The PlayStation Portable
( ? Pureisut shon P taburu?, officially abbreviated PSP) is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation[4] Development of the console was announced during E3 2003,[5] and it was unveiled on May 11, 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004.[6] The system was released in Japan on December 12, 2004,[7] in North America on March 24, 2005,[8] and in the PAL region on September 1, 2005.[9] Akku Sony VGN-NR11M/S

The PlayStation Portable is the first handheld video game console to use an optical disc format, Universal Media Disc (UMD), as its primary storage medium.[10][11] Other distinguishing features of the console include its large viewing screen,[12] robust multi-media capabilities,[13] and connectivity with the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, other PSPs, and the Internet.[14][15] Akku Sony VGN-NR11S/S

After the release of a remodeled, slimmer, and lighter version of the PlayStation Portable, titled Slim & Lite, in early September 2007, sales quadrupled in the United Kingdom the following week and increased by nearly 200% in North America for the month of October. The PSP-3000 had a minor redesign including a new screen and inbuilt microphone, and has since been followed by the PSP Go.[16][17] Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/S

 

Sony first announced development of the PlayStation Portable at a press conference before E3 2003.[18] Although mock-ups of the system were not present at the press conference or E3,[18] Sony did release extensive technical details regarding the new system.[19] Then-CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Ken Kutaragi called the device the "Walkman of the 21st Century" in a reference to the console's multimedia capabilities.[20Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/T
] Several gaming websites were impressed by the handheld's computing capabilities and looked forward to the system's potential as a gaming platform.[5][18][21] Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11E Battery

The first concept images of the PSP appeared in November 2000 at the Sony Corporate Strategy Meeting and showed a PSP with flat buttons and no analog stick.[22] Although some expressed concern over the lack of an analog joystick,[23Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11L
] these fears were allayed when the PSP was officially unveiled at the Sony press conference during E3 2004.[24] In addition to announcing more details about the system and its accessories,[25] Sony also released a list of 99 developer companies that had pledged support for the new handheld.[26] Several PSP game demos, such as Konami's Metal Gear Acid and SCE Studio Liverpool's Wipeout Pure were also shown at the conference.[27] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M

Launch
Main article: PlayStation Portable launch
On October 17, 2004, Sony announced that the PSP would launch in Japan on December 12, 2004, at a price of 19,800 (about US$181 in 2004) for the base model and 24,800 (about US$226 in 2004) for the Value System.[28] The console's launch was a success with over 200,000 units sold the first day.[2Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11Z
9] Different color variations were also sold in bundle packs, which cost more than usual, around $200. Sony announced on February 3, 2005, that the PSP would go on sale in North America on March 24, 2005, in one configuration for a MSRP of US$249/CA$299.[30] Some expressed concern over the high price,[31] which was almost US$20 higher than the system's price in Japan and more than $100 higher than the recently launched Nintendo DS.[32Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E
] Despite the concerns, the PSP's North American launch was a success,[33][34] although reports two weeks later indicated that the system was not selling as well as expected despite Sony's claim that 500,000 units had been sold in the first two days.[35][36] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21E

The PSP was originally to have a simultaneous PAL region and North American launch,[25] but on March 15, 2005, Sony announced that the PAL region launch would be delayed because of high demand for the console in Japan and North America.[37Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21J
] A month later, on April 25, 2005, Sony announced that the PSP would launch in the PAL region on September 1, 2005, for €249/ 179.[38] Sony defended the high price, which was nearly US$100 higher than in North America, by pointing out that North American consumers had to pay local sales taxes and that the VAT (sales tax) was higher in the UK than the US.[ Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21M
39] Despite the high price, the console's PAL region launch was a resounding success, selling more than 185,000 units in the UK alone, selling out of all stock nationwide in the UK within three hours of launch, more than doubling the previous first-day sales record of 87,000 units set by the Nintendo DS. The system also enjoyed great success in other areas of the PAL region with more than 25,000 units preordered in Australia[40] and nearly one million units sold across Europe in the first week.[41] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z

Technical specifications
The PSP is sold in three main configurations that differ in which accessories are included. The basic unit package or Base Pack (called the Core Pack in North America[55]) contains the console, a battery, and an AC adapter.[56] This version was available at launch in Japan[28] and was later released in North America and Europe.[57Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M
The Value Pack includes everything in the Base Pack as well as a 32 MB Memory Stick Pro Duo, headphones with remote control, a carrying pouch, and a wrist strap.[56] Some regions have modified versions of this pack that include different accessories.[64] The Value Pack retails for US$199.99,[65] 23,800,[66] HK$1660,[67] A$399.99,[68] and NZ$449.95.[64] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31J

Many limited edition versions of the PSP that include various accessories, games, or movies have also been released.[69][70]
Redesigns

PSP-2000
The PSP-2000 (marketed in PAL areas as "PSP Slim & Lite" and still marketed as PSP in North America, Japan, China, India, Italy, and Portugal)[71] is the first redesign of the PlayStation Portable. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31J

At E3 2007, Sony released information about a slimmer and lighter version of the PlayStation Portable.[72] The new PSP was announced to be 33% lighter and 19% slimmer than the original PSP system.[72] The model numbers were changed to PSP-2000, following the previous region-based numbering scheme (cf. the PSP-1000 numbering scheme of the "old" PSP model).
It was released on August 30, 2007, in Hong Kong, on September 5, 2007, in Europe, on September 6, 2007, in North America, September 7, 2007, in South Korea and September 12, 2007, in Australia. On January 8, 2008, built-in Skype Wi-Fi Internet phone service was added via firmware updates.[73] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9/S,

PSP-3000
In comparison to the PSP-2000, the PSP-3000 (marketed in PAL areas as "PSP Slim & Lite (with enhanced screen + built in microphone)" and still marketed as PSP in North America and Japan) has an improved LCD screen with an increased color range, five times the contrast ratio, AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9A/S,
half the pixel response time to reduce ghosting and blurring effects, a new sub-pixel structure, a microphone, a new disc tray design, new button designs and logos, and anti-reflective technology to improve outdoor playability. It can also output all games by component or composite using the video out cable.[74] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9/B
In its first four days on sale, the PSP-3000 sold 141,270 units in Japan, according to Famitsu.[75] In October 2008, the PSP-3000 sold 267,000 units in Japan, according to Enterbrain.[76]
HardwareAKKU Sony VGP-BPS9A/B,

 

Memory Stick PRO Duo Slot on a Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core edition PSP Slim
The PSP Slim & Lite system is 19% thinner and 33% lighter than the original PSP system (reduced from 23 mm to 18.6 mm and from 280 grams [9.87 ounces] to 189 grams [6.66 ounces]).[72][77] Internal changes to achieve this include the removal of a metal chassis (used to reduce damage in the event of sudden trauma to the system resulting from the user dropping the system on a hard surface). However, users have complained about generally poor hardware assembly like misaligned faceplates[78] and loose/creaky battery covers.[79] Sony VGP-BPl13 Akku,, 

Other changes include improved WLAN modules and Micro-controller, and a thinner[80] and much brighter LCD.[citation needed] To target the original PSP generation's poor load times for UMD games,[81] the internal memory (RAM and Flash ROM) was doubled from 32 MB to 64 MB, which also improved the web browser's performance.[82] Sony VGP-BPS13A/B Akku,
Battery

 

Two different battery size standards
To make the PSP slimmer, the capacity of the battery was reduced by 1/3. However, due to more efficient power usage, the run time of the PSP is still the same as the previous model. Older model batteries will still work which extends the amount of playing time. However, the battery cover on the newer model does not fit over the older battery due to its bulkier size. The batteries take about one and a half hours to charge and last roughly 4.5–7 hours depending on factors such as screen brightness settings, WLAN and volume levels.[83] Sony VGP-BPS13A/S Akku,
In mid-December 2007, Sony released the PSP Extended Life Battery Kit, which includes a 2200 mAh battery with a battery cover that fits over the bulkier battery included,[84] initially only available in North America.[citation needed] The kit comes with two new battery covers, one black and one silver. Sony VGP-BPS13B/S Akku,  In March 2008 the Extended Battery Kit was released in Japan. However, unlike the North American kit, the batteries are sold individually with one specific cover. There are three separate kits; one kit includes a black cover, one includes a silver cover and one includes a white cover.[citation needed] Sony VGP-BPS13S Akku,
External appearance, inputs and outputs
The PSP Slim & Lite has a new gloss finish. The serial port was also modified in order to accommodate a new video-out feature (while rendering older PSP remote controls incompatible). In PSP-2000, PSP games will only output to external monitors or TVs in progressive scan mode, so televisions incapable of supporting progressive scan will not display PSP games. Non-game video outputs fine in either progressive or interlaced mode. Sony VGP-BPS13A/Q Akku, USB charging was made possible (the PSP Slim will only charge while it is in "USB mode". It cannot be charged via USB when playing a game). However, there are unofficial USB charge plug-in downloads for charging the PSP with a USB without the need for being in USB mode. The D-Pad was raised in response to complaints of poor performance,[85][86Sony VGP-BPS13B/Q Akku] while buttons offer improved responsiveness, confirmed in the GameSpot "hands-on" review: "several GameSpot editors have noticed that the d-pad and buttons on the new PSP provide a little more tactile feedback for a better overall feel."[87] Sony VGP-BPS13/Q Akku,
A new simpler and more compact UMD loading tray design was developed, in which the tray swivels out instead of opening up completely, while the Wi-Fi switch was moved to the top of the PSP. To address many consumer complaints about the Memory Stick door breaking off the old PSP, the Memory Stick door has been relocated and redesigned. Akku sony VGP-BPS21A
The speakers were repositioned on the front of the PSP near the top of its screen. The infra-red port was also removed because it offered no use to the original PSP generation other than in homebrew applications. Its analog stick was also redesigned to be more flexible and is not removable without opening the PSP. The air vent at the top of the original was also removed. Akku sony VGP-BPS21B

A "1seg" TV tuner (model PSP-S310) peripheral, designed specifically for the PSP Slim & Lite model, was released in Japan on September 20, 2007.[88] Akku sony VGP-BPS21/S

TV output and accessory port

 

Component cable, which allows PSP-2000 and -3000 models to output analog stereo audio and analog component (YPBPR) videoSony VGP-BPS14 battery

Sony added TV output to the PSP Slim through Firmware update 3.60. It can output in a conventional aspect ratio (4:3) or widescreen (16:9), and offers a screensaver if the PSP is inactive for a set amount of time. It is able to output games, videos, and other media. To achieve TV output on the Slim model, Composite, S-Video, Component (YPBPR) and D-Terminal (YPBPR) cables are sold separately by Sony. Akku sony VGP-BPS21A/B
PSP format games are output as a progressive scan signal, which can be carried only by the Component and D-Terminal cables, and displayed on televisions which support progressive scan. They are also rendered at the 480 × 272 resolution of the PSP screen, rather than the 720 × 480 resolution used for output, and are not upscaled meaning they are displayed with black windowboxing when viewed to an external display. Sony VGP-BPS14/B battery 
This can be overcome on some TVs by using built-in zoom functionality. However, the PSP system software, music player and video playback are displayed in full-screen. As of firmware update 5.00, PlayStation (PSone) format software purchased from the PlayStation store is output in full-screen mode and optionally in interlaced format for non-progressive displays. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11L
Although the user needs component cables and a TV that supports 480p (mainly found in HDTVs) to play PSP format software, a homebrew plugin called "FuSa" allows anyone with a Slim PSP to view their games on any SDTV or HDTV using Composite or Component cables. The plugin is also advantageous to those with TVs that do support 480p because it allows a full screen (1:1 ratio) viewing of games. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M
The maximum resolution through TV output is 720 × 480 pixels and composite video uses NTSC color encoding (no PAL composite signal is available; European TVs must be NTSC compatible to be used with a PSP via composite). The old PSP-1000 model is not capable of this feature due to a slightly different port. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11S
As a result, original PSP accessories (using the connector) will not work with the Slim and the Slim's accessories will not work with the original PSP. Sony has released a new version of the remote control accessory designed for the Slim as a result. The PSP Slim can still use 3.5 mm headphones, like the old PSP-1000. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11Z

Sony confirmed a GPS Accessory for the United States at Sony CES 2008. The GPS is to be retailed for the new Slim PSP models. It will feature maps on a UMD, and offer driving directions and city guide. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ130E/B

Releases and Limited Edition models
Limited Edition models began being released in Japan on September 12, 2007; North America on September 5, 2007; Australia on September 12, 2007; UK on October 26, 2007, and Europe on September 5, 2007. The PSP-2000 was made available in Piano Black, Ceramic White, Ice Silver, Mint Green, Felicia Blue, Lavender Purple, Deep Red, Matte Bronze, Metallic Blue and Rose Pink as standard colors (not all colors were available in all countries), Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E
and had several special edition colored and finished consoles for games including Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (Ice silver engraved), Star Ocean: First Departure (Felicia Blue engraved), Gundam (Red gloss/matte black), and Monster Hunter Freedom (Gold silkscreened) PSPs in Japan, Star Wars (Darth Vader silkscreened) and God of War: Chains of Olympus (Kratos silkscreened) PSPs in North America, a The Simpsons (bright yellow with white buttons, analog and UMD drawer) PSP in Australia and New Zealand, and Spider-Man (Red gloss/matte black), and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core (Ice silver engraved) PSPs in Europe. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21E

The PSP 3000, released on October 14, 2008, in North America, in Europe on October 17, 2008,[89][90] on October 16, 2008, in Japan and in Australia on October 23, 2008,[91] is currently available in Piano Black, Pearl White, Mystic Silver, Radiant Red, Vibrant Blue, Spirited Green, Blossom Pink, Turquoise Green and Lilac Purple. The Limited Edition "Big Boss Pack" of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker saw the release of a camouflage PSP while the God of War: Ghost of Sparta PSP special bundle pack will include a black and red two-toned PSP.[92] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21J

Homebrew
The homebrew community were initially unable to hack the later PSP-2000s and the PSP-3000 because it had a new CPU (motherboards revealed to be TA-088v3 (for PSP Slim) and TA-090v2 (for PSP-3000)) which does not support the PRE IPL Exploit used in hacking the previous versions. This is due to the motherboard having its own PRE IPL where it checks the firmware thoroughly; if passed, the PRE IPL is cut off entirely to prevent unwanted modifications to the system. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21M

In November 2008, Datel announced a "Lite Blue Tool" battery which allows the PSP-3000 to boot into service mode. This battery is not able to start homebrew as the new PRE-IPL has yet to be cracked.[93] The Lite Blue Tool was deterred from distribution due to legal action by Sony.[94] Some time later, Datel changed the name from Lite Blue Tool to Max Power Digital and changed the description.[95] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21S

MaTiAz, a known hacker in the PSP hacking community, found an exploit which is done with a US copy of Gripshift and a HEN save game exploit. However, this was only temporary. After the release of this initial hack, a sizable increase in sales of the game was experienced. Many eBay sellers inflated their prices to cash in on the sudden demand. A revised version of the PSP firmware (v5.03) was released shortly after to patch the exploit.[9Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z
6] Malloxis found a TIFF crash which is proven to work on 5.02 and 5.03 firmwares for PSP-3000; further crafted and engineered by MaTiAz, the TIFF crash became a TIFF exploit capable of loading an h.bin from the root memorystick. Davee, another hacker, further engineered this exploit with a privilege escalation exploit and created a Homebrew Enabler (HEN) which would allow the execution of unsigned code by users. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M
In firmware revision 5.50, the TIFF vulnerability was removed, preventing any further firmwares being affected by the exploit. The HEN for the TIFF exploit, which was called "ChickHEN", was released on May 5, 2009.[97][98][99] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31E

On June 5, 2009, custom firmware version 5.03GEN-A for HEN was released, which is compatible with both PSP-2000 v3 and PSP-3000. It allows users to play game backups (ISO/CSO), PS1 games, and includes access to PSN, VSH, and recovery mode.[100] This marked a major step forward in ending Sony's PSP-3000 piracy protection. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31J
Two days later, on June 7, 2009, a duo of hackers (Xenogears and Becus25) released custom firmware support software based on a modified work of the released 5.03GEN-A for the formerly unhackable handheld called "Custom Firmware Enabler 3.01" in which PSP-3000 users can install custom firmware and load those firmware's files onto the PSP's RAM with the direct usage of "ChickHEN".[93][101] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31M

