Game Party

Console Design - Task 3 - Produce a glossary of terms

Glossary of Terms

• RAM

A random-access device allows stored data to be accessed in any random order directly, as well as other data storage media such as hard disks, CDs, DVDs and magnetic tape, and also early primary memory types such as drum memory, read and write data only in a predetermined order, consecutively, because of mechanical design limitations. The time to access a given data location varies significantly depending on its physical location.

• CPU

A central processing unit is the hardware within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. All modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning contained on a single chip.

• Graphics Processor

A graphics processing unit is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display.

• Video Display/Output ( LCD, Monochrome, Colour)

LCD - liquid-crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly.

Monochrome - For an image, the term monochrome is usually taken to mean the same as black and white but may also be used to refer to other combinations containing only tones of a single color, such as green-and-white or green-and-black.

Colour – a display using colours via a graphics card

• Sound/Audio

Audio signal processing, sometimes referred to as audio processing, is the intentional alteration of auditory signals, or sound, often through an audio effect or effects unit. As audio signals may be electronically represented in either digital or analogue format, signal processing may occur in either domain. Analogue processors operate directly on the electrical signal, while digital processors operate mathematically on the digital representation of that signal.

• Storage Media

A data storage device is a device for recording (storing) information (data). Recording can be done using virtually any form of energy, spanning from manual muscle power in handwriting, to acoustic vibrations in phonographic recording, to electromagnetic energy modulating magnetic tape and optical discs.

• Power Supply

he AC adapter, AC/DC adapter or AC/DC converter is a type of external power supply, often enclosed in a case similar to an AC plug. Other names include plug pack, plug-in adapter, adapter block, domestic mains adapter, line power adapter, wall wart, or power adapter; adapters for battery-powered equipment may be described as chargers.

• Software Kernel (operating system)

n computing, the kernel is a computer program that manages input/output requests from software and translates them into data processing instructions for the central processing unit and other electronic components of a computer. The kernel is a fundamental part of a modern computer's operating system.

• HCI

Because human–computer interaction studies a human and a machine in conjunction, it draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. On the machine side, techniques in computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages, and development environments are relevant. On the human side, communication theory, graphic and industrial design disciplines, linguistics, social sciences, cognitive psychology, and human factors such as computer user satisfaction are relevant. Engineering and design methods are also relevant.

This can be used to made menus and similar thing on consoles and games.

• LAN

A local area network is a computer network that user interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building using network media. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide area networks, WANs, include their smaller geographic area, and non-inclusion of leased telecommunication lines

This can be used for local multiplayer gaming.

• GPRS

General packet radio service is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global system for mobile communications, GSM. GPRS was originally standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI, in response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode packet-switched cellular technologies. It is now maintained by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project

This can allow connection to the console via mobile phone.

• WAP

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network. A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.

• Cache

A cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere. If requested data is contained in the cache (cache hit), this request can be served by simply reading the cache, which is comparatively faster. Otherwise (cache miss), the data has to be recomputed or fetched from its original storage location, which is comparatively slower. Hence, the greater the number of requests that can be served from the cache, the faster the overall system performance becomes.

• MCP (Media Communications Processor)

is the equivalent of a regular chipset South Bridge, it does much more than simply bringing in the PCI and IDE support to the motherboard.

• Subscription TV

Subscription TV, premium television, or premium channels refer to subscription-based television services, usually provided by both analog and digital cable and satellite television, but also increasingly via digital terrestrial and internet television. Subscription television began in the multi-channel transition and transitioned into the post-network era. Some parts of the world, notably in France and the United States, have also offered encrypted analog terrestrial signals available for subscription.

Subscription TV has also been used by companies like Microsoft for the Xbox.

• ETV (Enhanced Television)

Enhanced TV is one example of interactive TV. It is used in particular in reference to Two-Screen Solutions TV + PC services. Generally users of these ETV services have their TV and computer in the same room, and navigate their web browser to a particular program-specific Web site that is synchronized to the live program by the broadcast TV network. Alternatively, some computers have TV tuner cards, or some television receivers, for example those with Google TV, offer web browsers.

