Everything You Have Always Wanted to Know about the Playstation
But Were Afraid to Ask

Version 2.0

Compiled / Edited By Joshua Walker

(And then cleaned up and proofread by mariteaux because StarOffice makes bad HTML)

Table of Contents

1. Foreword
2. Introduction
3. History
   • Prologue: B.P. (Before PlayStation)
   • 1988: Sony Enters The Arena
   • 1991: Multimedia Comes Home
   • June 1991: Treachery At The 11th Hour
   • 1992: The Smoke Clears
   • 1993: The Next Cycle
   • 1994: Third Party Round Up
   • December 3, 1994: We Have Lift Off
   • 1995: Setting Up House
   • May 11, 1995: Victory at E3
   • September 9, 1995: You Are Not Ready
   • Epilogue: What a Year
4. The R3000A
   • Instruction cache
   • Data cache
   • 32-bit architecture
   • The R3000A instruction set
   • Instruction set summary
   • R3000A opcode encoding
5. Memory
   • The PSX Memory Map
   • Virtual Memory
   • The System Control Coprocessor (Cop0)
   • Exception Handling
   • Exception Vector Locations
   • Breakpoint Management
6. Video
   • Overview
   • The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
   • The Graphics Transformation Engine (GTE)
   • The Motion Decoder (MDEC)
7. Sound
   • The Sound Processing Unit (SPU)
8. CD-ROM
9. Root Counters
10. Controllers
11. Memory Cards
12. Serial I/O
13. Parallel I/O

Appendices

• A. Number Systems
• B. BIOS Calls
• C. GPU Command Listing
• D. Glossary of Terms
• E. Works Cited