On March 29, 2010, a user-mode exploit was revealed in the demo of the game Patapon 2.[102] This was quickly followed by the public release of "Half-Byte Loader",[103] a piece of software allowing to load homebrew software on all PSP models (including the PSP Go) running firmwares less than 6.30. HBL has also been ported to Everybody's Golf, allowing HBL to run on 6.30 and 6.31 firmwares. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18E

On December 24, 2010, Total_Noob's HEN (6.20 TN-A) was made available which allows Homebrew and ISO Loaders to run on any PSP Console with the 6.20 firmware. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21E Akku

On December 30, 2010, Total_Noob updated his HEN to the version B (6.20 TN-B), which featured a way to downgrade ALL the PSPs, including those with TA-088v3 motherboard, 3000+ and Go, breaking the long-established "barrier" that prevented these PSP versions from downgrading.
On January 2, 2011, Mathieulh announced the discovery the PSP's master keys, allowing homebrew to run on the PSP without any firmware modifications.[104] Sony VAIO VGN-FW21I Akku

On March 13, 2011, Virtuous Flame & ColdBird updated his HEN to the Version B3 (6.35 PRO-B3), the ability to run ISO and CSO backups, to run Homebrew games and applications, to run PS1 Games, run Plugins and can use to access the PSN. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21L Akku

Hardware issues
On release, an issue with interlacing was noticed on the PSP-3000 screen when objects were in motion. Gaming Bits (among others) did an in-depth review of the differences between the two versions, noting the interlacing issues, and about a week later Sony announced that they would not be releasing a software update to address the issue:[105] Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M Akku
On some occasions, scan lines may appear on scenes where brightness changes drastically, due to the hardware features of the new LCD device on PSP-3000. Installed with this new LCD device, PSP-3000 offers more natural and vibrant colors on its screen, but the scan lines have come out to be more visible as a result of improving response time to alleviate the afterimages on PSP-3000. Since this is due to hardware specification, there are no plans for a system software update concerning this issue. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z Akku

PSP Go

 

PSP Go
Main article: PSP Go
The PSP Go was revealed on May 30, 2009, in the June episode of the PlayStation Network online magazine Qore and was later officially announced on June 2, 2009, at E3 2009.[106] The PSP Go features Bluetooth functionality, a smaller 3.8-inch (97 mm) screen and weighs 43% less than the original PSP. Instead of the UMD drive as found on previous models, the PSP Go has 16 GB of internal flash memory and a Memory Stick Micro port that accepts cards up to 16 GB. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31E Akku
Currently, the PSP Go has a max memory of 32 GB, but the M2 memory can be increased in firmware updates. Games must be downloaded from the PlayStation Store. The sliding mechanism on the screen hides the main face buttons and the analog 'nub' when not in use. With the release of the PSP Go, most future PSP games will also receive a PlayStation Store release,[citation needed] whereas only a handful of games were available before. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31J Akku

Sony announced in April 2011 that it will stop production of the PSP Go to focus resources on developing the NGP.[107] Shortly after, SCEA clarified that the PSP Go would still be produced for the North American market.[108] Sony VAIO VGN-FW31Z Akku

By March 31, 2007, the PlayStation Portable had shipped 25.39 million units worldwide with 6.92 million in Asia, 9.58 million in North America, and 8.89 million Europe.[112] In Europe, the PSP sold 4 million units in 2006 and 3.1 million in 2007 according to estimates by Electronic Arts.[113][114] In 2007, the PSP sold 3.82 million units in the US according to the NPD Group[115][116] and 3,022,659 in Japan according to Enterbrain.[117][118][119] In 2008, the PSP sold 3,543,171 units in Japan, according to Enterbrain.[119][120] Sony VAIO VGN-FW31ZJ Akku

In the United States, the PSP has sold 10.47 million units as of January 1, 2008, according to the NPD Group.[109][121][122] In Japan, during the week of March 24–30, 2008, the PSP nearly outsold all the other game consoles combined with 129,986 units sold, some of which were bundled with Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G,[12Sony VAIO VGN-FW31ZJ Akku
3] which was the best-selling game in that week, according to Media Create.[124] As of December 28, 2008, the PSP has sold 11,078,484 units in Japan, according to Enterbrain.[76][120] In Europe, the PSP has sold 12 million units as of May 6, 2008, according to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.[110] In the United Kingdom, the PSP has sold 3.2 million units as of January 3, 2009, according to GfK Chart-Track.[111] Sony VAIO VGN-FW Akku

According to Sony Corporation, investor sales site, it clearly states that since 2006 through the third quarter of 2010, PSPs have sold a total of 53MM units.[125]
HardwareSony VAIO VGN-FW11M Akku

 

Main article: PlayStation Portable hardware

 

A ceramic white PSP-1000. The shoulder buttons are on top, the directional pad on the left with the analog 'nub' directly below it, the PlayStation face buttons on the right and a row of secondary buttons below the screen. Sony VGN-NR11M/S Akku

The PlayStation Portable uses the common "slab" or "candybar" form factor, measures approximately 17 x 7.3 x 2.2 cm (6.7 x 2.9 x 0.9 in), and weighs 280 grams (9.88 ounces). The front of the console is dominated by the system's 11 cm (4.3 in) LCD screen, which is capable of 480 x 272 pixel video playback with 16.77 million colors. Also on the front are the four PlayStation face buttons (Akku Sony VGN-NR11S/S
the directional pad, the analog 'nub', and several other buttons. In addition, the system includes two shoulder buttons and a USB 2.0 mini-B port on the top of the console and a WLAN switch and power cable input on the bottom. Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/S
The back of the PSP features a read-only UMD drive for movies and games, and a reader compatible with Sony's Memory Stick Duo flash cards is located on the left of the system. Other features include an IrDA compatible infrared port (discontinued in PSP-2000 and later series), built in stereo speakers and headphone port, and IEEE 802.11b Wi-Fi for access to the Internet, ad-hoc multiplayer gaming, and data transfer.[4] Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/T

The PSP uses two 333 MHz MIPS32 R4000-based CPUs, a GPU with 2 MB onboard VRAM running at 166 MHz, and includes 32 MB main RAM and 4 MB embedded DRAM in total.[4] The hardware was originally forced to run more slowly than it was capable of and most games ran at 222 MHz.[126] However, with firmware update 3.50 on May 31, 2007, Sony removed this limit and allowed new games to run at a full 333 MHz.[127] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5G2L

The PSP includes an 1800 mAh battery (1200 mAh on the 2000 and 3000 models) that will provide about 4–6 hours of gameplay, 4–5 hours of video playback, or 8–11 hours of audio playback.[24][128] Official accessories for the console include the AC adapter, car adapter, headset, headphones with remote control, extended-life 2200 mAh battery, battery charger, carrying case, accessories pouch and cleaning cloth, and system pouch and wrist strap.[129] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L

Software

System software
Main article: PlayStation Portable system software
Main article: XrossMediaBar – PlayStation Portable XMB
See the PlayStation Support Site for the latest official System Software Information: [130]
Sony has included the ability for the operating system, referred to as the System Software, to be updated.[131] The updates can be downloaded directly from the Internet using the [System Update] feature under [Settings] in the XMB. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5J1L
Alternatively, they can be downloaded to a computer from the official PlayStation website, placed on a Memory Stick Duo (Memory Stick Micro for PSP Go models) in following directory: PSP → GAME → UPDATE → EBOOT.PBP, and subsequently installed on the system. Updates can also be installed from UMD game discs that require the update to run the game.[ Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L
131] The Japanese version of the PS3 allows the System Software to be updated by downloading the System Software onto the Hard Drive then to the PSP. Sony has prevented users from downgrading the PSP to an earlier version of the System Software that is currently installed. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5K2L

While System Software updates can be used with consoles from any region,[132] Sony recommends only downloading updates released for the region corresponding to the system's place of purchase.[131] System Software updates have added various features including a web browser;[133] Adobe Flash support;[1Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L
34] additional codecs for images, audio and video;[133][135] PlayStation 3 connectivity[136] and patches against several security exploits, vulnerabilities and execution of homebrew programs.[137][138] The most current version is v6.38. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6S1L

Web browser

 

Web browser on a PSP-1000
The PSP Internet Browser is a version of the NetFront browser made by Access Co. Ltd. and was released for free with the 2.00 system software update.[133] The browser supports most common web technologies, such as HTTP cookies, forms, CSS, as well as basic JavaScript capabilities.[139] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6S2L

The version 2.50 upgrade added Unicode (UTF-8) character encoding and Auto-Select as options in the browser's encoding menu, and also introduced the saving of input history for online forms.
Version 2.70 of the PSP's system software introduced basic Flash capabilities to the browser.[134] However, the player runs Flash version 6, four iterations behind the current desktop version 10,[140] making some websites difficult to view.[134] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L

There are three different rendering modes: "Normal", "Just-Fit", and "Smart-Fit". "Normal" will display the page with no changes, "Just-Fit" will attempt to shrink some elements to make the whole page fit on the screen and preserve layout (although this makes some pages extremely difficult to read), and "Smart-Fit" will display content in the order it appears in the HTML, and with no size adjustments; instead it will drop an element down below the preceding element if it starts to go off the screen. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6W2L

The browser also has limited tabbed browsing, with a maximum of three tabs. When a website tries to open a link in a new window, the browser opens it in a new tab.[141] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7113L

Parents can limit content by enabling Browser Start Up Control which blocks all access to the web browser and creating a 4-digit PIN under [Settings] in [Security]. Additionally, the browser can be configured to run under a proxy server and can be protected by the security PIN to enable the use of web filtering or monitoring software through a network. Recently, Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7133L
TrendMicro for PSP was added as a feature that can be enabled via a subscription to filter or monitor content on the PSP.
The PSP browser is slower compared to modern browsers and often runs out of memory due to limitations put in place by Sony. Alternatively, Homebrew has allowed a custom version of the browser to be released that utilizes all 32/64 MB of the PSP's RAM, which allows the browser to load pages faster and have more memory for larger pages.[142] Opera Mini can also be used on PSP through PSPKVM, a homebrew application which is a Sun Java Virtual Machine. It was claimed to provide much faster loading times than the default browser and provides better web page capability.[143] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7z1L

Remote Play
Main article: Remote Play
Remote Play allows the PSP to access many features of a PlayStation 3 console from a remote location using the PS3's WLAN capabilities, a home network, or the Internet.[144] Features that can be used with Remote Play include viewing photos and slideshows, Akku Sony VAIO PCG-8Y1L
listening to music, watching videos stored on the PS3's HDD or on connected USB devices, and several other features.[145] Additionally, Remote Play allows the PS3 to be turned on and off remotely and allows the PSP to control audio playback from the PS3 to a home theater system without having to use a television.[14Akku Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L] Although most of the PS3's capabilities are accessible with Remote Play, playback of DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, PlayStation 2 games, most PlayStation 3 games, and copy-protected files stored on the PS3's hard drive are not supported.[145] Sony VAIO VGN-FW11 Battery

VOIP access
Starting with system software version 3.90, PSP-2000, PSP-3000 and PSP-N1000 can use the Skype VoIP service. The PSP-2000 requires a headset for this feature while the microphone is built into the PSP-3000 and PSP-N1000. Due to hardware constraints, it is not possible to use the VoIP service on PSP-1000.[73] The service allows Skype calls to be made over Wi-Fi and on the PSP Go over the Bluetooth Modem feature. Users must purchase Skype credit in order to make calls to non Skype devices such as a landline or mobile phone. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M Battery

Room for PlayStation Portable

 

A screenshot of Room
Main article: Room for PlayStation Portable
Announced at TGS 2009, a similar service to PlayStation Home, the PlayStation 3's online community-based service, was being developed for the PSP.[148] Named "Room" (officially spelled as R∞M with capital letters and the infinity symbol in place of the "oo"), it was being beta tested in Japan from October 2009 to April 2010. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11S BatteryIt was able to be launched directly from the PlayStation Network section of the XMB. Just like in Home, PSP owners would have been able to invite other PSP owners into their rooms to "enjoy real time communication."[149][150] Development of Room halted on April 15, 2010, due to the feedback of the community.[151] Sony VAIO VGN-FW21I Battery

Digital Comics Reader
Sony has partnered with publishers such as 2000AD, Disney, IDW Publishing, Insomnia, iVerse, Marvel and Titan to release digitized comics on the PlayStation Store.[152][153] This new application requires PSP firmware 6.20 for it adds a new XMB category called "Extra".Sony VAIO VGN-FW21E Battery
The Digital Comics Reader application can be downloaded on the PlayStation Comics official website.[154]
The PlayStation Store's "Comic" section launched in the United States and English speaking PAL regions (United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand) on December 16, 2009, though the first issues of Aleister Arcane, Astro Boy: Movie Adaptation, Star Trek: Enterprise Experiment and Transformers: Sony VAIO VGN-FW21L Battery
All Hail Megatron were made available as early as November 20 through limited time PlayStation Network redeem codes.[155] The service premiered in Japan on December 10, 2009, with licensed publishers Ascii Mediaworks, Enterbrain, Kadokawa, Kodansha, Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z Battery
Shueisha, Shogakukan, Square-Enix, Softbank Creative (HQ Comics), Hakusensha, Bandai Visual, Fujimishobo, Futabasha and Bunkasha.[156] In early 2010 the application expanded to German, French, Spanish and Italian languages with Digital Comics available in the respective European countries.[157] Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M Battery

The choice of regional Comic Reader software is dictated by the PSP's firmware region, and cannot be chosen. The Japanese Comic Reader will not display comics purchased from the European store, and vice versa. So although a Japanese PSP can log into the European Playstation Store and purchase and display videos and games bought there, any comics purchased cannot be displayed. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M Battery

Games

Main article: List of PlayStation Portable games
See also: PlayStation Store, List of PlayStation Network games, List of movies and television shows released on UMD, and List of PlayStation Portable game demosSony VGN-FW31ZJ battery

In addition to playing PSP games, several older PlayStation games have been rereleased and can be downloaded and played on the PSP via emulation. Currently, the only three official ways to access this feature are through the PlayStation Network service for PlayStation 3, PSP, or a PC.[158] Sony VGN-FW32J battery

Demos for commercial PSP games can be downloaded and booted directly from a Memory Stick.[159] Demos are also sometimes issued in UMD format and mailed out or given to customers at various retail outlets as promotional content.[160] Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/S Battery

During E3 2006, Sony Computer Entertainment America announced that the Greatest Hits range of budget titles were to be extended to the PSP system.[161] On July 25, 2006, Sony CEA released the first batch of Greatest Hits titles.[162] The PSP Greatest Hits lineup consist of games that have sold 250,000 copies or more and have been out for nine months.[163] PSP games in this lineup retail for $19.99 each.[162] Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/T Battery

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced on September 5, 2006, that a number of titles would be available under the Platinum range for €24.99 each in Europe and 19.99 in the UK.[164] Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/T Battery

Sony has said downloadable games will still be limited to 1.8 GB, most likely to guarantee a potential UMD release.[citation needed] Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/S Battery

Homebrew development

Main article: PlayStation Portable homebrew
On June 15, 2005, hackers disassembled the code of the PSP and distributed it online.[165] Initially the modified PSP allowed users to run custom code and a limited amount of protected software. Sony responded to this by repeatedly upgrading the software.[166] Over time people were able to unlock the firmware and allow users to run more custom content and more protected software. One of the ways hackers were able to run protected software on the PSP was through the creation of ISO loaders which could load copies of UMD games from the memory stick.[167] Sony VAIO VGN-NR11S/S Battery

Reception

The PSP received generally favorable reviews soon after launch and most reviewers cited similar strengths and weaknesses. CNET awarded the system an 8.5 out of 10 and praised the console's powerful hardware and its multimedia capabilities while lamenting the lack of a screen guard or a guard over the reading surface of UMD cartridges.[16Sony VAIO VGN-NR11Z/S Battery
8] Engadget applauded the console's design, stating that "it is definitely one well-designed, slick little handheld".[169] PC World commended Sony's decision to include built-in Wi-Fi capability, but criticized the lack of a web browser at launch and the glare and smudges that resulted from the console's shiny exterior.[17Sony VAIO VGN-NR11Z/T Battery
0] Most reviewers also praised the console's large and bright viewing screen and its audio and video playback capabilities. In 2008, Time listed the PSP as a "gotta have travel gadget", citing the console's movie selection, telecommunications capability, and upcoming GPS functionality.[171] The PSP Go received mixed reviews to date. IGN gave the product a 7.2 stating that with the absence of the UMD slot, the PSP Go is difficult to consider for purchase. Sony VAIO VGN-CR21E Battery

