The original Playstation console was released on December 3rd, 1994 in Japan. The creation of the console was spurred on by a failed partnership between Nintendo and Sony, who had previously been in talks about developing an add-on for the Super Nintendo. It featured a dual-speed CD-ROM drive and one core CPU (gosh, what an old-fashioned sentence). It also included 2 MB of RAM and 1 MB of video RAM, which could deliver up to 360,000 polygons per second.

The development of the first model of the Playstation console played an important role in progressing gaming from 2D to 3D graphics. In addition, with its disc format, the Playstation was able to push high-fidelity full-motion video. This was something that their main competitor at the time, the Nintendo 64, wasn’t able to accomplish due to their cartridges with limited space.

Several different models have made their way through the market over the years, each making improvements on the last. The Playstation 2, for example, was the best-selling console to date with roughly 155 million units sold in 12 years. This iteration of the console boasted a wide selection of games (well over 2,000 game titles) and it was the first gaming system that could also support DVDs.

After many generations of Playstation consoles, Sony developed and released their most recent model last year: Playstation 5. This system contains a custom eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU clocked at 3.5GHz. It also includes a custom GPU based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture. It has 16 GB of GDDR6 RAM/256-bit and a custom 825 GB SSD, which delivers a speed roughly two orders of magnitude faster than previous models.

The latest model also sports a custom 3D audio chip, a new AMD graphics chip, DualSense wireless controller, and PSVR headset connectivity. The largest model yet, standing at a whopping 15.4 inches tall, the size is largely determined by a refined feature that will have fans of the PS4 very happy: an updated cooling system. The PS5 contains multiple cooling systems and a fan that is much more stealthy and silent than the previous version of the console.

Discover the World of Production, and uncover how the Nintendo Switch, dumbbells, and microchips are made.