• API (Graphical and Sound)

An application programming interface specifies how some software components should interact with each other.

As well as being able to access databases or computer hardware, such as hard disk drives or video cards, an API can be used to ease the work of programming graphical user interface components. In practice, many times an API comes in the form of a library that includes specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and variables. In some other cases, notably for SOAP and REST services, an API comes as just a specification of remote calls exposed to the API consumers.

• Interpreted programming languages for games

Interpreted programming language executes instructions directly, without previously compiling a program into machine-language instructions. The interpreter executes the program directly, translating each statement into a sequence of one or more subroutines already compiled into machine code. Compiled language programs, on the other hand, must explicitly be entirely translated ("compiled") into a sequence of machine language instructions before they can be executed.

• Compiled programming languages for games

A compiled language is a programming language whose implementations are typically compilers (translators which generate machine code from source code), and not interpreters (step-by-step executors of source code, where no pre-runtime translation takes place).

o    Object-oriented programming

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that represents concepts as "objects" that have data fields (attributes that describe the object) and associated procedures known as methods. Objects, which are usually instances of classes, are used to interact with one another to design applications and computer programs. C++, Objective-C, Smalltalk, Java, C#, Perl, Python, Ruby and PHP are examples of object-oriented programming languages.

o   Scripting languages for games

Many games use scripting languages for animation and game play logic. This has the advantage of quick prototyping, and better organization of code. Almost every non-trivial game engine uses some scripting language.

There are many scripting languages suited to such a task. Lua is perhaps the most popular game scripting language. Other choices include: AngelScript, GameMonkey, Io, Pawn, Squirrel, and Scheme. Sometimes heavy-weight languages are also used, like Python or Ruby. These languages are usually quite a bit harder to embed, and aren’t known for their speed.

Glossary of terms

• RAM

A random-access device allows stored data to be accessed directly in any random order. In contrast, other data storage media such as hard disks, CDs, DVDs and magnetic tape, as well as early primary memory types such as drum memory, read and write data only in a predetermined order, consecutively, because of mechanical design limitations. Therefore, the time to access a given data location varies significantly depending on its physical location.

• CPU

A central processing unit is the hardware within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. All modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning contained on a single chip.

• Graphics Processor

A graphics processing unit is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display.

• Video Display/Output ( LCD, Monochrome, Colour)

LCD - liquid-crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly.

Monochrome - For an image, the term monochrome is usually taken to mean the same as black and white but may also be used to refer to other combinations containing only tones of a single color, such as green-and-white or green-and-black.

Colour – a display using colours via a graphics car.

• Sound/Audio

Audio processing is the intentional alteration of auditory signals, or sound, often through an audio effect or effects unit. Audio signals can be electronically represented in either digital or analogue format, so signal processing may occur in either domain. Analogue processors operate directly on the electrical signal, while digital processors operate mathematically on the digital representation of that signal.

• Storage Media

A data storage device is a device for storing data. Storing can be done using virtually any form of energy, spanning from handwriting to acoustic vibrations in phonographic recording, and also to electromagnetic energy modulating magnetic tape and optical discs.

• Power Supply

he AC adapter, AC/DC adapter or AC/DC converter is a type of external power supply, often enclosed in a case similar to an AC plug. Other names include plug pack, plug-in adapter, adapter block, domestic mains adapter, line power adapter, wall wart, or power adapter; adapters for battery-powered equipment may be described as chargers.

• Software Kernel (operating system)

n computing, the kernel is a computer program that manages input/output requests from software and translates them into data processing instructions for the central processing unit and other electronic components of a computer. The kernel is a fundamental part of a modern computer's operating system.

• HCI

Human–computer interaction studies a human and a machine in conjunction, so it draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. For machines; techniques in computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages, and development environments are relevant. For humans; communication theory, graphic and industrial design disciplines, linguistics, social sciences, cognitive psychology, and human factors such as computer user satisfaction are relevant. Engineering and design methods are also relevant. This can be used to make menus and similar thing on consoles and games.