Controversial advertising campaigns

Sony admitted in late 2005 to hiring graffiti artists to spray paint advertisements for the PSP in seven major U.S. cities including New York City, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. The mayor of Philadelphia has filed a cease and desist order and may file a criminal complaint. According to Sony, it is paying businesses and building owners for the right to spraypaint their walls.[172] Sony VAIO VGN-CR31E Battery

In 2006, Sony ran a poster campaign in England. One of the poster designs with the slogan "Take a running jump here" was removed from a Manchester Piccadilly station tram platform due to concerns that it might encourage suicide.[173] Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L Battery

In July 2006, news spread of a billboard advertisement released in the Netherlands which depicted a white woman holding a black woman by the jaw, saying "PlayStation Portable White is coming." Some found this to be racially charged due to the portrayal of a white woman subjugating a black woman. Two other similar advertisements also existed, one had the two women facing each other on equal footing in fighting stances, while the other had the black woman in a dominant position on top of the white woman. Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L Battery
The stated purpose of the advertisements was to contrast the white and black versions of its game console available for sale. These ads were never released in the rest of the world, and were pulled from the Netherlands after the controversy was raised.[174] Despite having been released only in the Netherlands, the advertisement gathered international press coverage. Engadget notes that Sony may have hoped to "capitalize on a PR firestorm".[175] Sony VAIO PCG-5K2L Battery

Sony came under scrutiny online in December 2006 for a guerrilla marketing campaign hoping to go viral, for the console, with advertisers masquerading as young bloggers who desperately wanted a PSP. The site was registered to and created by the St. Louis, Missouri, advertising firm Zipatoni on behalf of Sony before it was taken down.[176] Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L Battery

Successor

Main article: Next Generation Portable
In an interview during PAX 2010, Mortal Kombat Executive Producer Shaun Himmerick revealed a successor to the PSP, the "PSP2", stating "... we have a PSP2 in the house and we're looking at the engine, like what can it support. Always a big thing for us is the performance. We're running at 60 fps, what can we do and do we have to build all the art assets over. We're definitely looking at them. PSP2 looks like it's a pretty powerful machine."[177] Sony VAIO PCG-6S1L Battery

The new handheld was officially announced on January 27, 2011 at a "PlayStation Meeting" in Japan, with the codename Next Generation Portable (NGP).[178Sony VAIO PCG-6S1L Battery

PlayStation Portable (PSP)

This article is about the PlayStation brand. For the fifth-generation console, see PlayStation (console). For other uses, see PlayStation (disambiguation).
PlayStationSony VAIO VGN-FZ11E Battery

 

The PlayStation ( Pureisut shon?, officially abbreviated PS) brand is a series of video game consoles created and developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. Spanning the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of video gaming, the brand was first introduced on December 3, 1994 in Japan.[1] The brand consists of a total of three consoles, a media center, an online service, a line of controllers and a handheld as well as multiple magazines. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11L Battery

The first console in the series, the PlayStation, was the first video game console to ship 100 million units after 9 years and 6 months of its initial launch.[2] While its successor, PlayStation 2, is the best-selling console to date having reached over 150 million units sold as of January 31, 2011.[3] Sony's current console, PlayStation 3, has sold over 47.9 million consoles worldwide as of December 31, 2010.[ Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M Battery4] The first handheld game console in the PlayStation series, PlayStation Portable (PSP), has sold a total of 67.8 million units worldwide as of February 25, 2011.[5] The Next Generation Portable, an upcoming handheld being developed by Sony as a successor to the PlayStation Portable, it is set to be released in 2011. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M Battery
Other hardware released as part of the PlayStation series include the PSX, a digital video recorder which was integrated with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, though it was short lived due to its high price and was never released outside of Japan as well as a Sony Bravia television set which has a PlayStation 2 integrated. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11Z Battery The main series of controllers utilized by the PlayStation series is the DualShock which is a line of vibration-feedback gamepad having sold 28 million controllers as on June 28, 2008.[6] Sony VAIO VGN-FZ130E/B Battery

The PlayStation Network is an online service with over 69 million users worldwide (as of January 25, 2011).[7] It comprises an online virtual market, the PlayStation Store, which allows the purchase and download of games and various forms of multimedia, a subscription-based online service known as PlayStation Plus and a social gaming networking service called PlayStation Home, which has over 14 million users worldwide.[8Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E Battery
] PlayStation Suite is an upcoming software framework that is aimed to provide PlayStation content cross-platform and cross-devices, currently only Android and the Next Generation Portable devices are supported. Content set to be released under the framework consist of only original PlayStation games currently.[9]vSony VAIO VGN-FZ140E/B Battery

Current generation PlayStation products also use the XrossMediaBar which is an award winning graphical user interface.[10] A new touchscreen-based user interface called LiveArea is being designed for the Next Generation Portable, which integrates social networking elements into the interface. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ160E Battery
Additionally, PlayStation 2 and original PlayStation 3 consoles also featured support for Linux-based Operating Systems, though this has since been discontinued. The series has also been known for its numerous marketing campaigns, such as the It Only Does Everything commercials in the United States. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ180E Battery

The series also has a strong lineup of first-party titles due to Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, a group of fifteen first-party developers owned by Sony Computer Entertainment which are dedicated to developing first party games for the series. In addition the series also features various budget re-releases of titles by Sony with different names for each region; these include the Greatest Hits, Platinum and The Best ranges of titles. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18E Battery

 

Origins
PlayStation was the brainchild of Ken Kutaragi, a Sony executive who had just come out of his hardware engineering division at that time and would later be dubbed as "The Father of the PlayStation".[11][12] Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18E Battery

The console's origins date back to 1986 where it was originally a joint project between Nintendo and Sony to create a CD-ROM for the Super Famicom/SNES console.[13] Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21E Battery

The PlayStation made its debut at the Consumer Electronics Show in June 1991 when Sony revealed its console, a Super Famicom/SNES with a built-in CD-ROM drive (that incorporated Green Book technology or CDi). However, a day after the announcement at CES, Nintendo announced that it would be breaking its partnership with Sony, opting to go with Philips instead but using the same technology.[14] Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21J Battery

The deal was broken by Nintendo after they were unable to come to an agreement on how revenue would be split between the two companies.
The breaking of the partnership infuriated Sony President Norio Ohga, who responded by appointing Kutaragi with the responsibility of developing of the PlayStation project to rival Nintendo.[14] Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21M Battery

At that time, negotiations were still on-going between Nintendo and Sony, with Nintendo offering Sony a "non-gaming role" regarding their new partnership with Philips. This proposal was swiftly rejected by Kutaragi who was facing increasing criticism over his work with regard to entering the video game industry from within Sony. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21S Battery
Negotiations officially ended on May 1992 and in order to decide the fate of the PlayStation project, a meeting was held in June 1992, consisting of Sony President Ohga, PlayStation Head Kutaragi and several senior members of Sony's board. At the meeting, Kutaragi unveiled a proprietary CD-ROM-based system he had been working on which involved playing video games with 3D graphics to the board. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21S Battery
Eventually, Sony President Ohga decided to retain the project after being reminded by Kutaragi of the humiliation he suffered from Nintendo. Nevertheless, due to strong opposition from a majority present at the meeting as well as widespread internal opposition to the project by the older generation of Sony executives, Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31E Battery
Kutaragi and his team had to be shifted from Sony's headquarters to Sony Music, a completely separate financial entity owned by Sony, so as to retain the project and maintain relationships with Philips for the MMCD development project (which helped lead to the creation of DVD).[14]
Formation of Sony Computer EntertainmentSony VAIO VGN-FZ31J Battery

At Sony Music, Kutaragi worked closely with Shigeo Maruyama, the CEO of Sony Music, and with Akira Sato to form Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. (SCEI) in November 1993.[15] A building block of SCEI was its initial partnership with Sony Music which helped SCEI attract creative talent to the company as well as assist SCEI in manufacturing, marketing and producing discs, something that Sony Music had been doing with Music Discs. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31M Battery
The final two key members of SCEI were Terry Tokunaka, the President of SCEI from Sony's headquarters, and Olaf Olafsson. Olafsson was CEO and president of New York based Sony Interactive Entertainment which was the mother company for the 1994-founded Sony Computer Entertainment of America (SCEA). Sony VGP-BPS9 Battery

The PlayStation project, SCEI's first official project, was finally given the green light by Sony executives in 1993 after a few years of development. Also in 1993, Phil Harrison, who would later become President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, was recruited into SCEI to attract developers and publishers to produce games for their new PlayStation platform.[14] Sony VGP-BPS9A Battery

After a demonstration of Sony's distribution plan as well as tech demos of its new console to game publishers and developers in a hotel in Tokyo in 1994, numerous developers began to approach PlayStation. Two of whom later became major partners were Electronic Arts in the West and Namco in Japan. Sony VGP-BPS9A Battery
One of the factors which attracted developers to the platform was the use of a 3D-capable, CD-ROM-based console which was much cheaper and easier to manufacture for in comparison to rival consoles from Sega and Nintendo which used cartridge systems. The project eventually hit Japanese stores in October 1994 and gained massive sales due to its lower price point than its competitor, the Sega Saturn. Popularity of the console spread after its release worldwide in North America and Europe.[14] Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/B Battery

Consoles

PlayStation

 

The original PlayStation
Main article: PlayStation (console)
The original PlayStation released in December 1994 was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation series of console and hand-held game devices. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/B Battery
It has included successor consoles and upgrades including the Net Yaroze (a special black PlayStation with tools and instructions to program PlayStation games and applications), "PSone" (a smaller version of the original) and the PocketStation (a handheld which enhances PlayStation games and also acts as a memory card). Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/S Battery
It was part of the fifth generation of video game consoles competing against the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64. By March 31, 2005, the PlayStation and PSone had shipped a combined total of 102.49 million units,[16] becoming the first video game console to sell 100 million units.[2] Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13/S Battery

PS One

 

The redesigned PS One with optional LCD Screen
Main article: PS One
Released in July 2000, concurrently with its successor the PlayStation 2, the PS One was a considerably smaller, redesigned version of the original PlayStation video game console.[17] Originally launched on July 7, 2000,[18] it went on to outsell all-other consoles including its successor, PlayStation 2, throughout the remainder of the year.[17] It featured two main changes from its predecessor, the first being a cosmetic change to the console and the second being home menu's Graphical User Interface. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/S Battery

PlayStation 2

 

Slimline PlayStation 2 console (left) and original PlayStation 2 console with 8 MB Memory Card and DualShock 2 controller. (right) Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/S Battery

Main article: PlayStation 2
Released in 2000, 15 months after the Dreamcast and a year before its other competitors, the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube, the PlayStation 2 is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles, and is backwards-compatible with most original PlayStation games. It has also been released as a media center configuration and also having, like its predecessor, a slimmer redesign. It is the most successful console in the world,[19Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/Q Battery
] having sold over 140 million units as of July 20, 2008.[20] On November 29, 2005, the PS2 became the fastest game console to reach 100 million units shipped, accomplishing the feat within 5 years and 9 months from its launch. This achievement occurred faster than its predecessor, the PlayStation, which took "9 years and 6 months since launch" to reach the same figure.[2] Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13B/Q Battery

Slimline Model
Main article: PlayStation 2 Slimline
Released in 2004, four years after the launch of the original PlayStation 2, the PlayStation 2 Slimline was the first major redesign of the PlayStation 2. Compared to its predecessor, the Slimline was smaller, thinner, quieter and also included a built-in Ethernet port (in some markets it also has an integrated modem). Sony VGP-BPS21 Battery
In 2007, Sony began shipping a revision of the Slimline which was lighter than the original Slimline together with a lighter AC adapter.[21] In 2008, Sony released yet another revision of the Slimline which had an overhauled internal design incorporating the power supply into the console itself like the original PlayStation 2 resulting in a further reduced total weight of the console.[22] Sony VGP-BPS21A Battery
PlayStation 3

 

Original (left) and slim (right) PlayStation 3 consoles
Main article: PlayStation 3
Released on November 11, 2006, the PlayStation 3 is the third and current iteration in the series. It competes with the Xbox 360 and the Wii in the seventh generation of video game consoles. It is the first console in the series to introduce the use of motion controls in games through the use of the SIXAXIS Wireless Controller along with other features, such as Blu-ray Disc and Full High-definition resolution graphics capability. Sony VGP-BPS21B Battery
The PlayStation 3 comes in 20 GB, 40 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB, 160 GB, 120 GB, 250 GB, and 320 GB, with only the 160, and 320 being the current models. Like its predecessors, a slimmer redesigned model of the console has been released. As of December 25, 2010, the PlayStation 3 has sold 41.5 million units worldwide according to Sony Computer Entertainment.[23] Sony VGP-BPS21/S Battery

Redesigned Model
Main article: PlayStation 3 Slim
Released in 2009, the redesigned model of the PlayStation 3 is the only model in production. The redesigned model is 33% smaller, 36% lighter, and consumes 34% to 45% less power than previous models.[24][25] In addition, it features a redesigned cooling system and a smaller Cell processor which was moved to a 45nm manufacturing process.[26] It sold in excess of a million units within its first 3 weeks on sale.[2Sony VGP-BPS21A/b Battery
7] The redesign also features support for CEC (more commonly referred to by its manufacturer brandings of BraviaSync, VIERA Link, EasyLink and others) which allows control of the console over HDMI by using the remote control as the controller. Sony VGP-BPL14 battery
The PS3 slim also runs quieter and is cooler than previous models due to its 45 nm Cell. The PS3 Slim no longer has the "main power" switch (similar to PlayStation 2 slim), like the previous PS3 models, which was located at the back of the console.[24] It was officially released on September 1, 2009 in North America and Europe and on September 3, 2009 in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.[24][28][29] Sony VGP-BPS14 battery 
Comparison
[show]Name    PlayStation       PlayStation 2    PlayStation 3
Handheld systems

PlayStation Portable

 

The original PlayStation Portable.
Main article: PlayStation Portable
Released in March 2005,[40] the PlayStation Portable (PSP) was Sony's first handheld console. The console is the first to utilize a new proprietary optical storage medium known as Universal Media Disc (UMD), which can store both games and movies.[ Sony VGP-BPS14/S battery] It contains 32 MB of internal flash memory storage, expandable via Memory Stick PRO Duo cards.[43] It has a similar control layout to the PS3 with its PlayStation logo button and its  ('Triangle'),  ('Circle/O'),  ('Cross/X') and  ('Square') buttons.
2000 and 3000 modelsSony VGP-BPL14/B battery

 

A PSP-2000 console
Main articles: PSP Slim and Lite and PSP-3000
Released in September 2007, the PSP Slim & Lite (also known as the PSP-2000) was the first major hardware revision of the PlayStation Portable. The Slim & Lite was 33% lighter and 19% slimmer than the original PlayStation Portable.[44][4Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L Battery
5] The capacity of the battery was also reduced by ? but the run time remained the same as the previous model due to lower power consumption. Older model batteries will still work and they extend the amount of playing time.[46] The PSP Slim & Lite has a new gloss finish. Its serial port was also modified in order to accommodate a new video-out feature (while rendering older PSP remote controls incompatible). Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L Battery
On a PSP-2000, PSP games will only output to external monitors or TVs in progressive scan mode, so that televisions incapable of supporting progressive scan will not display PSP games; non-game video will output in either progressive or interlaced mode. Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L Battery
USB charging was also made possible.[47] Buttons are also reportedly more responsive on the Slim and Lite.[48] In 2008, Sony released a second hardware revision called the PSP-3000 which included several features that were not present in the Slim & Lite, such as a built-in microphone and upgraded screen. As well as the ability to output PSP games in interlaced mode. Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L Battery

PSP Go model

 

