The NGP’s memory is supposedly taking a hit, and the internal storage is going the way of the dodo.
Sony is reportedly planning to downgrade some of the technology in its new handheld platform,in order to give it a more completive price point. French technology website 01net suggests that Sony plans to position the cheaper, non-3G model as a direct competitor to Nintendo’s 3DS.
According to sources, Sony plans to cut the amount of memory the device has in half. The main system RAM and video RAM will be chopped down from 512 MB and 256 MB respectively, to 256 MB and 128 MB. Sony is also apparently planning to axe the 16 GB of internal memory the NGP was originally meant to have. In its place, Sony will use an external storage system, not entirely dissimilar to the memory cards the PS1 and PS2 used, or the memory stick solution the PSP used.
01net doesn’t think that these revisions will be too detrimental to the device however, provided that developers properly optimize their memory management – something that the device’s graphics chip is supposedly rather good at – and that the data transfer between the NGP and the external storage is quick. Sony is also apparently reducing how much memory the NGP’s operating system uses in order to free up more systems resources.
Assuming that the rumors are true – and 01net has a good record when it comes to Sony tech – then we can expect at least one of the NGP models to be around the $250 mark. The 3G capable model will cost more, Sony has already admitted as much, but exactly how much more is a mystery.
Source: via 1up