• LAN

A local area network is a computer network that allows a user interconnect computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building using network media. The defining characteristics of LANs include their smaller geographic area and that they don't include leased telecommunication lines. This can be used for local multiplayer gaming.

• GPRS

General packet radio service is a packet oriented mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global system for mobile communications. GPRS was originally standardized by European Telecommunications Standards Institute in response to the earlier CDPD and i-mode packet-switched cellular technologies. It is now maintained by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project. This can allow connection to the console via mobile phone.

• WAP

Wireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network. A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that use the protocol.

• Cache

A cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere. If requested data is contained in the cache, this request can be served by simply reading the cache, which is comparatively faster. If not, the data has to be recomputed or fetched from its original storage location, which is comparatively slower. This means that the overall system performance becomes faster as the number of requests that the cache can serve increases. 

• MCP (Media Communications Processor)

A media communications processor is the equivalent of a regular chip set South Bridge and does much more than simply bringing in the PCI and IDE support to the motherboard.

• Subscription TV

Subscription TV, premium television, or premium channels refer to subscription-based television services, usually provided by both analog and digital cable and satellite television, but also increasingly via digital terrestrial and internet television. Subscription television began in the multi-channel transition and transitioned into the post-network era. Some parts of the world, notably in France and the United States, have also offered encrypted analog terrestrial signals available for subscription. Subscription TV has also been used by companies like Microsoft for the Xbox.

• ETV (Enhanced Television)

Enhanced TV is an example of interactive TV, it is used in reference to Two-Screen Solutions TV and PC services. Users of these ETV services usually have their TV and PC in the same room, navigating their web browser to a particular program-specific web site that is synchronized to the live program by the broadcast TV network. Some computers have TV tuner cards, or some television receivers, such as those with Google TV, who offer web browsers.

• API (Graphical and Sound)

An application programming interface specifies how some software components should interact with each other.

An API can be used to ease the work of programming graphical user interface components, as well as being able to access databases or computer hardware, like hard disk drives or video cards. In practice, an API usually comes in the form of a library that includes specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and variables. In some other cases, notably for SOAP and REST services, an API comes as just a specification of remote calls exposed to the API consumers.

• Interpreted programming languages for games

Interpreted programming language executes instructions directly without previously compiling a program into machine-language instructions. It executes the program directly, translating each statement into a sequence of one or more subroutines already compiled into machine code.

• Compiled programming languages for games

A compiled programming language is a programming language whose implementations are typically compilers, translators which generate machine code from source code. These are not interpreters , which are step-by-step executors of source code where no pre-runtime translation takes place.

o    Object-oriented programming

Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm that represents concepts as "objects" that have data fields , these are attributes that describe the object, and associated procedures known as methods. Objects, which are usually instances of classes, are used to interact with one another to design applications and computer programs. C++, Objective-C, Smalltalk, Java, C# and Perl are examples of object-oriented programming languages.

o   Scripting languages for games

Many games use scripting languages for animation and game play logic. Scripting languages have the advantage of quick prototyping and better organization of code. Almost every non-trivial game engine uses some scripting language.

There are many scripting languages suited to such a task. Lua is perhaps the most popular game scripting language. There are other choices such as: AngelScript, GameMonkey, Io, Pawn, Squirrel, and Scheme. Sometimes heavy-weight languages are also used, like Python or Ruby. These languages are usually quite a bit harder to embed, and aren’t known for their speed.

