The PlayStation Portable's CPU is a MIPS R4000 (32-bit) CPU, split into two cores each operating between 1 and 333 MHz. The primary CPU core is responsible for traditional game processor functions; the secondary core, dubbed the \"Virtual Media Engine\", is responsible for decoding multimedia, for example the H.264 decoder. During GDC, Sony claimed it has currently capped the PSP's CPU at 222 MHz in hopes of prolonging battery life. When battery technology catches up with the PSP, Sony could remove the cap and allow the PSP to function at peak performance. The system has 32 MB of main RAM and 4 MB of embedded DRAM.

The independent 166 MHz 90 nm graphics chip sports 2MB embedded memory and through its 512 bit interface it provides hardware polygon and NURBS rendering, hardware directional lighting, clipping, environment projection and texture mapping, texture compression and tessellation, fogging, alpha blending, depth and stencil tests, vertex blending for morphing effects, and dithering, all in 16 or 32 bit colour, along with handling image output. Specifications state that the PSP is capable of rendering 33 million flat-shaded polygons per second, with a 664 million pixel per second fill rate. (source: press release on Aug 25 2004 by Masanobu Okabe of Sony, processor designer - example news article here (


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