Piano Black PSP Go (open position)
Main article: PSP Go
Released in October 2009, the PSP Go is the biggest redesign of the PlayStation Portable to date. Unlike previous PSP models, the PSP Go does not feature a UMD drive but instead has 16 GB of internal flash memory to store games, videos and other media.[4Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L Battery
9] This can be extended by up to 32GB with the use of a Memory Stick Micro (M2) flash card. Also unlike previous PSP models, the PSP Go's rechargeable battery is not removable or replaceable by the user. The unit is 43% lighter and 56% smaller than the original PSP-1000,[50] and 16% lighter and 35% smaller than the PSP-3000.[ Sony VAIO PCG-6S2L Battery
51] It has a 3.8" 480 × 272 LCD[52] (compared to the larger 4.3" 480 × 272 pixel LCD on previous PSP models).[53] The screen slides up to reveal the main controls. The overall shape and sliding mechanism are similar to that of Sony's mylo COM-2 internet device.[54] The PSP Go is being produced and sold concurrently with its predecessor the PSP-3000 although it will not replace it.[5Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L Battery
0] All games on the PSP Go must be purchased and downloaded from the PlayStation Store as the handheld is not compatible with the original PSP's physical media, the Universal Media Disc. The handheld also features connectivity with the PlayStation 3's controllers the Sixaxis and DualShock 3 via Bluetooth connection.[51] Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L Battery

Next Generation Portable
Main article: Next Generation Portable
The first device, developed by Sony Computer Entertainment, is codenamed Next Generation Portable or NGP and will be released Q4 of 2011. The device features a 5 inch OLED touchscreen, two analogue sticks, a rear touchpad, Sixaxis motion sensing and a 4 core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor. The device was officially unveiled by Sony on January 27, 2011 at the PlayStation Meeting 2011.[55] Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2L Battery

Other Hardware

PSX

 

The PSX
Main article: PSX (DVR)
Released solely in Japan in 2003, the Sony PSX was a fully integrated DVR and PlayStation 2 video game console. It was the first Sony product to utilize the XrossMediaBar (XMB)[56] and can be linked with a PlayStation Portable to transfer videos and music via USB.[57] It also features software for video, photo and audio editing.[56Sony VAIO PCG-8Z1L Battery
] PSX supports online game compatibility using an internal broadband adapter. Games that utilize the PS2 HDD (for example, Final Fantasy XI) are supported as well.[58] It was the first product released by Sony under the PlayStation brand that did not include a controller with the device itself.[59] Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L Battery

PocketStation
Main article: PocketStation
The PocketStation was a miniature game console created by SCE as a peripheral for the original PlayStation.[60] Released exclusively in Japan on December 23, 1999,[61] it featured a monochrome LCD display, a speaker, a real-time clock and infrared communication capability. It could also be used as a standard PlayStation memory card by connecting it to a PlayStation memory card slot.[60] It was extremely popular in Japan and Sony originally had plans to release it in the United States but the plan was ultimately scrapped due to various manufacturing and supply-and-demand problems.[62][63] Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L Battery

Television Sets
The Sony BRAVIA KDL22PX300 is a television which incorporates a PlayStation 2 console. Released in 2010, the unit also features a 22 inch 720p screen and 4 HDMI ports.[64][65]
GamesSony VAIO PCG-8Z2L Battery

 

Main articles: List of PlayStation 1 games, List of PlayStation 2 games, List of PlayStation 3 games, List of games compatible with PlayStation Move, List of PlayStation Portable games, List of Next Generation Portable games, and List of PlayStation Store gamesSony VAIO PCG-8Z2L Battery

Each console has a variety of games. Most games released on the original PlayStation are backwards compatible and can be played directly on its successors, the PlayStation 2, PSX and PlayStation 3. Some of these games can also be played on the PlayStation Portable but they must be purchased and downloaded from a list of PSOne Classics from the PlayStation Store. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/S Battery
Games released on the PlayStation 2 can currently only be played on the original console as well as the PSX and the early models of the PlayStation 3 which are backwards compatible. The PlayStation 3 has two types of games, those released on Blu-ray Discs and downloadable games from the PlayStation Store. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/T Battery
The PlayStation Portable consists of numerous games available on both its physical media, the Universal Media Disc and the Digital Download from the PlayStation Store. However, some games are only available on the UMD while others are only available on the PlayStation Store. The Next Generation Portable will consist of games available on both its physical media, the NVG Card and Digital Download from the PlayStation Store. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/T Battery

First Party Games
Main article: Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios
Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios is a group of video game developers owned by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is dedicated to developing video games exclusively for the PlayStation series of consoles. The series has produced several best-selling franchises such as the Gran Turismo series of racing video games as well as critically acclaimed titles such as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Other notable franchises include Ape Escape, God of War, Twisted Metal and more recently, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm and Resistance. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/T Battery

Re-releases
Main articles: Greatest Hits, Platinum Range, The Best range, PSone Classics, Classics HD, and PlayStation Suite
Greatest Hits (North America), Platinum Range (PAL territories) and The Best (Japan and Asia) are video games for the Sony PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Portable consoles that have been officially re-released at a lower price by Sony. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11S/S Battery
Each region has its own qualifications to enter the re-release program. Initially, during the PlayStation era, a game had to sell at least 150,000 copies (later 250,000)[66] and be on the market for at least a year[67] to enter the Greatest Hits range. During the PlayStation 2 era, the requirements increased with the minimum number of copies sold increasing to 400,000 and the game had to be on the market for at least 9 months.[66Sony VAIO VGN-NR11Z/S Battery
] For the PlayStation Portable, games had to be on the market for at least 9 months with 250,000 copies or more sold.[68] Currently, a PlayStation 3 game must be on the market for 10 months and sell at least 500,000 copies to meet the Greatest Hits criteria.[69] PSone Classics were games that were released originally on the PlayStation and have been re-released on the PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. Classics HD are compilations of PlayStation 2 games that have been remastered for the PlayStation 3 on a single disc with additional features such as upscaled graphics, PlayStation Move support, 3D support and PlayStation Network trophies. PlayStation Suite is a cross-platform, Sony VAIO VGN-FW11 Battery
cross-device software framework aimed at providing PlayStation content, currently original PlayStation games, across several devices including PlayStation Certified Android devices as well as the Next Generation Portable.
Online ServicesSony VAIO VGN-FW11M Battery

 

 

Logo of the PlayStation Network
PlayStation Network
Main article: PlayStation Network
Released in 2006, the PlayStation Network is an online service[70] focusing on online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery. The service is provided and run by Sony Computer Entertainment for use with the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable video game consoles.[71] The service currently has over 50 million users worldwide.[72] The PlayStation Network provides other features for users like PlayStation Home, PlayStation Store, and Trophies. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11S Battery

PlayStation Store
Main article: PlayStation Store
The PlayStation Store is an online virtual market available to users of the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The store uses both physical currency and PlayStation Network Cards. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21E Battery
The PlayStation Store's gaming content is updated every Thursday and offers a range of downloadable content both for purchase and available free of charge. Available content includes full games, add-on content, playable demos, themes and game and movie trailers. The service is accessible through an icon on the XMB on the PS3 and PSP. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21I Battery
The PS3 store can also be accessed on the PSP via a Remote Play connection to the PS3. The PSP store is also available via the PC application, Media Go. As of September 24, 2009, there have been over 600 million downloads from the PlayStation Store worldwide.[73] Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z Battery

Video content such as films and television shows are also available from the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3 and PSP and will be made available on some new Sony BRAVIA televisions, VAIO laptop computers and Sony Blu-ray Disc players from February 2010.[74] Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M Battery

Life with PlayStation
Main article: Life with PlayStation
Life with PlayStation is a Folding@home application available for the PS3 which connects to Stanford University’s Folding@home distributed computer network and allows the user to donate their console's spare processing cycles to the project.[7Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M Battery
5] Folding@home is supported by Stanford University and volunteers make a contribution to society by donating computing power to this project. Research made by the project may eventually contribute to the creation of vital cures. Sony Vaio VGN-FW31ZJ BatteryThe Folding@home client was developed by Sony Computer Entertainment in collaboration with Stanford University.[76] Life with PlayStation also consists of a 3D virtual view of the Earth and contains current weather and news information of various cities and countries from around the world. As well as a World Heritage channel which offers historical information about historical sites and United Village channel which is a project designed to share information about communities and cultures worldwide.[77][78] Sony Vaio VGN-FW32J Battery

PlayStation Plus
Main article: PlayStation Plus
PlayStation Plus, a subscription-based service on the PlayStation Network, compliments the standard PSN services.[79] It enables an auto-download feature which allows the console to automatically download game patches and system software updates. Subscribers also gain early or exclusive access to some betas, game demos, AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13
premium downloadable content (such as full game trials of retail games like Infamous and LittleBigPlanet) and other PlayStation Store items, as well as a free subscription to Qore. Other downloadable items include PlayStation Store discounts and free PlayStation Network games, PSone Classics, PlayStation Minis, themes and avatars.[80] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13

PlayStation Blog
Main article: PlayStation Blog
PlayStation Blog is an online PlayStation focused gaming blog which is part of the PlayStation Network. It was launched on June 11, 2007[81] and since its launch, has featured in numerous interviews with third-party companies such as Square Enix.[82AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13
] It also has posts from high-ranking Sony Computer Entertainment executives such as Jack Tretton, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment.[83] A sub-site of the blog called PlayStation Blog Share was launched on March 17, 2010 and allowed readers of the blog as well as users of the PlayStation Blog to submit ideas to the PlayStation team about anything PlayStation-related and vote on the ideas of other submissions.[84][85] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13

PlayStation App
Main article: PlayStation Official App
The PlayStation App is an application that was released on January 11, 2011 in several European countries for iOS (version 4 and above) and for Android (version 1.6 and above).[86] It allows users to view their trophies, see which of their PSN friends are online and read up to date information about PlayStation.[86] It does not feature any gaming functionality.[86] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13
PlayStation Suite
Main article: PlayStation Suite
The PlayStation Suite is a software framework that will be used to provide downloadable PlayStation content to devices running Android 2.3 and above as well as the Next Generation Portable. The framework will be cross-platform and cross-device, AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13/S

 which is what Sony calls "hardware-neutral". It is currently set to release before the end of calendar year 2011. In addition, Android devices that have been certified to be able to play back PlayStation Suite content smoothly will be certified with the PlayStation Certified certification.[9]
Online social networking servicesAKKU Sony VGP-BPS13A/S

PlayStation Home
Main article: PlayStation Home
PlayStation Home is a community-based social gaming networking service for the PlayStation 3 on the PlayStation Network (PSN). It is available directly from the PlayStation 3 XrossMediaBar. Membership is free, and only requires a PSN account. Home has been in development since early 2005 and started an open public beta test on December 11, 2008.[ AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13A/Q
7] Home allows users to create a custom avatar, which can be made to suit the user's preference.[88] Users can decorate their avatar's personal apartment ("HomeSpace") with default, bought, or won items. They can travel throughout the Home world (except cross region), which is constantly updated by Sony and partners. Each part of the world is known as a space. Public spaces can just be for display, fun, or for meeting people. Home features many mini-games which can be single player or multiplayer. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13Q

 Users can shop for new items to express themselves more through their avatars or HomeSpace.[89] Home features video screens in many places for advertising, but the main video content is shown at the theatre for entertainment. Home plays host to a variety of special events which range from prize-giving events to entertaining events. Sony VGP-BPL8 Battery
Users can also use Home to connect with friends and customize content.[87] Xi, a once notable feature of Home, is the world's first console based Alternate Reality Game that took place in secret areas in Home and was created by nDreams.[90][91] Sony VGP-BPL8A Battery

Room for PlayStation Portable
Main article: Room for PlayStation Portable
"Room" (officially spelled as R∞M with capital letters and the infinity symbol in place of the "oo") was being beta tested in Japan from October 2009 to April 2010. Development of Room has been halted on April 15, 2010 due to negative feedback from the community.[9Sony VGN-FZ130E/B Battery
2] Announced at TGS 2009, it was supposed to be a similar service to the PlayStation Home and was being developed for the PSP.[93] Launching directly from the PlayStation Network section of the XMB was also to be enabled. Just like in Home, PSP owners would have been able to invite other PSP owners into their rooms to "enjoy real time communication."[94] A closed beta test had begun in Q4 2009 in Japan.[95] Sony VGN-FZ130E/BB Battery

Software

See also: PlayStation 3 system software and PlayStation Portable system software
XrossMediaBar
Main article: XrossMediaBar
The XrossMediaBar, originally used on the PSX, is a graphical user interface currently used for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, as well as a variety of other Sony devices. The interface features icons that are spread horizontally across the screen. Sony VGP-BPL9 Akku
Navigation moves the icons instead of a cursor. These icons are used as categories to organize the options available to the user. When an icon is selected on the horizontal bar, several more appear vertically, above and below it (selectable by the up and down directions on a directional pad).[96] The XMB can also be accessed in-game albeit with restrictions, Sony VGP-BPL9/B Akkuit allows players to access certain areas of the XMB menu from within the game and is only available for the PlayStation 3.[97] Although the capacity to play users' own music in-game was added with this update, the feature is dependent on game developers who must either enable the feature in their games or update existing games.[98] Sony VGP-BPL9A/B Akku

LiveArea
LiveArea, designed to be used on the Next Generation Portable, is an upcoming graphical user interface set to incorporate various social networking features via the PlayStation Network. It has been designed specifically as a touchscreen user interface for users.[99] Sony VGP-BPL9 Akku

Linux operating systems
Linux for PlayStation 2
Main article: Linux for PlayStation 2
In 2002, Sony released the first useful and fully functioning operating system for a video game console, after the Net Yaroze experiment for the original PlayStation. Sony VGP-BPS21B Akku
The kit, which included an internal hard disk drive and the necessary software tools, turned the PlayStation 2 into a full fledged computer system running Linux. Users can utilize a network adapter to connect the PlayStation 2 to the internet, a monitor cable adaptor to connect the PlayStation 2 to computer monitors as well as a USB Keyboard and Mouse which can be used to control Linux on the PlayStation 2.[100][101] Sony VGP-BPS21A/B Akku

Linux for PlayStation 3
Main article: Linux for PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (excluding PlayStation 3 Slim) also supports running Linux OS on firmwares prior to 3.21 without the need for buying additional hardware purchase. Yellow Dog Linux provides an official distribution that can be downloaded, and other distributions such as Fedora, Gentoo and Ubuntu have been successfully installed and operated on the console.[10Sony VGP-BPS21/S Akku
2] The use of Linux on the PlayStation 3 allowed users to access 6 of the 7 Synergistic Processing Elements; Sony implemented a hypervisor restricting access to the RSX. The feature to install a second operating system on a PlayStation 3 was removed in a recent firmware update.[103]
ControllersAkku Sony VGP-BPL14 

Early PlayStation controllers

 

A PlayStation control pad.
Main articles: PlayStation control pad, PlayStation Analog Joystick, and Dual Analog Controller
Released in 1994, the PlayStation control pad was the first controller made for the original PlayStation. It featured a basic design of a D-pad, 4 main select buttons (  ('Triangle'), ('Circle/O'),  ('Cross/X') and  ('Square') ), and start and select buttons on the face. Akku Sony VGP-BPS14/S  'Shoulder buttons' are also featured on the top [L1, L2, R1, R2] (named by the side [L=Left, R=Right] and 1 or 2 [top and bottom]). In 1996, Sony released the PlayStation Analog Joystick for use with flight simulation games.[104] The original digital controller was then replaced by the Dual Analog in 1997, which added two analog sticks based on the same potentiometer technology as the Analog Joystick.[105] This controller was then also succeeded by the DualShock controller. Akku Sony VGP-BPL14/B
DualShock series and Sixaxis

 

A DualShock 3 controller.
Main articles: DualShock and Sixaxis
Released in 1998, the DualShock controller for the PlayStation succeeded its predecessor, the Dual Analog, and would go on to become the longest running series on controllers for the PlayStation brand. In addition to the inputs of the original, digital, controller (, , , , L1, L2, R1, R2, Start, Select and a D-pad), the DualShock featured two analog sticks in a similar fashion to the previous Dual Analog controller, which can also be depressed to activate the L3 and R3 buttons.[106] Akku Sony VGP-BPS14/B  
The DualShock series consists of three controllers: the DualShock which was the fourth controller released for the PlayStation; the DualShock 2, the only standard controller released of the PlayStation 2, and the DualShock 3, the second and current controller released for the PlayStation 3. The Sixaxis was the first official controller for the PlayStation 3, and is based on the same design as the DualShock series (but lacking the vibration motors of the DualShock series of controllers). AKKU sony VAIO VGN-FW21E

