BROADBAND SONY
July 24, 2000

Sony announced today its vision for the evolution of computer entertainment in the broadband network era. As its PS2 launches, the company looks to escalate the evolution of digital cinema and high definition content development through a real-time development system designed for a broadband network environment. This system will provide content creators in film, TV broadcast, and interactive entertainment access to a new community for digital creation and distribution.

The company will unveil real-time technology demonstrations with leading strategic partners in the areas of content creation, servers, video, sound, and middleware to drive future broadband experience in computer entertainment and e-cinema, the future of in-theater entertainment through a broadband network. Key demonstrations will be conducted during SIGGRAPH 2000 expo, the leading international conference on computer graphics (CG) and interactive techniques, held July 25-27 in New Orleans.

In cooperation with partner companies from the entertainment industry Sony's vision is to provide the next step in high-resolution CG technology. This vision is expected to be realized through a new real-time development system based on an enhanced version of the architecture found in its PlayStation 2, called GScube.

The new development system, GScube, is to evolve into a graphics "visualizer" for broadband network applications. The GScube prototype includes 16 sets of graphics units, which are a combination of the EmotionEngine CPU and an enhanced architecture of the company's graphics rendering processor, Graphics Synthesizer, that includes a 32MB embedded frame buffer memory, eight times the capacity of the 4MB embedded graphics memory of the PlayStation 2. The GScube will offer real-time graphics power and capabilities with an overall image quality of 1920 x 1080 resolution, with a progressive scan of 60 frames-per-second, which is beyond the interlaced scan of the digital HDTV standard.

This architecture will initially provide 10 times the performance of the PlayStation 2, with future iterations of the technology potentially exceeding this 100 fold. The combination of the GScube and high-end broadband servers, such as the soon-to-be announced next generation SGI Origin series server, create an optimal environment for the creation, manufacturing, and distribution of computer entertainment content, while charting the path towards realizing real-time generated e-cinema productions.

In collaboration with the content creation community, Sony plans to initiate the roll out of the GScube development system this winter.

The company's booth at SIGGRAPH 2000 offers a glimpse of the framework for the future evolution of the networked digital entertainment market. This environment is divided into quadrants each demonstrating specific applications utilizing the GScube development system. These areas include the main theater, an advanced theater experience using a Digital Projection Inc. LIGHTNING 15sx projector based on core DLP technology by Texas Instruments, and a "backstage" technology area comprising of broadband network content production, distribution, and an in-home experience through a "living room of the future" display.

"As Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. fused the technology of computers and the world of entertainment to create and evolve a new market called 'Computer Entertainment,' we are now pioneering the creation of real-time digital entertainment through an extension of the technology of the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system," said Ken Kutaragi, president and chief executive officer, Sony Computer Entertainment. "At SIGGRAPH 2000 we are unveiling a development system that will enable conventional and traditional content creators to realize new methods to communicate storylines and experiences through the digital network environment. We embrace the software development communities and hope that together, we can usher in the future of entertainment currently not realized through existing technologies."