PS4 Teardown: It’s Quite Simple

The team at WIRED were privileged to receive exclusive access to a teardown of the PS4.

Sony’s engineering director Yasuhiro Ootori pulls each part from the console, detailing what each piece does and why its located where it is. Confidently stripping the system bare, Ootori illustrates how easy it is to get into the console, change the hard drive, and the level of engineering that keeps the system small, efficient, and convenient.

From the 8GB of GDDR5 RAM to serve the GPU, to the x86 architecture that makes the system easier to develop for, Its quite clear that the hardware developers at Sony are sure of the strengths of their machine. The confidence is assuring in a time that’s always filled with uncertainty. Simple and powerful is the philosophy of Mark Cerny, one of the heads of PS4 development, and that clearly shines through in the design of the console.

Give the video a look here.

As someone who enjoys opening consoles and tinkering with their innards, this is cool to see. Hopefully this becomes a trend; Nintendo did it with Wii U and now Sony’s done it with PS4, and seeing the confidence from the engineers fosters a trust with gamer’s who are anticipating a new generation of games.