PlayStation 2

The Playstation 2 is Sony's second console, released after the Playstation. It was first announced in April 1999, and the news spread quickly. The Playstation 2 i capable of playing two general formats: CD (which means audio CDs and Playstation games) and DVD (which means DVD movies and PS2 games). This gave the system a huge value. It was released in 2000 for about $299 at launch. The PS2 has many advaced features that aren't in other contemporary consoles: initial DVD capabilites (the X-Box has them but you have to buy the remote to play them; that'll put you back $29.95. The Gamecube just doesn't have it eventhough a Gamecube/DVD hybrid is in production by Panasonic, but it'll boost the price about $100 or $150.), Playstation backwards compatibility, and the ability to have almost any peripheral added to it with its USB, FireWire, and Expansion ports.

Specs:

CPU: 128 Bit "Emotion Engine" System Clock: 300 MHz System Memory: 32 MB Direct Rambus Memory Bus Bandwidth: 3.2 GB per second Co-Processor: FPU (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 1, Floating Point Divider x 1) Vector Units: VU0 and VU1 (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator x 9, Floating Point Divider x 1) Floating Point Performance: 6.2 GFLOPS 3D CG Geometric Transformation: 66 million Polygons Per Second Compressed Image Decoder: MPEG2 Graphics: "Graphics Synthesizer"

Clock Frequency: 150MHz DRAM Bus bandwidth: 48 GB Per Second DRAM Bus width: 2560 bits Pixel Configuration: RGB:Alpha:Z Buffer (24:8:32) Maximum Polygon Rate: 75 Million Polygons Per Second Sound: "SPU2+CPU"

Number of voices: ADPCM: 48 channel on SPU2 plus definable by software Sampling Frequency: 44.1 KHz or 48 KHz (selectable) I/O Processor

CPU Core: Current PlayStation CPU Clock Frequency: 33.8 MHz or 37.5 MHz (selectable) Sub Bus: 32 Bit Interface Types: IEEE1394, Universal Serial Bus (USB) Communication via PC-Card PCMCIA Disc Media: DVD-ROM (CD-ROM compatible)