Sony Unveils 'PSX' Digital Appliance
In the company's annual corporate strategy meeting, Sony announced a new hardware platform that brings together elements of its PlayStation game console with home entertainment electronics.
Dubbed "PSX," the device features a built-in 120 GB hard drive and recordable slot-loading DVD±RW/-R drive, as well as TV tuner and Ethernet port. For expansion, the PSX will include USB 2.0 support and a Memory Stick slot. Sony will also include a connector for its upcoming PSP portable entertainment device.
Gaming will continue to be a major focus of the PSX, as the machine utilizes the same Emotion Engine processor and graphics synthesizer found Sony's PlayStation 2. The PSX will run a real-time operating system designed for games with support for recording high-definition video to hard drive or DVD.
Sony hopes to create a new home entertainment market with the PSX. "By utilizing the elements at hand, we tried to see to what extent we could approach the realization of a digital appliance," Ken Kutaragi, CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
The PSX will debut first in Japan by the end of 2003 and is expected to reach the United States and Europe in early 2004. Sony has yet to announce pricing details, but says it will market the new platform under the Sony brand, rather than its SCE divison that sells the PlayStation.