Like the Dual Analog, the DualShock and DualShock 2 feature an "Analog" button between the analog sticks that toggles the analog sticks on and off (for use with games which only support the digital input of the original controller). On the PlayStation 3 Sixaxis and DualShock 3 controllers, the analog sticks are always enabled. AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z
Beginning with the Sixaxis, a 'PlayStation button' (which featured the incorporated PS logo and is similar in function to the Xbox 360 "Guide" button) was included on controllers. The PlayStation button replaces the "Analog" button of the DualShock and DualShock 2 controllers. Pressing the PS button on the PS3 brings up the XMB, while holding it down brings up system options (such as quit the game, change controller settings, turn off the system, and turn off the controller).[107]
PlayStation MoveAKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M

Main article: PlayStation Move

 

A PlayStation Move controller.
PlayStation Move is a motion-sensing game controller platform for the PlayStation 3 video game console by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). Based on the handheld motion controller wand, PlayStation Move uses the PlayStation Eye webcam to track the wand's position and the inertial sensors in the wand to detect its motion. AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M
First revealed on June 2, 2009, PlayStation Move is slated for worldwide launch in Q3/Q4 2010. Hardware available at launch includes the main PlayStation Move motion controller and an optional PlayStation Move sub-controller.[ AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31J
108] Although PlayStation Move is implemented on the existing PlayStation 3 console, Sony states that it is treating Move's debut as its own major "platform launch," planning an aggressive marketing campaign to support it. In addition to selling the controllers individually,[109] AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31E
Sony also plans to provide several different bundle options for PlayStation Move hardware; including a starter kit with a PS Eye, a Move motion controller, and a demo/sampler disc, priced under US$100;[110] a full console pack with a PS3 console, DualShock 3 gamepad, PS Eye, and Move motion controller; and bundles of a Move motion controller with select games.[109] AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31Z

Media

Magazines
The PlayStation brand has a wide series of magazines, from across different continents, covering PlayStation related articles and stories. Many of these magazines work closely with Sony and thus often come with demo discs for PlayStation games, for example, the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine gave out demo discs for Final Fantasy VIII.[1AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31ZJ
11] Currently there are three magazines still in circulation namely PlayStation: The Official Magazine,[112] PlayStation Official Magazine,[113] Official PlayStation Magazine (Australia).[114] However, over the years, many PlayStation magazines have spawned while a few have also become defunct, these includes the Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine,[115] Official UK PlayStation Magazine,[116] Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine.[117] AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW32Z

CD ROM Magazine
Main article: PlayStation Underground
PlayStation Underground was a non-traditional magazine that Sony Computer Entertainment America produced and published between Spring 1997 to Spring 2001. Subscribers received two PlayStation CDs, along with a booklet and colorful packaging every quarter.[118] The CDs contained interviews, cheats, programmers moves, game demos and one-of-a-kind Memory Card saves. Several issues showed how a game was created from basic design to final product. Since the CDs could only be run on a PlayStation, AKKU Sony VAIO PCG-5G2L
it proved a useful marketing tool which spawned a line of PlayStation Underground JamPacks Demo CDs and which contained highlights from recent issues of PlayStation Underground, along with seemingly as many game demos that could be packed on a single CD. Unlike PlayStation Underground these were available in most stores for $4.95, AKKU Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L
were published twice a year in Summer and Winter and usually spotlighted newly released or coming soon games. By 2001, Sony had decided to phase out Underground to focus on the JamPacks with the release of the PlayStation 2. PlayStation Underground CDs are mainly in the hands of collectors these days.[119] Sony VAIO PCG-5J1L Akku

The most notable of recent PlayStation commercials is the series of "It Only Does Everything" commercials featuring a fictional character called Kevin Butler who is a Vice President at PlayStation. These commercials usually advertise the PlayStation 3 and its games through a series of comedic answers to "Dear PlayStation" queries.[13Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L Akku
0] These commercials garnered popularity among gamers, though its debut commercial received criticism from the Nigerian government due to a reference to the common 419 scams originating in Nigeria. Sony issued an apology and a new version of the advert with the offending line changed was produced.[134] Sony VAIO PCG-5K2L Akku

A spin-off of the campaign has been created for the PlayStation Portable which features similar campaign commercials called the "Step Your Game Up" campaign featuring a fictional teenage character named Marcus Rivers acting in a similar fashion to Kevin Butler but answering the "Dear PlayStation" queries about the PSP.[127] Sony VAIO PCG-6S1L Akku

Netherlands Ceramic White PSP Commercials
In July 2006, an advertising campaign in the Netherlands was released in which a Caucasian model dressed entirely in white and a black model dressed entirely in black was used to compare Sony's new Ceramic White PSP and the original Piano Black PSP. This series of ads depicted both models fighting with each other[135] and drew criticism from the media for being racist, though Sony maintains that the ad did not feature any racist message.[136] Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L Akku

All I want for Xmas is a PSP
In November 2006, a marketing company employed by Sony's American division created a website entitled "All I want for Xmas is a PSP", designed to promote the PSP virally. The site contained a blog which was purportedly written by "Charlie", a teenager attempting to get his friend Jeremy's parents to buy him a PSP, Sony VAIO PCG-6W2L Akku
and providing a "music video" of either Charlie or Jeremy "rapping" about the PSP. Visitors to the website quickly recognized that the website was registered to a marketing company, exposing the campaign on sites such as YouTube and digg. Sony was forced to admit that the site was in fact a marketing campaign and in an interview with next-gen.biz, Sony admitted that the idea was "poorly executed".[137] Sony VAIO PCG-7111L Akku

Reception

         This section requires expansion with:
examples and additional citations.
In 2005, Australian newspaper The Age wrote an article about the PlayStation brand. Among the numerous interviews conducted with various people in the industry was an interview with Dr Jeffrey Brand, associate professor in communication and media at Bond University who said, "PlayStation re-ignited our imagination with video games". Sony VAIO PCG-7113L Akku
Game designers Yoshiki Okamoto called the brand "revolutionary — PlayStation has changed gaming, distribution, sales, image and more". while Evan Wells of Naughty Dog said "PlayStation is responsible for making playing games cool."[138] Sony VAIO PCG-7133L Akku

In 2009, ViTrue, Inc. listed the PlayStation brand as number 13 on their "The Vitrue 100: Top Social Brands of 2009". The ranking was based on various aspects mainly dealing with popular social media sites in aspects such as Social Networking, Video Sharing, Photo Sharing and Blogs.[139] Sony VAIO PCG-7z1L Akku

In 2010, Gizmodo stated that the PlayStation brand was one of the last Sony products to completely stand apart from its competitors, stating that "If you ask the average person on the street what their favorite Sony product is, more often than not you'll hear PlayStation".[140Sony VAIO PCG-8Y1L Akku
] As of April 2011, the PlayStation brand is the "most followed" brand on social networking site, Facebook, with over 11 million fans and followers in total which is more than any other brand in the entertainment industry. A study by Greenlight's Entertainment Retail has also shown that the PlayStation brand is the most interactive making 634 posts and tweets on social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.[141]vSony VAIO PCG-8Z1L Akku

Rather than trying to match the Japanese, the new management deliberately exploited the "retro" appeal of the machines, building motorcycles that deliberately adopted the look and feel of their earlier machines and the subsequent customizations of owners of that era. Many components such as brakes, forks, shocks, carburetors, electrics and wheels were outsourced from foreign manufacturers and quality increased, technical improvements were made, and buyers slowly returned. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L

 

 

Ford F-150 Super Crew
Harley-Davidson edition
The "Sturgis" model, boasting a dual belt-drive, was introduced. By 1990, with the introduction of the "Fat Boy", Harley once again became the sales leader in the heavyweight (over 750 cc) market. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6S1L
At the time of the Fat Boy model introduction a story rapidly spread that its silver paint job and other features were inspired by the World War II American B-29 bomber; and that the Fat Boy name was a combination of the names of the atomic bombs (Fat Man and Little Boy) that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima respectively. However, the Urban Legend Reference Pages lists this story as an urban legend.[46][47] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L

 

1993 and 1994 saw the replacement of FXR models with the Dyna(FXD), which became the sole rubber mount FX Big Twin frame in 1995. The FXR was revived briefly from 1999 to 2000 for special limited editions (FXR2,FXR3 & FXR4). Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6W3L

 

In 2000, Ford Motor Company added a Harley-Davidson edition to the Ford F-Series F-150 line, complete with the Harley-Davidson logo. This truck was a Super Cab for model year 2000. In 2001, Ford changed the truck to a Super Crew and in 2002 added a super-charged engine (5.4 L) which continued until 2003. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7112L
The 2003 model bore badges celebrating the 100th anniversaries of both companies. In 2004, the Ford/Harley was changed to a Super-Duty, which continues through 2009. Ford again produced a Harley-Davidson Edition F-150 for their 2006 model-year, as well. The Ford-F150 Harley-Davidson Edition continues in production for the 2011 model year. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7131L

 

Building started on $75 million 130,000 square-foot (12,000 m2) Harley-Davidson Museum in the Menomonee Valley on June 1, 2006. It opened in 2008 and houses the company's vast collection of historic motorcycles and corporate archives, along with a restaurant, café and meeting space.[48] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7133L

 

[edit] Buell Motorcycle Company

Main article: Buell Motorcycle Company
Harley-Davidson's association with sportbike manufacturer Buell Motorcycle Company began in 1987 when they supplied Buell with fifty surplus XR1000 engines. Buell continued to buy engines from Harley-Davidson until 1993, when Harley-Davidson bought forty-nine percent of the Buell Motorcycle Company.[49] Harley-Davidson increased its share in Buell to ninety-eight percent in 1998, and to complete ownership in 2003.[50] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7z1L

 

In an attempt to attract newcomers to motorcycling in general and to Harley-Davidson in particular, Buell developed a low-cost, low-maintenance motorcycle. The resulting single-cylinder Buell Blast was introduced in 2000,[51Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7z1L
] and was made through 2009, which, according to Buell, was to be the final year of production.[52] On October 15, 2009, the company issued an official statement that it would be discontinuing the Buell line and ceasing production immediately.[53] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-8Z1L

 

[edit] Claims of stock price manipulation

 

Harley Davidson Inc (NYSE:HOG) stock price (source: ZenoBank.com)
During its period of peak demand, during the late 1990s and early first decade of the 21st century, Harley-Davidson embarked on a program of expanding the number of dealerships throughout the country. At the same time, its current dealers typically had waiting lists that extended up to a year for some of the most popular models. Sony VGP-BPS9 Battery
Harley-Davidson, like the auto manufacturers, records a sale not when a consumer buys their product, but rather when it is delivered to a dealer. Therefore, it is possible for the manufacturer to inflate sales numbers by requiring dealers to accept more inventory than desired in a practice called channel stuffing. When demand softened following the unique 2003 model year, this news led to a dramatic decline in the stock price. In April 2004 alone, Sony VGP-BPS9A Battery
the price of HOG shares dropped from over $60 to under $40. Immediately prior to this decline, retiring CEO Jeffrey Bleustein profited $42 million on the exercise of employee stock options.[54] Harley-Davidson was named as a defendant in numerous class action suits filed by investors who claimed they were intentionally defrauded by Harley-Davidson's management and directors.[55] By January 2007, the price of Harley-Davidson shares reached $70. Sony VGP-BPS9B Battery

 

[edit] 2007 workers' strike

On February 2, 2007, upon the expiration of their union contract, about 2,700 employees at Harley-Davidson Inc.'s largest manufacturing plant in York, PA went on strike after failing to agree on wages and health benefits.[56][57] During the pendency of the strike, the company refused to pay for any portion of the striking employees' health care.[58] Sony VGP-BPS13 Battery

 

The day before the strike, after the union voted against the proposed contract and to authorize the strike, the company shut down all production at the plant. The York facility employs more than 3,200 workers, both union and non-union.[59]
Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/B Battery

Harley-Davidson announced on February 16, 2007, that it had reached a labor agreement with union workers at its largest manufacturing plant, a breakthrough in the two-week-old strike.[60] The strike disrupted Harley-Davidson's national production and had ripple effects as far away as Wisconsin, where 440 employees were laid off, and many Harley suppliers also laid off workers because of the strike.[61] Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13B/B Battery

 

[edit] MV Agusta Group

On July 11, 2008 Harley-Davidson announced they had signed a definitive agreement to acquire the MV Agusta Group for $109M USD (€70M). MV Agusta Group contains two lines of motorcycles: the high-performance MV Agusta brand and the lightweight Cagiva brand.[62][63] The acquisition was completed on August 8.[64] Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13/S Battery

 

On October 15, 2009, Harley-Davidson announced that it would divest its interest in MV Agusta.[53] Harley-Davidson Inc. sold Italian motorcycle maker MV Agusta to Claudio Castiglioni, ending the transaction on the first week of August 2010. Castiglioni is the company's former owner and had been MV Agusta's chairman since Harley-Davidson bought it in 2008.[65] Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/S Battery

 

[edit] Steps towards export to India

In August 2009, Harley-Davidson announced plans to enter the market in India, where, according to press releases, it expects to start selling its motorcycles in 2010. The company has established a subsidiary to be located in Gurgaon, near Delhi, and has begun the process of seeking dealers.[66] Plans to enter the Indian market have been delayed for several years, due to high tariffs and emissions regulations. The pollution regulations have recently changed, but the tariff problem is yet unresolved.[67] Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13B/S Battery

 

In 2007, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and the Minister for Commerce and Industry of India, Kamal Nath, had agreed that Harley-Davidson motorcycles will be allowed access to the Indian market in exchange for the export of Indian mangoes.[68] Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13/Q Battery
However, India had not specified emission standards for motorcycles over 500 cc displacement, effectively prohibiting the import of Harley-Davidsons, along with most models of other manufacturers.[69] Plans to export to India were also held up by import duties of 60% and taxes of 30%, which effectively doubled the sale price.[70] A Harley-Davidson spokesman said the company thinks demand is high enough to overcome the tariffs, and chief operating officer Matt Levatich said they would continue to push for lower tariffs.[67] Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/Q Battery

 

Harley Davidson is introducing 12 models in India from the range of five motorcycle families, namely Sportster, Dyna, VRSC, Softail and CVO. The motorcycles are completely built units and will be imported to India, thus attracting a tax over 100% in the price range of 695,000 rupees and 3,495,000 rupees ex-showroom. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13B/Q Battery
The bookings might start from April 2010 and the motorcycle delivery will commence from June 2010. To begin with, Harley Davidson would have five dealerships (Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chandigarh) with the aim of increasing the dealerships to more than 20 in the next five years.[71] In November 2010, Harley-Davidson said that it will start an assembly facility for complete knock down (CKD) kits of its motorcycles in India by the first half of 2011, making it only the second CKD facility outside the US.[72] Sony VGP-BPS21 Battery

 

[edit] Financial crisis

According to Interbrand, the value of the Harley-Davidson brand fell by 43% to $4.34 billion in 2009. The fall in value is believed to be connected to the 66% drop in the company profits in two quarters of the previous year.[73] On April 29, 2010, Harley-Davidson stated that they must cut $54 million in manufacturing costs from its production facilities in Wisconsin, and that they would explore alternate U.S. sites to accomplish this. Sony VGP-BPS21A Battery
The announcement came in the wake of a massive company-wide restructuring, which began in early 2009 and involved the closing of two factories, one distribution center, and the planned elimination of nearly 25% of its total workforce (around 3,500 employees). The company announced on September 14, 2010 that it would remain in Wisconsin.[74] Sony VGP-BPS21B Battery

 

[edit] Harley-Davidson engines

 

V-twin in an H-D Fat Boy
Main article: Harley-Davidson engine timeline
The classic Harley-Davidson engines are two-cylinder, V-twin engines with the pistons mounted in a 45° "V". The crankshaft has a single pin, and both pistons are connected to this pin through their connecting rods.[5]
Sony VGP-BPS21/S Battery

This 45° angle is covered under several United States patents and is an engineering tradeoff that allows a large, high-torque engine in a relatively small space. It causes the cylinders to fire at uneven intervals and produces the choppy "potato-potato" sound so strongly linked to the Harley-Davidson brand. Sony VGP-BPS21A/b Battery

 

