Sony's Next Generation Portable sets a new standard for mobile gaming performance. While mobile phones are currently transitioning into dual-core ARM A8s, still with a single GPU graphics chip, NGP goes balls-out with a twin quad-core setup: four ARM A9 Cortex CPUs operate in tandem with a PowerVR SGX543 MP4+.
This is combined with a 960x544 16:9 OLED screen. Resolution-wise, that's pretty much identical to the native rendering res of both Alan Wake on Xbox 360 and Call of Duty: Black Ops on PS3. Shrunk down to a five-inch OLED screen, the impression will be very much of a high-definition experience. The resolution itself is ballpark with iPhone 4's Retina display (which weighs in at 960x640 mostly owing to a different aspect ratio), though obviously there is a considerable difference in the display's surface area: the screen on Apple's phone is a mere 3.5 inches, meaning a higher pixel density.
The twin quad-core elements of NGP are obviously of supreme significance, but how will this translate into the gameplay experience and just how powerful is the silicon? During Sony's event we saw a brilliant-looking Uncharted, and Kojima revealed Metal Gear Solid operating with PS3 models and environments, while Sony's Lost Planet 2 Framework MT mobile demo looked very close to the existing HD versions on PS3 and Xbox 360.
Epic Games' Tim Sweeney also revealed that the quad-core GPU setup was four times as powerful as the current mobile platforms. Bear in mind that the iPad, running what is now an outdated PowerVR SGX535, managed to run Infinity Blade fairly well at 1024x768 (albeit with some compromises compared to the iPhone 4 version), and you can begin to get some idea of the leap in power NGP represents.
The design echoes the original PSP, and while the display almost certainly has a framebuffer-dumped image super-imposed on top in this picture, reports indicate that the screen quality is sensational.
It's difficult to produce a relevant comparison of graphical capabilities. It's not just about the raw power as such, but also about the feature-set of the chip. However, we've known about the technical make-up of the graphics side of NGP for a long, long time now. Way, way back in July 2009, we discussed the quad-core graphics for "PSP2", even identifying the exact chip that was announced today. Then, in November 2009, sources in the mobile industry spoke to us in more depth about the technical make-up of the PSP2's GPU.
Back then we suggested that the PowerVR SGX543 MP4+ chip in a quad-core configuration offered a kind of halfway house in terms of performance between the original Xbox and the massively superior Xenos GPU found within the Xbox 360. Just a single SGX543 core operates with unified shaders and a deferred rendering setup that already gives it an advantage over many existing mobile GPUs. Our comment back then that just a single core could outperform NVIDIA's Tegra 2 fits quite nicely with Tim Sweeney's comment about NGP featuring four times the power of existing mobile graphics chips.
On the face of it, the inclusion of a quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU seems like rampant overkill for a mobile device, bearing in mind that phones are only just moving over to dual-core A8s. However, the inclusion of this powerful setup serves two purposes.
Firstly, in bringing HD console-quality games to the handheld platforms, a strong CPU is required. At GDC 2009, Epic Games' Josh Adams discussed iOS Unreal Engine in depth, revealing that performance on the iPhone 3GS demo was being held back by CPU speed. This suggests that advanced engines along the lines of UE3 require a significant processor overhead that the single-core A8 finds difficult to manage, to the point where GPU power was being left untapped. In short, it wouldn't be surprising to discover that game developers needed more power to bring their existing engines for PS3 and 360 over to a mobile platform, so Sony obliged in somewhat spectacular style.
Secondly, NGP needs to be future-proof to a certain extent. Apple will be upgrading the capabilities of its market-leading iOS devices from one year to the next - and this is a luxury that Sony doesn't have. It needs to build a platform now that will last for at least five years. A surfeit of power, combined with development tools that address a single, fixed hardware platform, should fit the bill quite nicely and it's an approach that has worked before: only relatively recent iOS games have managed to surpass the best found on the 2004 vintage PSP.
An impressive level of power like this may suggest that NGP will offer a low battery life - a crucial point bearing in mind reports that Nintendo's 3DS has a minimum of three hours playtime. Again, as we pointed out in our original In Theory piece on PSP2 and DS2, a 45nm PowerVR quad-core chip would still occupy a lower area of silicon than the original PSP's graphics chip did. It would also make sense for Sony to be cutting costs still further by integrating CPU and GPU into one SoC - just as Apple did with the A4 chip. Plus we'd expect a more refined fabrication process, perhaps 28nm based on current trends with mobile chipsets.
