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  • Author Author: pchan
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Episode 118: Ben's PlayStation 4 Teardown Episode

pchan

In this episode of The Ben Heck Show, Ben Heck embarks on a technical adventure, delving into the internals of the PlayStation 4, a beloved gaming console. With no prior knowledge of its inner workings, he fearlessly tackles the challenge of disassembling the console.

 

At the outset, Ben encounters warranty void stickers concealing the screws, but he quickly removes them to gain access to the console's insides. As he proceeds, he uncovers the main blower responsible for cooling the system, a design reminiscent of the PlayStation 3 Slim, with the fan now facing down in the new model.

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Continuing the teardown, Ben explores the Blu-ray drive and the user-friendly "toner cartridge" approach used for the internal power supply. Notably, the PlayStation 4 houses a Samsung hard drive, similar to the one found in the Xbox One.

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Throughout the disassembly, Ben remains impartial, appreciating Sony's optimization and design choices. He draws comparisons to previous consoles, acknowledging the PlayStation 4's smaller and more efficient form factor.

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As the examination goes deeper, Ben highlights the RAM chips with thermal pads to manage heat and identifies the main APU, an AMD-made chip housing the CPU and GPU. He points out that the PlayStation 4's APU has more GPU cores but less built-in RAM than the Xbox One.

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In the final stage, Ben speculates on the purpose of various chips on the motherboard, including the northbridge chip for IO connections and a custom encoder chip for video streaming. Despite facing a few challenges during disassembly, Ben successfully reveals the console's engineering marvels, offering valuable insights for enthusiasts and makers alike. The episode's mix of technical details and amusing anecdotes creates an engaging and informative watch, making it a must-see for gaming enthusiasts curious about the technology behind their favorite console.

Be sure to check out more of The Ben Heck Show archives, and also element14 presents 

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  • The chip you were pointing at when you said it was rom is actually another 256mb of DDR3 ram. To the left of the NB chip is 256mb of serial flash rom you were looking for.

     

    I believe that chip is kind of a combo north-bridge and background network processor, also used for downloading stuff from the internet when the main APU is powered off. It has a little arm core built in. I suspect they do a whole lot of background os-type stuff on that chip leaving more of the main APU to run the games.

     

    The wireless lan chip is a combo wlan/bluetooth one.

     

    As for the one you called a video encoder, I'm not entirely sure what it does. It might be used for video encoding like you said, but it's kind of on the wrong end of the APU for that. Speculation on it seems all over the board, with the most rational thinking that it's a controller for various components like the power section, fans, LEDs, power switch, reset button, etc. There's about 3 variants of that chip on various PS4s.