Sony: PlayStation 3 Slim Could Have Been Smaller
Company considered removing the harddrive in favor of remote storage.
by Jim Reilly
December 14, 2009 - The PlayStation 3 Slim could have been even slimmer.
Speaking to Japanese newspaper Nikkei, executive VP of technology Masayuki Chatani discussed the process of shrinking the original PlayStation 3 behemoth into its sleeker design we have today.
"It was pretty tough to squeeze a power-hungry piece of equipment like the PS3, drawing up to 250W, into a case this small, complete with power supply," he said in an interview. "I think it's a very advanced design, and am really proud of the engineers who achieved it. True, the case could have been made even smaller if we'd left the power supply on the outside, but that would have imposed restrictions on transport and use, making it harder to use freely. "
Chatani also noted the inclusion of a harddrive made redesigning the console a bit tougher, adding that remote network storage was considered instead of an internal storage.
"One of the reasons we were able to really shrink the PS2 down from the first design is because we did away with internal HDD support," Chatani added. "We don't have any intention of doing that in the PS3 at this time, though. One of the best features of the PS3 is that people can download games to the internal local storage unit and play comfortably."
"It is also possible to use Flash memory, or network storage, for example, instead of the HDD. We considered both options, but felt that the price would be too high for the amount of storage capacity the PS3 needs," he added.
Is the PlayStation 3 Slim small enough for you?
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/105/1055085p1.html