Another point that works to Sony's advantage is the basic size and shape of the device. Bearing in mind that NGP is going to be significantly larger than a mobile phone, it stands to reason that there would be more room for a larger battery too. All of this can help offset the inclusion of a quad core CPU, so a four to five hour NGP battery life doesn't seem unreasonable and would be equivalent to the original PSP.
A bit of an unknown right about now concerns the clock speed of the CPU and GPU. We know of at least one major manufacturer running early prototypes of the SGX543 MP4+ at 400MHz back in 2009, and this shouldn't be a problem even at 45nm, but at the same time it is understood that NGP's original slide-screen configuration was ditched in favour of the traditional PSP-shaped design owing to heat issues. With the iPad GPU thought to be operating at 250MHz, downclocking NGP's chip may make sense and would of course have implications for battery life.
Away from the raw specs of the innards, NGP impresses elsewhere too. The front touch-screen is welcome, of course, but the rear pad that maps directly to the front display should also allow for much more nuanced control - plus the ability to work in an almost 3D fashion, as demonstrated during Sony's event. Three-axis motion sensors and gyroscopes suggest a precision equivalent to PlayStation Move, while the inclusion of a three-axis compass and GPS opens up the possibility for NGP being used as device with more conventional App-style functionality.
It is intriguing to see that Sony's answer to the question of mobile gaming is effectively an evolution of what it came up with for the original PSP - a surfeit of computational and graphical power that effectively annihilates all competition. But is this the answer to a question that nobody is really asking any more? Handheld gaming has radically changed since 2004: Nintendo DS proved conclusively that concept-driven titles work more effectively on the move than home console ports. The rise of the iOS devices and the supreme dominance of titles like the Tap Tap Revenge games, Angry Birds and Flight Control suggests that raw graphical power is low on gamers' priorities.
By revealing games like Uncharted, WipEout and Resistance, Sony is positioning NGP very much as a platform for core gamers. Crucially, the major brands and the key first-party developers are working on the launch - a level of commitment that signals a clear statement of intent from the platform holder, and something that was painfully lacking in the launch of PlayStation Move.
In addition to that, during Kojima's Metal Gear presentation there was very much a feeling that we could be seeing NGP as a mobile extension of the PlayStation 3 itself on certain titles, with the same games operating on both platforms and progress saved in the Cloud. While Kojima's demonstration of a pared-back Metal Gear Solid 4 (still operating with many PS3-level assets) puts paid to the notion that NGP offers the same level of processing power as the PlayStation 3, it does at least suggest that with careful nipping and tucking, an equivalent mobile experience can be created.
It also demonstrates in spectacular style that NGP is significantly more powerful than the Nintendo 3DS. Even factoring in the stereoscopic resolution of 800x240, NGP is still operating with over 2.5 times as many pixels, plus the Lost Planet 2 demonstration was a strong indication that support for the full OpenGL 2.0 ES feature-set presents visual capabilities that the 3DS struggles to match. What we saw here was a considerably richer visual experience than what has been seen in Capcom's equivalent work on Resident Evil: Revelations. Behind the magical stereoscopic effect and some of the GPU effects, there's still a sense that 3DS feels like a Dreamcast or PS2-level of hardware while NGP reaches - and almost seems to reach - the next generation.
Views of the top and bottom of the unit suggest intriguing connectivity options that Sony has not officially talked about yet, though apparently video out is not supported. The bottom looks like it has a proprietary charging/docking interface.
So are there any disappointments in the spec? Well, there's a strong sense from Sony that NGP is for mobile gaming while PS3 remains the console of choice for the home experience, and it feels as though the platform holder is making sure that the new handheld doesn't tread on PS3's toes. There was no announcement for any kind of HDMI support from the handheld at the press event, and SCEE confirmed to us this morning that "NGP does not have a video output feature".
Sony can quite rightly point out that its mobile games are designed to be played on the move, on the exact screen it has specified, but the fact is that phones and tablets are swiftly moving on to support HDMI connectivity. It allows your device to operate as a portable media machine when you're out and about, and obviously allows for more comfortable web browsing.
Many more questions remain unanswered too. In addition to the clock speeds of the CPU and GPU, onboard memory (thought to be at 1GB, though the OS will occupy an area of this) remains unconfirmed, and uncertainty still surrounds the expansion capabilities of the unit: Memory Stick? SD card? Or will Sony opt for an Apple-style fixed amount of onboard flash RAM as it did in the PSPgo and perhaps offer multiple SKUs?
Expect clarification on some of these issues as Sony talks in more depth to the press.
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