To simplify the engine and reduce costs, the V-twin ignition was designed to operate with a single set of points and no distributor. This is known as a dual fire ignition system, causing both spark plugs to fire regardless of which cylinder was on its compression stroke, with the other spark plug firing on its cylinder's exhaust stroke, effectively "wasting a spark".Sony VGP-BPS14 battery  The exhaust note is basically a throaty growling sound with some popping. The 45° design of the engine thus creates a plug firing sequencing as such: The first cylinder fires, the second (rear) cylinder fires 315° later, then there is a 405° gap until the first cylinder fires again, giving the engine its unique sound.[75] Sony VGP-BPS14/S battery 

 

Harley-Davidson has used various ignition systems throughout its history - be it the early points/condenser system, (Big Twin up to 1978 and Sportsters 1970 to 1978), magneto ignition system used on 1958 to 1969 Sportsters, early electronic with centrifugal mechanical advance weights, (all models 1978 and a half to 1979), or the late electronic with transistorized ignition control module, more familiarly known as the black box or the brain, (all models 1980 to present). Sony VGP-BPS14/B battery 

 

Starting in 1995, the company introduced Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) as an option for the 30th anniversary edition Electra Glide.[76] With the introduction of the 2007 product line, EFI is now standard on all models, including Sportsters.[77] Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L Battery

 

In 1991, Harley-Davidson began to participate in the Sound Quality Working Group, founded by Orfield Labs, Bruel and Kjaer, TEAC, Yamaha, Sennheiser, SMS and Cortex. This was the nation's first group to share research on psychological acoustics. Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L Battery
Later that year, Harley-Davidson participated in a series of sound quality studies at Orfield Labs, based on recordings taken at the Talladega Superspeedway, with the objective to lower the sound level for EU standards while analytically capturing the "Harley Sound."[citation needed] This research resulted in the bikes that were introduced in compliance with EU standards for 1998. Sony VAIO PCG-5J1L Battery

 

On February 1, 1994, the company filed a sound trademark application for the distinctive sound of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle engine: "The mark consists of the exhaust sound of applicant's motorcycles, produced by V-twin, common crankpin motorcycle engines when the goods are in use".Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L Battery
Nine of Harley-Davidson's competitors filed comments opposing the application, arguing that cruiser-style motorcycles of various brands use a single-crankpin V-twin engine which produce a similar sound.[78] These objections were followed by litigation. In June 2000, the company dropped efforts to federally register its trademark.[79][80]
Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L Battery

 

Electra Glide "Ultra Classic" in Bristol

The Revolution engine is based on the VR-1000 Superbike race program, developed by Harley-Davidson's Powertrain Engineering team and Porsche Engineering in Stuttgart, Germany. It is a liquid cooled, dual overhead cam, internally counterbalanced 60 degree V-twin engine with a displacement of 69 cubic inch (1130 cc), producing 115 hp (86 kW) at 8250 rpm at the crank, with a redline of 9000 rpm.[81][82] It was introduced for the new V-Rod line in 2001 for the 2002 model year, starting with the single VRSCA (V-Twin Racing Street Custom) model.[83][84] Sony VAIO PCG-6W3L Battery

 

A 1,250 cc Screamin' Eagle version of the Revolution engine was made available for 2005 and 2006, and was present thereafter in a single production model from 2005 to 2007. In 2008, the 1,250 cc Revolution Engine became standard for the entire VRSC line. Harley-Davidson claims 123 hp (92 kW) at the crank for the 2008 VRSCAW model. The VRXSE Destroyer is equipped with a stroker (75 mm crank) Screamin' Eagle 79 cubic inch (1,300 cc) Revolution Engine, producing over 165 hp (123 kW). Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2L Battery

 

[edit] Model designations

 

This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since January 2009.
It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since January 2009.
Harley model designations are a sequence of letters and numbers, combined in limited ways. The sequences can be long, as in the 2006 model designation FLHTCUSE. Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L Battery

 

The first letter may be one of the following:

K (1950s flathead small twin), E, F (1936-* single cam OHV big twin), U, V (1930-48 four cam flathead big twin), D, G, R, W (flathead small twin), X (Sportster OHV), or V (VRSC)
since 1984 only F (Big Twin), X (Sportster) and V (V_ROD) have been used regularly. Sony VAIO PCG-7113L Battery

 

Letters are appended singly or in pairs, as follows:

B (BLACKED OUT ie Street Bob, Night Train, and Cross Bones models), C (Classic or Custom), CW (Custom Wide (2008 Softail Rocker)) D (Dyna chasis or Softail Deuce), E (Electric start), F (Fat Boy (1990–present); Fat Bob (2008–present) or Foot-shift (1972 and prior)), H (HANDLE BAR/ FRONT END MOUNTED FAIRING. ie bat wing fairing/quick release windshield.), I (Fuel injection), L (Low Rider)), N {(Nostalgia as in Softail Deluxe/Nostalgia/Special) and Nightster in Sportster family} P (Police), R (Race, Road King, or Rubber-mount), S (Sport, Springer), ST (Softail), T (FRAME MOUNTED FAIRING), WG (Wide Glide), SE (Screamin' Eagle), U (Ultra) X (FLHX Street Glide), sport in Dyna models, and Street Glide in Touring models.) XT (T-Sport Dyna Model). Sony VAIO PCG-7133L Battery

Custom Vehicle Operations models can also have a number (2,3,4) added.

Note that these conventions for model designations are broken regularly by the company.

[edit] Current model designations

 

2001 883 Sportster Hugger
Sportster With the exception of the street-going XR1000 of the 1980s and the XR1200 most Sportsters made for street use have the prefix XL in their model designation. For the Sportster Evolution engines used since the mid 1980s, there have been two engine sizes. Motorcycles with the smaller engine are designated XL883, Sony VAIO PCG-7Z2L Battery
while those with the larger engine were initially designated XL1100. When the size of the larger engine was increased from 1,100 cc to 1,200 cc, the designation was changed accordingly from XL1100 to XL1200. Subsequent letters in the designation refer to model variations within the Sportster range, e.g. the XL883C refers to an 883 cc Sportster Custom, while the XL1200S designates the now-discontinued 1200 Sportster Sport. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/S Battery

Dyna models utilize the big-twin engine (F), small-diameter telescopic forks similar to those used on the Sportster (X), and the Dyna chassis (D). Therefore, all Dyna models have designations that begin with FXD, e.g., FXDWG (Dyna Wide Glide) and FXDL (Dyna Low Rider). Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/T Battery

Softail models utilize the big-twin engine (F) and the Softail chassis (ST).
Softail models that use small-diameter telescopic forks similar to those used on the Sportster (X) have designations that begin with FXST, e.g., FXSTB (Night Train), FXSTD (Deuce), and FXSTS (Springer).
Softail models that use large-diameter telescopic forks similar to those used on the touring bikes (L) have designations beginning with FLST, e.g., FLSTF (Fat Boy), FLSTC (Heritage Softail Classic), and FLSTN (Softail Deluxe).
Softail models that use Springer forks with a 21-inch (530 mm) wheel have designations that begin with FXSTS, e.g., FXSTS (Springer Softail) and FXSTSB (Bad Boy). Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/T Battery

Softail models that use Springer forks with a 16-inch (410 mm) wheel have designations that begin with FLSTS, e.g., FLSTSC (Springer Classic) and FLSTSB (Cross Bones).
Touring models use Big-Twin engines and large-diameter telescopic forks. All Touring designations begin with the letters FL, e.g., FLHR (Road King) and FLTR (Road Glide). Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/S Battery

Revolution models utilize the Revolution engine (VR), and the street versions are designated Street Custom (SC). After the VRSC prefix common to all street Revolution bikes, the next letter denotes the model, either A (base V-Rod: discontinued), AW (base V-Rod + W for Wide with a 240 mm rear tire), B (discontinued), D (Night Rod: discontinued), R (Street Rod: discontinued), SE and SEII(CVO Special Edition), or X (Special edition). Further differentiation within models are made with an additional letter, e.g., VRSCDX denotes the Night Rod Special. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11M/S Battery

The factory drag bike, the VRXSE Destroyer, uses X instead of SC to denote a non-street bike and SE to denote a CVO Special Edition
[edit] Model families

Modern Harley-branded motorcycles fall into one of five model families: Touring, Softail, Dyna, Sportster and VRSC. Model families are distinguished by the frame, engine, suspension, and other characteristics.
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[edit] Touring

 

Hamburg Police Electra Glide.
See also: Harley-Davidson FL
The touring family, also known as "dressers", includes three Road King models and Electra Glide models offered in various trim. The Road Kings have a "retro cruiser" appearance and are equipped with a large clear windshield. Road Kings are reminiscent of big-twin models from the 1940s and 1950s. Electra Glides can be identified by their full front fairings. Most Electra Glides sport a fork-mounted fairing referred to as the "Batwing" due to its unmistakable shape. The Road Glide has a frame-mounted fairing, referred to as the "Sharknose". The Sharknose includes a unique, dual front headlight. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11Z/T Battery

Touring models are distinguishable by their large saddlebags, rear coil-over air suspension and are the only models to offer full fairings with Radios/CBs. All touring models use the same frame, first introduced with a Shovelhead motor in 1980, and carried forward with only modest upgrades until 2009, when it was extensively redesigned. The frame is distinguished by the location of the steering head in front of the forks and was the first H-D frame to rubber mount the drivetrain to isolate the rider from the vibration of the big V-twin. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11Z/S Battery

 

The frame was modified for the 1994 model year when the oil tank went under the transmission and the battery was moved inboard from under the right saddlebag to under the seat. In 1997, the frame was again modified to allow for a larger battery under the seat and to lower seat height. In 2007, Harley introduced the 96-cubic-inch (1,570 cc) engine, as well the six-speed transmission to give the rider better speeds on the highway. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11 Battery

 

In years past, these touring models have become favorites with several local and state police agencies, such as the Chicago Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Iowa State Patrol, and several others. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M Battery

 

In 2006, Harley introduced the FLHX, a bike designed by Willie G. Davidson to be his personal ride, to its touring line.[85]

In 2008, Harley added anti-lock braking systems and cruise control as a factory installed option on all touring models.[86] Also new for 2008 is the 6-US-gallon (23 l; 5.0 imp gal) fuel tank for all touring models.

For the 2009 model year, Harley-Davidson has redesigned the entire touring range with several changes, including a new frame, new swingarm, a completely revised engine-mounting system, 17-inch (430 mm) front wheels for all but the FLHRC, and a 2-1-2 exhaust. The changes result in greater load carrying capacity, better handling, a smoother engine, longer range and less exhaust heat transmitted to the rider and passenger.[87][88] Also released for the 2009 model year is the FLHTCUTG Tri-Glide Ultra Classic, the first three-wheeled Harley since the Servi-Car was discontinued in 1973. The model features a unique frame and a 103-cubic-inch (1,690 cc) engine exclusive to the trike.[89] Sony VAIO VGN-FW11S Battery

 

[edit] Softail

 

2002 Softail Heritage Classic.
Main article: Softail
These big-twin motorcycles capitalize on Harley's strong value on tradition. With the rear-wheel suspension hidden under the transmission, they are visually similar to the "hardtail" choppers popular in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as from their own earlier history. In keeping with that tradition, Harley offers Softail models with "Springer" front ends and "Heritage" styling that incorporate design cues from throughout their history. Sony VAIO VGN-FW139E/H Battery

 

[edit] Dyna

Main article: Harley-Davidson Super Glide

 

2005 Dyna Super Glide Custom.
Dyna-frame motorcycles were developed in the 80's and early 90's and debuted in the 1991 model year with the FXDB Sturgis offered in limited edition quantities. In 1992 the line continued with the limited edition FXDB Daytona and a production model FXD Super Glide. The new DYNA frame featured big-twin engines and traditional styling. They can be distinguished from the Softail by the traditional coil-over suspension that connects the swingarm to the frame, and from the Sportster by their larger engines. On these models, the transmission also houses the engine's oil reservoir. Sony VAIO VGN-FW17T/H Battery

 

In 2006, Harley-Davidson released a line-up of five Dyna models: Super Glide, Super Glide Custom, Street Bob, Low Rider, and Wide Glide.

In 2008, the Dyna Fat Bob was introduced to the Dyna line-up featuring aggressive styling, including a new 2-1-2 exhaust, twin headlamps, a 180 mm rear tire and a 130 mm front tire.

The Dyna family uses the 88-cubic-inch (1,440 cc) twin cam from 1999 to 2006. From 2007 and on, the displacement was increased to 96 cubic inches. This was the result of the factory increasing the stroke to 4 3/8" inches. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21L Battery

 

[edit] Sportster

Main article: Harley-Davidson Sportster

 

2002 Sportster 883 Custom

 

2003 Harley Davidson XL1200 Custom Anniversary Edition
Introduced in 1957, the Sportster family were conceived as racing motorcycles, and were popular on dirt and flat-track race courses through the 1960s and 1970s. Smaller and lighter than the other Harley models, contemporary Sportsters make use of 883 cc or 1,200 cc Evolution engines and, though often modified, remain similar in appearance to their racing ancestors.[90] Sony Vaio VGN-FW31ZJ Battery

Up until the 2003 model year, the engine on the Sportster was rigidly mounted to the frame. The 2004 Sportster received a new frame accommodating a rubber-mounted engine. Although this made the bike heavier and reduced the available lean angle, it reduced the amount of vibration transmitted to the frame and the rider.[91] The rubber mounted engine provides a significantly smoother ride for rider and passenger, allowing longer trips. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M Battery

 

In the 2007 model year, Harley-Davidson celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Sportster and produced a limited edition called the XL50, of which only 2000 were made for sale worldwide. Each motorcycle was individually numbered and came in one of two colors, Mirage Pearl Orange or Vivid Black. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M Battery
Also in 2007, electronic fuel injection was introduced to the Sportster family, and the Nightster model was introduced in mid-year. In 2009, Harley-Davidson added the Iron 883 to the Sportster line, the newest in the Dark Custom series.
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In the 2008 model year, Harley-Davidson released the XR1200 Sportster in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The XR1200 had an Evolution engine tuned to produce 91 bhp (68 kW), four-piston dual front disc brakes, and an aluminum swing arm. Motorcyclist featured the XR1200 on the cover of its July 2008 issue and was generally positive about it in their "First Ride" story, in which Harley-Davidson was repeatedly asked to sell it in the United States.[ Sony Vaio VGN-FW51B/W Battery
92] One possible reason for the delayed availability in the United States was the fact that Harley-Davidson had to obtain the "XR1200" naming rights from Storz Performance, a Harley customizing shop in Ventura, Calif.[93] The XR1200 was released in the United States in 2009 in a special color scheme including Mirage Orange highlighting its dirt-tracker heritage. The first 750 XR1200 models in 2009 were pre-ordered and came with a number 1 tag for the front of the bike, autographed by Kenny Coolbeth and Scott Parker and a thank you/welcome letter from the company, signed by Bill Davidson.[citation needed] Sony VGP-BPS13A/B Battery

 

[edit] VRSC

Main article: Harley-Davidson VRSC

 

V-Rod in a gravel driveway.
Introduced in 2001, the VRSC family bears little resemblance to Harley's more traditional lineup. Competing against Japanese and American muscle bikes and seeking to expand its market appeal, the "V-Rod" makes use of an engine developed jointly with Porsche that, for the first time in Harley history, incorporates overhead cams, and liquid cooling. Sony VGP-BPS13B/B Battery
The V-Rod is visually distinctive, easily identified by the 60-degree V-Twin engine, the radiator and the hydroformed frame members that support the round-topped air cleaner cover. Based on the VR-1000 racing motorcycle, it continues to be a platform around which Harley-Davidson builds drag-racing competition machines.
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In 2008, Harley added the anti-lock braking system as a factory installed option on all VRSC models.[86] Harley also increased the displacement of the stock engine from 1,130 to 1,250 cc (69 to 76 cu in), which had only previously been available from Screamin' Eagle, and added a slipper clutch as standard equipment. Sony VGP-BPS13/S Battery

 

The VRXSE V-Rod Destroyer is Harley-Davidson's production drag racing motorcycle, constructed to run the quarter mile in under ten seconds. It is based on the same revolution engine that powers the VRSC line, but the VRXSE uses the Sceamin' Eagle 1,300 cc "stroked" incarnation, featuring a 75 mm crankshaft, 105 mm Pistons, and 58 mm throttle bodies. Sony VGP-BPS13/S Battery

 

The V-Rod Destroyer is not a street legal motorcycle.

