[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Sony unveiled its ‘next generation computer entertainment system’ Playstation 4 on Wednesday. PS4 will be available this holiday season, and no, we do not have a price yet.

Here is what we do know about Playstation 4…

The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) of PS4 has been enhanced in a number of ways, says Sony,  to allow for easier use of the GPU for general purpose computing (GPGPU) such as physics simulation. The GPU contains a unified array of 18 compute units, which collectively generate 1.84 Teraflops of processing power.

PS4 is equipped with 8 GB of unified system memory, and GDDR5 is used for this memory, giving the system 176 GB/second of bandwidth.

PS4 provides dedicated, ‘always on’ video compression and decompression systems. Gamers can scan through the last few minutes of gameplay, tag it and return to the game—the video uploads as the gamer plays.

PlayStation 4 lets gamers instantly share images and videos of gameplay moments on Facebook with a single ‘share’ button. Gamers can also connect their Facebook account with Sony Entertainment Network account.

Players can broadcast while playing in real-time through Ustream, allowing friends to comment or jump into the game. Players can also access games quicker with PS4’s ‘suspend mode’, which eliminates the load time on saved games. PlayStation 4’s background downloading and updating capability also allows users to start playing digital titles as they download, or update the system when the hardware is powered off.

PS4 integrates second screens, including PlayStation Vita, smartphones and tablets.  With PS Vita, gamers will be able to pull PS4 titles from their living room TVs and play them on PS Vita’s 5-inch display and intuitive dual analog sticks over Wi-Fi networks.

A new application called ‘PlayStation App’ enables iPhone, iPad, and Android  based smartphones and tablets to become second screens as well. Once installed on these devices, users can, for example, see maps on their second screens when playing an adventure game, purchase PS4 games while away from home and download it directly to the console at home, or remotely watch other gamers playing on their devices.

On the newly designed PS4 menu screen, players can look over game-related information shared by friends, view friends’ gameplay, or obtain information of recommended content, including games, TV shows and movies.

In the future, when a gamer sees a title of interest in PlayStation Store, they can immediately start playing a portion of the actual game — not a stripped down version of the game.

The initial lineup of games for PlayStation 4 includes games from Guerilla Games (Killzone: Shadow Fall), Sucker Punch (inFamous Second Son), Evolution Studios (Driveclub), and Japan Studio (Knack), as well as titles from Sony partners such as Activision/Bungie (Destiny), Blizzard Entertainment (Diablo III), Capcom (Deep Down), and Ubisoft (Watch_Dogs).

[Images courtesy: Sony]