality. System software updates can be obtained in four ways:

• Direct download to the PSP over Wi-Fi. This can be performed by choosing "Settings", "Network Update" from the XMB.
• Download to a PC, then transfer to the PSP via a USB cable or Memory Stick.
• Included on the UMD of most games. These games may not run with earlier firmware than the version on their UMD.
• Download from a PS3 to a PSP system via USB cable. (Japanese Version Only)

While system software updates can be used with consoles from any region, Sony recommends only downloading system software updates released for the region corresponding to the system's place of purchase. System software updates have added various features including a web browser, Adobe flash support, additional codecs for images, audio, and video, PlayStation 3 connectivity, as well as patches against several security exploits, vulnerabilities, and execution of homebrew programs.^[21] If the power supply is lost while writing to or updating the system software, the console will no longer be able to boot.^{[citation needed]} As of September 13, 2007, the latest version of the System Software is 3.71.

Homebrew development

Main article: PlayStation Portable homebrew

In May 2005, it was found that PlayStation Portables using the 1.00 version of the firmware (meaning original, first launch Japanese-only PlayStation Portables) could execute unsigned code. What this meant in practice was that these PlayStation Portables could run homebrew software, as the mechanism for checking to make sure that software has been approved by Sony had not yet been activated. Later exploits have allowed for PlayStation Portables using later versions of Sony's firmware to run homebrew applications, and development of new exploits to bypass new restrictions to limit unauthorized programs is ongoing. Utilizing homebrew applications allows for a significant increase in functionality on the PSP, such as FLAC and Ogg Vorbis audio playback, emulation of dozens of different video game systems, and eBook viewing. Since the creation of the Pandora's Battery software by a conglomeration of PSP homebrew developers, any PSP may be hacked to utilize homebrew software, regardless of its firmware version.^[22]

PlayStation Store (PC)

On September 20, 2007, SCEI launched the PlayStation Store (PC) for the PSP, an online shopping service similar to the PlayStation Store for the Playstation 3. The service is only available in Japan.

Controversial advertising campaigns

• Sony admitted in late 2005 to hiring graffiti artists to spray paint advertisements for the PSP in seven major U.S. cities including New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. The mayor of Philadelphia has filed a cease and desist order and may file a criminal complaint. According to Sony, it is paying businesses and building owners for the right to graffiti their walls.^[23]

• In 2006, Sony ran a poster campaign in England. One of the poster designs with the slogan "Take a running jump here" was removed from a Manchester Piccadilly station tram platform due to concerns that it might encourage suicide.^[24]

• News spread on in July 2006 of a billboard advertisement released in the Netherlands which depicted a literally white colored woman holding a similarly literally black colored woman by the jaw, saying "PlayStation Portable White is coming." Some found this to be racially charged due to the portrayal of a white woman subjugating a black woman. Two other similar advertisements also existed, one had the two women facing each other on equal footing in fighting stances, while the other had the black woman in a dominant position on top of the white woman. The stated purpose of the advertisements was to contrast the white and black versions of its game console available for sale. These ads were never released in the rest of the world, and were pulled from the Netherlands after the controversy was raised.^[25]

• Sony came under scrutiny online in December 2006 for a guerrilla marketing campaign hoping to go viral, for the console, with advertisers masquerading as young bloggers who desperately wanted a PSP. The site was registered to and created by youth marketing company Zipatoni on behalf of Sony before it was taken down. A mirror of the blog can be found here.^{[26][27][28][29]}

References

See also

• Mylo - A Sony messaging device similar to the PSP
• Comparison of wifi handhelds
• List of PSP games
• PSP Homebrew
• PSP Slim and Lite models

External links

Official websites

• Official PlayStation Portable website (Japan)
• Official PlayStation Portable website (Europe/UK)
• Official PlayStation Portable website (US)
• Official PlayStation Portable website (Aus/NZ)
• SCEA PSP Specifications press release

Reviews

• Sony PSP As Personal Media Player – Detailed review on MP3 Newswire focused on the PlayStation Portable's movie and audio abilities
• Sony PSP Handheld Entertainment System – In-depth 8-pages review, Ars Technica, 28 March 2005
• Sony PSP: One year on – An in-depth review of the PSP's first 12 months in Europe, Pocket Gamer, 4 September 2006

Further reading

• Paul Rubens. "Three Hacker Teams Unlock the PSP", BBC News Online, BBC, 2007-02-26. Retrieved on 2007-03-20. 

Other links

• PlayStation Portable at the Open Directory Project