[edit] Environmental record

The Environmental Protection Agency conducted emissions-certification and representative emissions test in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2005. Subsequently, Harley-Davidson produced an "environmental warranty." The warranty ensures each owner that the vehicle is designed and built free of any defects in materials and workmanship that would cause the vehicle to not meet EPA standards.[9Sony VGP-BPS13/S Battery
4] In 2005, the EPA and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) confirmed Harley-Davidson to be the first corporation to voluntarily enroll in the One Clean-Up Program. This program is designed for the clean-up of the affected soil and groundwater at the former York Naval Ordnance Plant. The program is backed by the state and local government along with participating organizations and corporations.[95] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

Paul Gotthold, Director of Operations for the EPA, congratulated the motor company:

“    
"Harley-Davidson has taken their environmental responsibilities very seriously and has already made substantial progress in the investigation and cleanup of past contamination. Proof of Harley's efforts can be found in the recent EPA determination that designates the Harley property as 'under control' for cleanup purposes. Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery
This determination means that there are no serious contamination problems at the facility. Under the new One Cleanup Program, Harley, EPA, and PADEP will expedite the completion of the property investigation and reach a final solution that will permanently protect human health and the environment."[95]
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”
Harley-Davidson has also purchased most of Castalloy, which is a South Australian producer of cast motorcycle wheels and hubs. The South Australian government has set forth "protection to the purchaser (Harley-Davidson) against environmental risks."[96] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

[edit] Harley-Davidson culture

 

Harley Davidson Cafe theme restaurant located in Las Vegas
According to a recent Harley-Davidson study, in 1987 half of all Harley riders were under age 35.[97] Now, only 15% of Harley buyers are under 35,[97] and as of 2005, the median age had risen to 46.7.[98][99][100][101] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

The income of the average Harley-Davidson rider has risen, as well. In 1987, the median household income of a Harley-Davidson rider was $38,000. By 1997, the median household income for those riders had more than doubled, to $83,000.[97][clarification needed] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

Harley-Davidson attracts a loyal brand community,[102] with licensing of the Harley-Davidson logo accounting for almost 5% of the company's net revenue ($41 million in 2004).[103] Harley-Davidson supplies many American police forces with their motorcycle fleets.[104]

Harley-Davidson motorcycles has long been associated with the sub-cultures of the biker, motorcycle clubs, and Outlaw motorcycle clubs, or one percentersSony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

[edit] Origin of "Hog" nickname

Beginning in 1920, a team of farm boys, including Ray Weishaar, who became known as the "hog boys," consistently won races. The group had a live hog as their mascot. Following a win, they would put the hog on their Harley and take a victory lap.[105Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery
] In 1983, the Motor Company formed a club for owners of its product taking advantage of the long-standing nickname by turning "hog" into the acronym HOG., for Harley Owners Group. Harley-Davidson attempted to trademark "hog", but lost a case against an independent Harley-Davidson specialist, The Hog Farm of West Seneca, NY,[106] in 1999 when the appellate panel ruled that "hog" had become a generic term for large motorcycles and was therefore unprotectable as a trademark.[107] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

On August 15, 2006, Harley-Davidson Inc. had its NYSE ticker symbol changed from HDI to HOG.[108]

WHQG, a mainstream rock radio station which serves the Milwaukee metropolitan area, uses the moniker in their official callsign (102.9 The Hog) as a tribute to their home town motorcycle manufacturer, as well as its fans and riders.
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[edit] Harley-Davidson Riders Club of Great Britain

 

This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011) Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

The Harley-Davidson Riders Club of Great Britain (est 1949) was the first British riders club and organized national rallies and ride-outs from the outset. The 1982 rally began a popular run of events, probably due to the good fortune of having William G. Davidson attending his first rally outside the U.S., in Great Britain. He is thought to have been more than curious to discover how the secret "Evolution Motor" had found its world exclusive on the cover of the spring edition of the HDRCGB magazine, the "Harleyquin", but having a forgiving nature, Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery
Willie G. returned in 1984, along with Vaughn Beals and Len Thomson to officially show off the Evolution engine by bringing a test ride fleet to the second Brighton International Super Rally run by H.D.R.C.G.B.. The demonstration rides were the first at any European Rally. The club now has circa 1,800 members throughout the U. K., U.S.A. and Europe not forgetting their founder member in Australia. The club is split into regions and most hold rallies during the summer culminating in the club's International Rally. Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

 

Harley-Davidson 2004 Heritage
[edit] Harley Owners Group

Main article: Harley Owners Group
Harley-Davidson established the Harley Owners Group (HOG) in 1983 to build on the strong loyalty and fraternity of Harley-Davidson enthusiasts as a means to promote not just a consumer product, but a lifestyle. The HOG has also served to open new revenue streams for the company, with the production of tie-in merchandise offered to club members, numbering over one million strong. Other motorcycle brands,[109Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery
] and other and consumer brands outside motorcycling, have tried to imitate the Harley-Davidson's success in this endeavor by creating factory-sponsored community marketing clubs of their own.[110] HOG members typically spend 30% more than other Harley owners, on such items as clothing and Harley-Davidson-sponsored events.[111] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

In 1991, HOG went international, with the first official European HOG Rally in Cheltenham, England.[112] Today, more than one million members and more than 1400 chapters worldwide make HOG the largest factory-sponsored motorcycle organization in the world.[113] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

HOG benefits include organized group rides, exclusive products and product discounts, insurance premium discounts, and the Hog Tales newsletter. A one year full membership is included with the purchase of a new, unregistered Harley-Davidson.[114] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

In 2008, HOG celebrated its 25th anniversary in conjunction with the Harley 105th in Milwaukee Wisconsin.

[edit] Factory tours and museum

 

Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee
Harley-Davidson offers factory tours at four of its manufacturing sites, and the Harley-Davidson Museum, which opened in 2008, exhibits Harley-Davidson's history, culture, and vehicles, including the motor company's corporate archives.[115][116] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

 

York, Pennsylvania - Vehicle Operations: Manufacturing site for Touring class, Softail, and custom vehicles.
Tomahawk, Wisconsin - Tomahawk Operations: Facility that makes sidecars, saddlebags, windshields, and more.
Kansas City, Missouri - Vehicle and Powertrain Operations: Manufacturing site of Sportster, VRSC, and other vehicles.
Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin - Pilgrim Road Powertrain Operations plant, two types of tours.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Harley-Davidson Museum: Archive; exhibits of people, products, culture and history; restaurant & café; and museum store.
Due to the consolidation of operations, the Capitol Drive Tour Center in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin was closed in 2009.
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[edit] Anniversary celebrations

Beginning with Harley-Davidson's 90th anniversary in 1993, Harley-Davidson has had celebratory rides to Milwaukee called the "Ride Home".[117] This new tradition has continued every 5 years, and is referred to unofficially as "Harleyfest," in line with Milwaukee's other festivals (Summerfest, German fest, Festa Italiana, etc.). This event brings Harley riders from all around the world.[118][119] The 105th anniversary celebration was held on August 28–31, 2008,[120] and included events in Milwaukee, WauDell XPS M1710 battery
Dell XPS M1310 battery
kesha, Racine, and Kenosha counties, in Southeast Wisconsin.

[edit] Video games and pinball machines

There were several games inspiring Harley-Davidson motorcycles. The first one being Harley-Davidson: The Road to Sturgis, released for the Amiga in 1989. Several other Harley-Davidson games were released for the PC, PlayStation 2, and the Wii. Dell XPS M1710 battery
Dell XPS M1310 battery

 

A couple of arcade games that inspired Harley-Davidson motorcycles were released by Sega. One being Harley-Davidson & L.A. Riders, and the other being Harley-Davidson: King of the Road.

Two pinball games were also inspired by Harley-Davidson motorcycles. In 1991, Bally made "Harley Davidson", which was the last Bally game to have alphanumeric score displays. Stern also made a pinball in the early 2000s, which was also titled "Harley Davidson". The Stern pinball machine offers three multiball modes, a shaker motor, and replica motorcycles. The replicas include the 1999 FLSTF Fat Boy 1/10 scale, the 2000 FLSTF Fat Boy 1/18 scale, and the 2001 FLSTS Heritage Springer 1/18 scale. Dell XPS M1710 battery
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[edit] Labor Hall of Fame

Because William S. Harley, Arthur Davidson, William A. Davidson and Walter Davidson, Sr. used and believed in H-D products and relied on the dedication of its employees to produce quality motorcycles, the four men were inducted into the Labor Hall of Fame.[121] Dell XPS M1710 battery
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motorcycle

A motorcycle (also called a motorbike, bike, or cycle) is a single-track, engine-powered,[1] two-wheeled[2] motor vehicle. Motorcycles vary considerably depending on the task for which they are designed, such as long distance travel, navigating congested urban traffic, cruising, sport and racing, or off-road conditions. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13

 

Motorcycles are one of the most affordable forms of motorised transport in many parts of the world and, for most of the world's population, they are also the most common type of motor vehicle.[3][4][5] There are around 200 million motorcycles (including mopeds, motor scooters and other powered two and three-wheelers) in use worldwide,[ AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13A/B
6] or about 33 motorcycles per 1000 people. This compares to around 590 million cars, or about 91 per 1000 people. Most of the motorcycles, 58%, are in the developing countries of Asia—Southern and Eastern Asia, and the Asia Pacific countries, excluding Japan—while 33% of the cars (195 million) are concentrated in the United States and Japan. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13B/B
As of 2002, India with an estimated 37 million motorcycles/mopeds was home to the largest number of motorised two wheelers in the world. China came a close second with 34 million motorcycles/mopeds.[7][8] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13/S

Replica of the Daimler-Maybach Petroleum Reitwagen.
The first internal combustion, petroleum fueled motorcycle was the Petroleum Reitwagen. It was designed and built by the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in Bad Cannstatt, Germany in 1885.[9AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13B/S
] This vehicle was unlike either the safety bicycles or the boneshaker bicycles of the era in that it had zero degrees of steering axis angle and no fork offset, and thus did not use the principles of bicycle and motorcycle dynamics developed nearly 70 years earlier. Instead, it relied on two outrigger wheels to remain upright while turning.[1AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13A/S
0] The inventors called their invention the Reitwagen ("riding car"). It was designed as an expedient testbed for their new engine, rather than a true prototype vehicle.[11][12] Many authorities who exclude steam powered, electric or diesel two-wheelers from the definition of a motorcycle, credit the Daimler Reitwagen as the world's first motorcycle.[13][14][15] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13A/Q

 

If a two-wheeled vehicle with steam propulsion is considered a motorcycle, then the first was the French Michaux-Perreaux steam velocipede of 1868.[11][12] This was followed by the American Roper steam velocipede of 1869, built by Sylvester H. Roper Roxbury, Massachusetts.[11][12] Roper demonstrated his machine at fairs and circuses in the eastern U.S. in 1867,[9] and built a total of 10 examples.[15] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13B/Q

 

In 1894, Hildebrand & Wolfmüller became the first series production motorcycle, and the first to be called a motorcycle (German: Motorrad).[11][12][15][16] In the early period of motorcycle history, many producers of bicycles adapted their designs to accommodate the new internal combustion engine. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13Q
As the engines became more powerful and designs outgrew the bicycle origins, the number of motorcycle producers increased.

Until World War I, the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world was Indian,[17][18] producing over 20,000 bikes per year.[19] By 1920, this honour went to Harley-Davidson,[citation needed] with their motorcycles being sold by dealers in 67 countries.[20][21] By the late 1920s or early 1930s, DKW took over as the largest manufacturer. Sony VGP-BPL8 Battery

 

After World War II, the BSA Group became the largest producer of motorcycles in the world, producing up to 75,000 bikes per year in the 1950s.[citation needed] The German company NSU held the position of largest manufacturer from 1955 until the 1970s.[citation needed] Sony VGN-FZ130E/B Battery

 

NSU Sportmax streamlined motorcycle, 250 cc class winner of the 1955 Grand Prix season
In the 1950s, streamlining began to play an increasing part in the development of racing motorcycles and the "dustbin fairing" held out the possibility of radical changes to motorcycle design. NSU and Moto Guzzi were in the vanguard of this development, both producing very radical designs well ahead of their time.[2Sony VGN-FZ130E/BB Battery
5] NSU produced the most advanced design, but after the deaths of four NSU riders in the 1954–1956 seasons, they abandoned further development and quit Grand Prix motorcycle racing.[26] Moto Guzzi produced competitive race machines, and by 1957 nearly all the Grand Prix races were being won by streamlined machines.[citation needed] The following year, 1958, full enclosure fairings were banned from racing by the FIM in the light of the safety concerns. Sony VGP-BPL9 Akku

 

From the 1960s through the 1990s, small two-stroke motorcycles were popular worldwide, partly as a result of East German Walter Kaaden's engine work in the 1950s.[27] Sony VGP-BPL9/B Akku

 

Today, the motorcycle industry is mainly dominated by Japanese companies such as Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Yamaha, although Harley-Davidson and BMW continue to be popular and supply considerable markets. Other major manufacturers include Piaggio group of Italy, KTM, Triumph and Ducati. Sony VGP-BPL9/S Akku

 

In addition to the large capacity motorcycles, there is a large market in smaller capacity (less than 300 cc) motorcycles, mostly concentrated in Asian and African countries. An example is the 1958 Honda Super Cub, which went on to become the biggest selling vehicle of all time, with its 60 millionth unit produced in April 2008.[28] Sony VGP-BPL9A/B Akku
Today, this area is dominated by mostly Indian companies with Hero Honda emerging as the world's largest manufacturer of two wheelers. Other major producers are Bajaj and TVS Motors.[29] For example, its Splendor model has sold more than 8.5 million to date.[30] Sony VGP-BPL9A Akku

 

[edit] Technical aspects

 

A Suzuki GS500 with a clearly visible frame (painted silver).
[edit] Construction

See also: Motorcycle construction and Motorcycle design
Motorcycle construction is the engineering, manufacturing, and assembly of components and systems for a motorcycle which results in the performance, cost, and aesthetics desired by the designer. Sony VGP-BPL9 Akku
With some exceptions, construction of modern mass-produced motorcycles has standardised on a steel or aluminium frame, telescopic forks holding the front wheel, and disc brakes. Some other body parts, designed for either aesthetic or performance reasons may be added. A petrol powered engine typically consisting of between one and four cylinders (and less commonly, up to eight cylinders) coupled to a manual five- or six-speed sequential transmission drives the swingarm-mounted rear wheel by a chain, driveshaft or belt. Sony VGP-BPS21 Akku

 

[edit] Fuel economy

Motorcycle fuel economy varies greatly with engine displacement and riding style[31] ranging from a low of 29 mpg-US (8.1 L/100 km; 35 mpg-imp) reported by a Honda VTR1000F rider,[32] to 107 mpg-US (2.20 L/100 km; 129 mpg-imp) reported for the Verucci Nitro 50 cc Scooter.[33] A specially designed Matzu Matsuzawa Honda XL125 achieved 470 mpg-US (0.50 L/100 km; 560 mpg-imp) "on real highways - in real conditions."[3Sony VGP-BPS21A Akku
4] Due to lower engine displacements (100 cc–200 cc), motorcycles in developing countries offer good fuel economy.[citation needed] In the Indian market, the second best selling company, Bajaj, offers two models with superior fuel economy: XCD 125 and Platina. Both are 125 cc motorbikes with a company-claimed fuel economy of 256 mpg-US (0.919 L/100 km; 307 mpg-imp) and 261 mpg-US (0.901 L/100 km; 313 mpg-imp), respectively.[citation needed] Sony VGP-BPS21B Akku

 

[edit] Electric motorcycles

Main article: Electric motorcycle
Very high fuel economy equivalents can be derived by electric motorcycles. Electric motorcycles are nearly silent, zero-emission electric motor-driven vehicles. Operating range and top speed suffer because of limitations of battery technology.[citation needed] Fuel cells and petroleum-electric hybrids are also under development to extend the range and improve performance of the electric motors.
Sony VGP-BPS21A/B Akku

[edit] Dynamics

 

Racing motorcycles leaning in a turn.
Main article: Bicycle and motorcycle dynamics
Different types of motorcycles have different dynamics and these play a role in how a motorcycle performs in given conditions. For example, one with a longer wheelbase provides the feeling of more stability by responding less to disturbances.[35] Motorcycle tyres have a large influence over handling. Sony VGP-BPS21/S Akku

 

Motorcycles must be leaned in order to make turns. This lean is induced by the method known as countersteering, in which the rider momentarily steers the handlebars in the direction opposite of the desired turn. Because it is counter-intuitive this practice is often very confusing to novices—and even to many experienced motorcyclists.[36] Akku Sony VGP-BPL14

 

Short wheelbase motorcycles, such as sport bikes, can generate enough torque at the rear wheel, and enough stopping force at the front wheel, to lift the opposite wheel off the road. These actions, if performed on purpose, are known as wheelies and stoppies respectively. If carried past the point of recovery the resulting upset is known as an "endo" (short for "end-over-end"), or "looping" the vehicle. Akku Sony VGP-BPS14/S

[edit] Accessories

Main article: Motorcycle accessories
Various features and accessories may be attached to a motorcycle either as OEM (factory-fitted) or after-market. Such accessories are selected by the owner to enhance the motorcycle's appearance, safety, performance, or comfort, and may include anything from mobile electronics to sidecars and trailers. Akku Sony VGP-BPS14/B  

[edit] Social aspects

Main article: Motorcycling
[edit] Popularity

 

Motorbikes are the primary form of transportation in Vietnam.
In numerous cultures, motorcycles are the primary means of motorised transport. According to the Taiwanese government, for example, "the number of automobiles per ten thousand population is around 2,500, and the number of motorcycles is about 5,000."[37] In places such as Vietnam, motorised traffic consist of mostly motorbikes[4] due to a lack of public transport and low income levels that put automobiles out of reach for many.[3] AKKU sony VAIO VGN-FW21E

 

The four largest motorcycle markets in the world are all in Asia: China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.[3] The motorcycle is also popular in Brazil's frontier towns.[5] Amid the global economic downturn of 2008, the motorcycle market grew by 6.5%.[38] AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW21L

 

Recent years have seen an increase in the popularity of motorcycles elsewhere. In the USA, registrations increased by 51% between 2000 and 2005.[39] This is mainly attributed to increasing fuel prices and urban congestion.[ AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z
40] A Consumer Reports subscribers' survey of mainly United States motorcycle and scooter owners reported that they rode an average of only 1,000 miles (1,600 km) per year, 82% for recreation and 38% for commuting.[41] Americans put 10,000–12,000 miles (16,000–19,000 km) per year on their cars and light trucks.[42]vAKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M

 

[edit] Subcultures

 

Sunbeam motorcycle owners rally, 2008.