Console Design - Task 2 - Produce a design spec

I chose the NVIDIA GeForce GT630 DP Graphics card - 2 GB - DDR3 SDRAM so that the graphics of the console can rival consoles like the XboxONE. to go with it, I chose the Intel Core i5 3.4 GHz Processor CPU to make sure the game processes fast enough and players aren't kept waiting. The console will come with HDMI cables and adapters because they are needed for the HD output. For the sound processor, I decided to use the Dynamode S-PC1-6WCH 6 Channel PCI Surround sound card, this is because it has 6 channels and works well with surround sound to give the player a better experience. The RAM will be an 8GB DDR3, it's much cheaper than DDR5 and is still good enough to rival at least the XboxONE. The Seagate NAS HDD 2 TB Internal hard drive Serial ATA-600 ST2000VN000 was a great choice, users will never have to buy another hard drive as it has 2 terabytes of memory.

Console Design - Task 1 - Console Comparison

Console Comparison

Feature	PlayStation 4	Xbox One	Wii U
Price	$399.99	$499.99	$349.99 / 299.99
Release Date	US: 11.15.2013 EU: 11.29.2013	11.22.2013	11.18.2012
Optical Drive	Blu-ray/DVD	Blu-ray/DVD	25GB Optical Disc (Proprietary)
Game DVR	Yes, PS+ subscription not required	Yes, with subscription to Xbox Live Gold	No
RAM	8GB GDDR5	8GB DDR3	2GB DDR3
CPU	Single-chip x86 AMD "Jaguar" processor, 8 cores	8 Core Microsoft custom CPU	Tri-Core PowerPC "Espresso" CPU
GPU	AMD Radeon Graphics Core Next engine w/ 1152 shaders	853 MHz AMD Radeon GPU w/ 768 shaders	AMD "Latte" 550 MHz GPU w/ 320 shaders
Peak GPU Shader Throughput	1.84 TeraFLOPS/s	1.31 TeraFLOPS/s (estimate)	0.352 TeraFLOPS/s
Storage	500 GB 5400 RPM SATA II hard drive	500 GB Hard Drive	8GB or 32GB Flash
External Storage	No	Yes, USB	Yes, USB
Removable Hard Drive	Yes, must be at least 160 GB, thinner than 9.5mm	No	No
Cloud Storage	Yes	Yes	No
Play As You Download	Yes	Yes	No
Remote Download	Yes	Yes	No
Account Access from Multiple Consoles	Yes	Yes	No
Mandatory Game Installs	No	Yes	No
Required Internet Connection	No	required for mandatory day one update.	No
Used Game Fee	No	No	No
Digital game sharing or gifting	No	No	No
Feature	PlayStation 4	Xbox One	Wii U
Backwards Compatibility	None	None	Yes, Wii
Cross Game Chat	Yes	Yes	No
Controllers	DualShock 4 (included)	Xbox One Wireless Controller(included)	Wii U GamePad (included), Wii Remote + Nunchuk (sold separately), Pro Controller (sold separately)
Controller Batteries	Rechargable (built-in)	AA (2). Rechargable battery packs (sold separately)	GP & Pro: Rechargable (built-in). Wii Remote: AA (2).
Motion Control	DualShock 4, PlayStation 4 Eye (not included), PlayStation Move (not included)	Kinect 2	Wii Remote (sold separately), Wii U GamePad (included)
Second Screen	Vita (not included) Playstation App	SmartGlass (devices not included)	Wii U GamePad (included)
Voice Commands	Yes (scope, TBA)	Yes	No
Subscription Service	PlayStation Plus	Xbox Live	No
USB	USB 3.0 (2 ports)	USB 3.0 (3 ports)	USB 2.0 (4 ports)
Live Streaming	Yes	Yes	No
Reputation Preservation	Trophies will be ported	Achievements will be ported	N/A
Web Connection	Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi	Gigabit Ethernet, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 & 5Ghz)	Gigabit IEEE 802.11 b/g/n dual-band Wi-Fi (2.4 & 5Ghz, LAN via USB dongle
BlueTooth	Bluetooth 2.1 (EDR)	No*	Bluetooth 4.0
Wi-Fi Direct (for Device Connection)	No	Yes	Yes (for GamePad video streaming)
A/V Hookups	HDMI output (4K Support) Optical output	HDMI input and output (4K support), Optical output	HDMI out, Component/ Composite out
IR	No	IR out, IR Blaster (Kinect)	IR Transceiver (GamePad)
Power Supply (PSU)	Internal	External (power brick)	External (power bricks)
Near Field Communication (NFC)	No	No	Yes (GamePad)
Region Locked	No	No	Yes

