It was back in May 2005 when Faultline first said that we should expect the Sony PS3 to be like an onion, with layer after layer of deliverables, which give it a longer life than any of its rivals.
Patents that Sony filed around that time showed it being used as a game server for PlayStation Portables (PSPs) and as a film archive and TV DVR, with the ability to copy content to the PSP.
That TV aspect was confessed to by Sony back in August at a games convention in Germany, when PlayTV was announced with DVB-T TV tuners, DVR software and the ability to copy files for viewing to the PSP. This was supposed to ship in the first quarter to Spain, Germany, France, Italy and the UK.
Part of this is because the underlying processor architecture is so powerful, with a 9 cpu Cell chip, an RSX graphics processor co-developed with Nvidia, and special XDR memory developed with Rambus, a built in Blu-ray player and its own DRM security. The CPU drives 2 teraflops of floating point arithmetic (2 trillion floating point operations per second). This is created through a 3.2 GHz core processor, 512KB cache, 7 further Synergistic Processing Elements (plus one held back as a redundant extra, making 8) each with their own 256 KB of SRAM, and the RSX graphics chip running at 550MHz.
Long term followers of Sony will remember the ill-fated DVR it brought out called the PSX, and presumably the DVR software is a carry over from this. PlayTV will also merge with Sony’s Location Free TV, to record TV shows on a PS3, and then throw them down a broadband line to a wi-fi connected PSP or PC, anywhere on the planet. Sony has been very careful not to reveal in detail the DRM system it has used for this, but it is known to have involved work from its affiliate Intertrust, which offers both DRM systems and intellectual property licensing for underlying DRM concepts.
We’re not sure if PlayTV will be developed to allow the storage of a piece of video on a home based PS3, the ability to copy the viewing license to a PSP, which could then output via another PS3 or large flat TV, perhaps in a friend’s house, to play the TV scene in full definition. That sounds all perfectly possible, but Sony is rolling out services on the platform one layer at a time.
Right now what is most important is that Sony actually makes a deadline, and gets PlayTV out the door by March 28, the date when it is supposed to launch in all those countries it was promised. The system comes as an additional box for the PS3 costing €130 (just under $200), with a dual tuner, so customers can record two programs at once. We would expect this to accelerate sales in Europe dramatically for the PS3.
In unrelated announcements Sony this week has said that it would take a stake (around 33%) in Sharp’s new $3.5 billion LCD display panel plant in Japan, as well as put another $1.9 billion (half and half with Samsung) in the existing S-LCD deal it has to get LCD displays from Korea. The Korean plant will go to 8th generation LCD TV screens, generating about 50,000 sheets a month.
Back in 2004 when the previous joint venture Korean factory for S-LCD came onstream it was because Sony said it needed three more years to perfect its OLED screen technology, something that it is still trying to achieve. Production capacity at that times was for 60,000 panels a month, so this new Korean factory should just about double the output of screens. It is thought the 8th generation process will make the process cheaper.
However the Sharp deal still looks like the successor to the Samsung deal, and by 2010 the Sharp factory will be making 36,000 substrates each month, rising to 72,000, but targeting larger sizes than the S-LCD joint venture. The companies will sign legally binding joint venture documentation by the end of September but so far the two have just issued a letter of intent.