The PS4 is a home video game console from Sony Computer Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15 in North America, November 29 in Europe, South America and Australia, and on February 22, 2014, in Japan. It competes with Microsoft's Xbox One and Nintendo's Wii U and Switch.
The console's integrated AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) chipset enables its Radeon-based graphics processing unit (GPU) to produce high-quality visuals, while its 8GB of unified system memory is used for both traditional system RAM and a high-speed buffer for the GPU. The PS4 also includes two USB 3.0 ports and one auxiliary port, and uses a Blu-ray drive for game discs, as well as for movie playback and other optical media.
The PlayStation 4's controller, the DualShock 4, incorporates several new features compared to its predecessors. These include a built-in speaker and stereo headset jack, in addition to a touchpad; the ability to track location via a built-in GPS receiver; and vibration feedback. The console also supports Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, allowing it to connect with compatible devices such as the PlayStation Vita, Xperia smartphones and tablets, and select Lenovo laptops.
The PS4's operating system is based on a custom version of FreeBSD 9.0. A port of popular open-source multimedia player VLC Media Player is also available for PS4.
