Next PSP 'F**king Powerful,' Packs 4-Core Cell CPU

That would be really cool if they can really push the graphical boundaries on a handheld console. I just hope they put a battery in it that won't drain in two seconds....

So does that mean it will play Ps3 version games?? It better it worth the money and the design is not so good looking to me

I'd have to agree about the design. Dropping even the single analog stick seems like a mistake, I would have thought they'd finally put a second on there and make it decent.

4 core cell in a handheld that could be using 3G or WiFi? Battery life is indeed worrying.

Playing PS3 games? Uh... 4 core means it's half as powerful as the PS3. And I doubt even a modern graphics solution could account for that missing power to be able to play PS3 games.

Actually Kelavarus it might be possible. You have "4 cores" instead of 7, but you have a smaller screen as well. It won't be doing 720P, only the size of the screen. Not sure it would be completely compatible, but they might be able to do it. I agree that the biggest problem will be battery life. I'm also wondering about the no physical media thing. You'll have to download your games? Onto what? How big is it? I could see this easily being an expensive power hungry device.

Actually it only means it has (presumably) half the CPU of the PS3's Cell. However, Cell in the PS3 is clocked at 3.2GHz, and I'd be very surprised if it was clocked anywhere near that in the PSP2. Maybe half at most, though probably less (now watch me eat my hat when we get the full specs . Having said that, it will still be a monster of a CPU by handheld standards.

Given that MIPS has obviously run out of steam in the high-end, the CPU-architecture nerd in me is so glad they didn't go the ARM route; finally some competition in the handheld space! I can't wait to see how the rest of system stacks up.

um, the picture clearly shows two analog sticks?

That would be awesome. I wanna see PS2 and Xbox worthy games on a hand held console. I'm glad I've waited.

I just hope the battery lasts.

~!~
I already gave up on my PSPgo (and trying to sell it). Maybe Sony hasn't though.

The Cowon S9 PMP is a 500MHz dual core, so why not multiple cores on a PSP (a device that actually needs the power)?

1366x768 multitouch OLED, dual analog sticks, two MicroSD slots, 1GB RAM, 64GB internal memory, and no damned UMD support?
PLZPLZPLZ

...
PLEASE!?!?

I just hope Konami spams the PSP2 with new Castlevanias this time.

I think that is just a graphic designer made-up conceptual picture. I don't think the final mole is finished, they can redesign that till production time.

Half the cores certainly does not correlate to being half as powerful. For one, the cell is an asymmetric processor, with one core completely different from the others. You'd also have to know the clock speed of the processor, as well as the memory configuration and video processor before you could make any assessment at all. Even if everything were exactly the same, a processor with half the cores would perform significantly better than half as fast, simply because adding cores does not go up linearly with performance if you don't improve the things that go with it, which isn't easy, particularly as it pertains to cache. Increasing cache size isn't so difficult - the problem is you make it slower doing so (for example, the Gulftown six core has a slower L3 cache than the Bloomfield, and the Penryn (6MB) needed an additional clock cycle to access L2 cache compared to Conroe(4MB), 15 to 14. So, it's not nearly so simple, especially since programmers complain how difficult it is to use the all the resources of the Cell processor in the PS3.

Having said that, given the small screen, and limited battery space, it's much more likely they would have tuned this thing for extremely low power, and probably lowered performance below half of the PS3, at least while using batteries. Of course, they could make it so it clocks differently based on whether it's connected to a wall outlet or batteries, but I'm not sure if that makes sense for Sony to do. It might.

Any comments about price estimates ...?

If the specs are real the battery life would be measured in minutes, I have a real gut feeling that this is just speculation from some random person. Now if its some custom low power derivative of Cell then maybe... But do not expect all that performance that the PS3 enjoys with its heat sink and fan.

What a joke. Putting a Cell processor of any kind into a handheld unit is like trying to stuff a Pentium 4 or, even worse, a PowerPC G5 processor into a netbook. My PS3 is currently doing double duty as a space heater in addition to being a multimedia powerhouse.

I hope Sony will redesign any new PSP to be more ergonomic as playing action games on current PSP hurt my left index finger and the joints greatly!

Jesus. When will Sony get it? It's not all about power, it's how you control it. I guess they still haven't learned from nintendo.

Holding my breath for super charge ion battery regardless of the time it lasts, but probably not gonna happen.

I seriously doubt it will play PS3 games, that would be a little ridiculous in a hand held. However, if it plays PS2 games, im sold. 3g coverage would be fantastic, maybe a deal like Apple made with AT&T with a $30 unlimited access and no contract.

And as far as battery life? Maybe this will be the first application of "Beltway" charging for batteries. Im sure we wouldnt complain if a say, 3 hour battery life if you could charge it in 10 seconds. however, that is wishful thinking.

4-core Cell CPU? I don't get it. The PS3 packs a CPU with one PPE (Primary Processing Engine) and 7 SPEs (Synergistic Processing Engine), which are individually less powerful than the PPE. So is the PSP2 packing four PPEs or four SPEs?

Nonetheless, a multi-core-powered handheld really breaks some world records, doesn't it?

well given thatt eh cell chiop is essientally chunk with out the PPE controling the whole thing , i would have to guess it will have one PPE and 3 SPE's but who knows , i'm not really that big into hand held gaming , i rarely travel so i se no need for it honestly

Jesus had nothing to do with it.

4 cores is an amazing stat to throw at people but like many people have already said battery life will be in question until its in hands. If the PS3 is amazing as the fanboys like to believe you would be crazy to think it will put out the same exact games (port) in a handheld.

Sony has to make this thing almost God-like, because ipod/ipad AND DSxx are doing really well. The one angle I can see them goin with is that PSP2 is a "hardcore" experience. If they push that hard enough they might see some success.

I dont like Sony all too much (respect them) but esp dont like Apple coming into gaming as they jus dumb things down for the average consumer. Sony needs a winner here!

Does anyone know if that pic is a concept? i like the button placement, jus a photo tho....

I guess some of those cores will be busy with protection mechanisms all the time. The myth, I guess, is that current PSP doesn't sell well because of, you know, piracy.

I wonder if anyone could notice that xbox360 could be easily hacked, yet it is quite profitable.

I wonder what the resolution on that thing will be. I would prefer 1280x720 but maybe that's not realistic

Clever stuff. The Cell is well catered for in the games industry now and any "it's too hard" stuff has been put out of its misery with new dev tools and a little less ignorance(Although, we'll still get people quoting rumour and postulations from 4 years ago). If they are going for a Cell processor with a die shrink, less cores and lower clock speed, then fuck yeah; I'm in!!!

altho the looks are not to right the tuch and power ar dead on if you get a bigger screen whit almost 720p ita a 250% that ill get it

well, since no one asked this yet............ can it play crysis? ;p

Eh, the original PSP was all about graphics and it failed. Having even better graphics isn't going to make it topple the DS.

sony have dropped the ball, the australian PSN sucks, the amount of games available for download are just a joke, give me an iphone please

thats more powerfull then my curent 2 core PC

mind your language, young lady