The Wii U is cheaper than both the Ps4 and Xbox ONE. The Xbone and Ps4 both use blu-ray/DVD disks whereas the Wii U uses 25GB optical disks. The Wii U is the only console of the three that doesn't offer a game DVR. When it comes to RAM, The Ps4 is best with 8GB GDDR5, the Xbone has 8GB DDR3 and the Wii U has 2GB DDR3. The Ps4 is the only one of the three with a removable hard drive

http://uk.ign.com/wikis/xbox-one/PS4_vs._Xbox_One_vs._Wii_U_Comparison_Chart

Handheld Comparison

Nvidia Shield	PlayStation Vita	Nintendo 3DS
Processor NVIDIA Tegra 4 Quad Core Mobile Processor with 2GB RAM Display 5 inch 1280x720 (294 ppi) Multi-Touch Retinal Quality Display Audio Integrated Stereo Speakers with Built-in Microphone Storage 16GB Flash Memory Lid Color Silver Wireless 802.11n 2x2 Mimo Wi-Fi Bluetooth 3.0 GPS Connectivity Mini-HDMI output Micro-USB 2.0 MicroSD storage slot 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with microphone support Motion Sensors 3 Axis Gyro 3 Axis Accelerometer Input controls Dual analog joysticks D-pad Left/right analog triggers Left/right bumpers A/B/X/Y buttons Volume control Android Home and Back buttons Start button NVIDIA power/multi-function button Battery 28.8 Watt Hours Weight & Size 579 grams 158mm (w) x 135mm (D) x 57mm (H) Operating System Android Jelly Bean OS Software Google Play TegraZone Sonic 4 Episode II THD Expendable: Rearmed Hulu Plus TwitchTV	CPU ARM® CortexTM- A9 core (4 core) GPU SGX543MP4+ External Dimensions Approx. 182.0 x 18.6 x 83.5mm (width x height x depth) (tentative, excludes largest projection) Screen (Touch Screen) 5 inches (16:9), 960 x 544, Approx. 16 million colors, OLED Multi touch screen (capacitive type) Rear Touch Pad Multi touch pad (capacitive type) Cameras Front camera, Rear camera Sound Built-in stereo speakers Built-in microphone Sensors Six-axis motion sensing system (three-axis gyroscope, three-axis accelerometer), Three-axis electronic compass Location Built-in GPS Wi-Fi location service support Keys / Switches PS button  Power button Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left) Action buttons (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square) Shoulder buttons (Right/Left) Right stick, Left stick START button, SELECT button Volume buttons (+/-) Wireless Communications Mobile network connectivity (3G) IEEE 802.11b/g/n (n = 1x1)(Wi-Fi)(Infrastructure mode/Ad-hoc mode) Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR (A2DP/AVRCP/HSP)	Supported Flash Memory Cards SDHC Memory Card Sound Speakers - Stereo Network 802.11b/g Integrated Components 3D  digital camera, VGA digital camera, Microphone Width 5.3 in Depth 2.9 in Height 0.8 in Weight 8.3 oz Color Cosmo black Controls X button, Y button, Left trigger, A button, Start button, B button, Right trigger, Select button, Analog stick, Cross control pad, Home button Supported Audio Formats AAC, MP3 Connector Type 1 x Headphones ( Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm ) Slot(s) 1 x Nintendo DS cartridge slot BatteryRechargeable - Lithium ion Battery Required 1 Sensors Three-axis gyro sensor Features Internet Browser, 3D Depth Slider Included Accessories Stylus, AC power adapter, 6 AR Cards, Charging cradle, 2GB SD Memory Card

The Nvidia Shield offers more software than the Ps Vita and the 3DS.

http://www.idigitaltimes.com/articles/17743/20130522/nvidia-shield-vs-playstation-vita-nintendo-3ds.htm