 

A Hells Angels wall mural in Southampton, UK
See also: Motorcycle club, Outlaw motorcycle club, and Category:Motorcycling subculture
Around the world, motorcycles have historically been associated with subcultures. Some of these subcultures have been loose-knit social groups such as the cafe racers of 1950s Britain, and the Mods and Rockers of the 1960s. A few are believed to be criminal gangs. Books about motorcycle subcultures include Hunter S. Thompson's Hells Angels (1966), Lee Gutkind's Bike Fever (1974), and Daniel R. Wolf's The Rebels (1991). AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M

 

Social motorcyclist organisations are popular and are sometimes organised geographically, focus on individual makes, or even specific models. Example motorcycle clubs include: American Motorcyclist Association, Harley Owners Group and BMW MOA. Some organisations hold large international motorcycle rallies in different parts of the world that are attended by many thousands of riders. AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31J

 

Whereas many social motorcycle organisations raise money for charities through organised events and rides, some other motorcycle organisations exist only for the direct benefit of others. Bikers Against Child Abuse (BACA) is one example. BACA assigns members to individual children to help them through difficult situations, or even stay with the child if the child is alone or frightened.[43] AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31E

 

In recent decades, motorcyclists have formed political lobbying organisations in order to influence legislators to introduce motorcycle-friendly legislation. One of the oldest such organisations, the British Motorcycle Action Group, was founded in 1973 specifically in response to helmet compulsion, introduced without public consultation.[4AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31Z
4] In addition, the British Motorcyclists Federation (BMF), originally founded in 1960 as a reaction to the public perception of motorcyclists as leather-jacketed hooligans, has itself moved into political lobbying. Likewise, the U.S. has ABATE, which, like most such organisations, also works to improve motorcycle safety, as well as running the usual charity fund-raising events and rallies, often for motorcycle-related political interests.[45] AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31ZJ

 

At the other end of the spectrum from the charitable organisations and the motorcycle rights activists are the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. These are defined by the Provincial Court of Manitoba as: "Any group of motorcycle enthusiasts who have voluntarily made a commitment to band together and abide by their organ is ations' rigorous rules enforced by violenceAKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW32Z
, who engage in activities that bring them and their club into serious conflict with society and the law".[46] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Criminal Intelligence Service Canada have designated four MCs as Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMGs), which are the Pagans, Hells Angels, Outlaws MC, and Bandidos,[47][48] known as the "Big Four".[49] AKKU Sony VAIO PCG-5G2L

 

[edit] Mobility

 

A couple ride on a motorcycle in Udaipur, India. Annual sales of motorcycles in India are expected to exceed 10 million by 2010.[50] AKKU Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L

While people choose to ride motorcycles for various reasons, those reasons are increasingly practical, with riders opting for a powered two-wheeler as a cost-efficient alternative to infrequent and expensive public transport systems, or as a means of avoiding or reducing the effects of urban congestion.[51Sony VAIO PCG-5J1L Akku
] In places where it is permitted, lane splitting, also known as filtering, allows motorcycles to use the space between vehicles to move through stationary or slow traffic.[52Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L Akku
]

In the UK, motorcycles are exempt from the 8 per day London congestion charge other vehicles must pay to enter the city during the day. Motorcycles are also exempt from toll charges at some river crossings, such as the Severn Bridge, Dartford Crossing, and Mersey Tunnels. Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L Akku
Some cities, such as Bristol, allow motorcycles to use bus lanes and provide dedicated free parking. In the United States, those states that have high-occupancy vehicle lanes also allow for motorcycle travel in them. Other countries have similar policies. Sony VAIO PCG-6S1L Akku

 

In New Zealand motorcycle riders are not required to pay for parking that is controlled by a barrier arm;[53] the arm does not occupy the entire width of the lane, and the motorcyclist simply rides around it.[54] Many car parks controlled in this way supply special areas for motorcycles to park, so as not to unnecessarily consume spaces. Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L Akku

 

In many cities that have serious parking challenges for cars, such as San Francisco, US and Melbourne, Australia, motorcycles are generally permitted to park on the sidewalk, rather than occupy a space on the street which might otherwise be used by a car.[citation needed] Sony VAIO PCG-6W2L Akku

 

[edit] Safety

Main articles: Motorcycle safety and Motorcycle safety clothing
Motorcycles have a higher rate of fatal accidents than automobiles. United States Department of Transportation data for 2005 from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System show that for passenger cars, 18.62 fatal crashes occur per 100,000 registered vehicles. Sony VAIO PCG-7111L Akku
For motorcycles this figure is higher at 75.19 per 100,000 registered vehicles – four times higher than for cars.[55] The same data shows that 1.56 fatalities occur per 100 million vehicle miles travelled for passenger cars, whereas for motorcycles the figure is 43.47 – 28 times higher than for cars (37 times more deaths per mile travelled in 2007).[5Sony VAIO PCG-7113L Akku
6] Furthermore for motorcycles the accident rates have increased significantly since the end of the 1990s, while the rates have dropped for passenger cars. Sony VAIO PCG-7133L Akku

 

 

Wearing a motorcycle helmet reduces the chances of death or injury in a motorcycle crash
The two major causes of motorcycle accidents in the United States are: motorists pulling out or turning in front of motorcyclists and violating their rights-of-way and motorcyclists running wide through turns. Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2L Akku
The former is sometimes called a SMIDSY, an acronym formed from the motorists' common response of "Sorry mate, I didn't see you".[57] The latter is more commonly caused by operating a motorcycle while intoxicated.[58] Motorcyclists can anticipate and avoid some of these crashes with proper training, increasing their conspicuousness to other traffic, and separating alcohol and riding. Sony VAIO PCG-8Z1L Akku

 

The United Kingdom has several organisations which are dedicated to improving motorcycle safety by providing advanced rider training over and above what is necessary to pass the basic motorcycle test. These include the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). Along with increased personal safety, riders with these advanced qualifications often benefit from reduced insurance costs. Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L Akku

In South Africa, the Think Bike campaign is dedicated to increasing both motorcycle safety and the awareness of motorcycles on the country's roads. Akku Sony VGN-NR11S/S
The campaign, while strongest in the Gauteng province, has representation in Western Cape, KwaZulu Natal and the Free State. It has dozens of trained marshals available for various events such as cycle races and is deeply involved in numerous other projects such as the annual Motorcycle Toy Run.[59] Akku Sony VGN-NR11M/S

 

 

An MSF rider course for novices
Motorcycle Safety Education is offered throughout the United States by organisations ranging from state agencies to non-profit organisations to corporations. Most states use the courses designed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF), while Oregon and Idaho developed their own. All of the training programs include a Basic Rider Course, an Intermediate Rider Course and an Advanced Rider Course. Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/S

 

In the UK (except Northern Ireland) and some Australian jurisdictions, such as Victoria, New South Wales,[60] the Australian Capital Territory,[61] Tasmania[62] and the Northern Territory,[63] it is compulsory to undertake a rider training course before being issued a Learners Licence. Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/T

 

In Canada, motorcycle rider training is compulsory in Quebec and Manitoba only, but all provinces and territories have Graduated Licensing programs which place restrictions on new drivers until they have gained experience. Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11E Battery
Eligibility for a full motorcycle licence or endorsement for completing a Motorcycle Safety course varies by province. The Canada Safety Council, a non-profit safety organisation, offers the Gearing Up program across Canada and is endorsed by the Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council.[64] Training course graduates may qualify for reduced insurance premiums. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M

 

[edit] Types

Main article: Types of motorcycles

 

A boulevard cruiser (front) and a sportbike (background)

 

French police motorcyclist
There are three major types of motorcycle: street, off-road, and dual purpose. Within these types, there are many different sub-types of motorcycles for many different purposes. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11Z

 

Street bikes include cruisers, sportbikes, scooters and mopeds, and many other types. Off-road motorcycles include many types designed for dirt-oriented racing classes such as motocross and are not street legal in most areas. Dual purpose machines like the dual-sport style are made to go off-road but include features to make them legal and comfortable on the street as well. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E

 

Each configuration offers either specialised advantage or broad capability, and each design creates a different riding posture.

[edit] Motorcycle rider postures

The motorcyclist's riding position depends on rider body-geometry (anthropometry) combined with the geometry of the motorcycle itself. These factors create a set of three basic postures.[65] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21E

 

Sport — the rider leans forwards into the wind and the weight of the upper torso is supported by air pressure as long as the motorcycle is travelling at speed, typically above 50 mph (80 km/h). The footpegs are below the rider or to the rear. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21J
The reduced frontal area cuts wind resistance and allow higher speeds. However, at low-speed this position throws the weight of the rider onto the arms instead, and this is quickly tiring to the wrists of unfamiliar riders. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21M
Moreover, the sports position makes it more difficult for the rider to look around and foot through traffic. Many sport bikes have narrow, swept-back handlebars, or clip-ons (short stubs clamped to the telescopic fork tubes). Following the style of racing bikes, many sports machines have full-fairings and come with almost complete engine enclosure. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z

Standard — the rider sits upright or leans forwards slightly. The feet are below the rider, not too far to the front or back. These are straightforward, versatile motorcycles that are not too specialised for one task, but do not excel in one area either.[66] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M
The standard posture is used with touring and commuting as well as dirt and dual-sport bikes, and is good for beginners.[67] The rider enjoys the benefits of freedom of head movement, good visibility in all directions, and easier use of the feet while moving through stationary traffic. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31E
Cruiser — the rider sits at a lower seat height with the upper torso upright or leaning slightly rearwards. Legs are extended forwards, sometimes out of reach of the regular controls on cruiser pegs. The low seat heights can be a consideration for new or short riders. Handlebars tend to be high, and wide. Harley-Davidsons are exemplars of this style.[6Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31J
8] The emphasis is on comfort, while compromising cornering ability because of low ground clearance and the greater likelihood of scraping foot pegs, floor boards, or other parts if turns are taken at the speeds other types of motorcycles can do.[69][70] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31M

Factors of a motorcycle's ergonomic geometry that determine the seating posture include the height, angle and location of footpegs, seat and handlebars. Factors in a rider's physical geometry that contribute to seating posture include torso, arm, thigh and leg length, and overall rider height. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9/S,

 

[edit] Legal definitions and restrictions

Main article: Legal definition of motorcycle
A motorcycle is broadly defined by law in most countries for the purposes of registration, taxation and rider licensing as a powered two-wheel motor vehicle. Most countries distinguish between mopeds of 49 cc and the more powerful, larger, vehicles (scooters do not count as a separate category). Many jurisdictions include some forms of three-wheelers as motorcycles. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9A/S

[edit] Environmental impact

 

This section may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards, as the dispute in the Europe section over LA Times citation up in the intro section is disjointed and confusing. See talk. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (September 2009) AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9/B

In 2007 and 2008, motorcycles and scooters, due to good fuel efficiency, attracted interest in the United States from environmentalists and those affected by increased fuel prices.[71][72] Piaggio Group Americas supported this interest with the launch of a "Vespanomics" website and platform, citing lower per-mile carbon emissions of 0.4 lb/mile (113 g/km) less than the average car, a 65% reduction, and better fuel economy.[73] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9A/B,

Other sources, however, claim that while motorcycles produce much less pollution in terms of greenhouse gases, a motorcycle can in some cases emit 10–20 times the quantity of nitrogen oxides (NOx) when compared to the NOx emissions of a car.[7AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9,
1][74] This is because many motorcycles lack a catalytic converter to reduce NOx emissions, and while catalytic converters have been used in cars long enough that they are now commonplace, they are a relatively new technology in motorcycles.[7Sony VGP-BPl13 Akku,, 
1] Many newer motorcycles (such as later models of the Yamaha R1 and Suzuki GSXR1000, as well as most BMWs which have included catalytic converers since the 1990s) now have factory fitted catalytic converters. Along with other technologies that have taken longer to appear in motorcycles (e.g. fuel injection, anti-lock brake systems),[citation needed] catalytic converters are becoming increasingly commonplace. Sony VGP-BPS13A/B Akku,

United States Environmental Protection Agency 2007 certification result reports for all vehicles versus on highway motorcycles (which also includes scooters),[75] the average certified emissions level for 12,327 vehicles tested was 0.734. Sony VGP-BPS13A/S Akku, The average "Nox+Co End-Of-Useful-Life-Emissions" for 3,863 motorcycles tested was 0.8531, for a difference of about 16%, not the claimed 10X factor. Likewise, if one looks at how many of the 2007 motorcycles tested were also catalytic equipped, 54% of them, 2,092, were equipped with a catalytic converter. Sony VGP-BPS13B/S Akku,

Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG, formerly HDI[2]), often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression.[3] Harley-Davidson also survived a period of poor quality control and competition from Japanese manufacturers.[4] Sony VGP-BPS13S Akku, 

The company sells heavyweight (over 750 cc) motorcycles designed for cruising on the highway. Harley-Davidson motorcycles (popularly known as "Harleys") have a distinctive design and exhaust note. They are especially noted for the tradition of heavy customization that gave rise to the chopper style of motorcycle.[5] Sony VGP-BPS13A/Q Akku, Except for the modern VRSC model family, current Harley-Davidson motorcycles reflect the styles of classic Harley designs. Harley-Davidson's attempts to establish itself in the light motorcycle market have met with limited success and have largely been abandoned since the 1978 sale of its Italian Aermacchi subsidiary. Sony VGP-BPS13B/Q Akku,

Harley-Davidson sustains a loyal brand community which keeps active through clubs, events, and a museum. Licensing of the Harley-Davidson brand and logo accounted for $40 million (0.8%) of the company's net revenue in 2010.[1] Sony VGP-BPS13/Q Akku

Clockwise from top left: William S. Harley, William A. Davidson, Walter Davidson, Sr., Arthur Davidson
In 1901, William S. Harley, age 21, drew up plans for a small engine with a displacement of 7.07 cubic inches (116 cc) and four-inch (102 mm) flywheels. The engine was designed for use in a regular pedal-bicycle frame. Over the next two years, Harley and his childhood friend Arthur Davidson labored on their motor-bicycle using the northside Milwaukee machine shop at the home of their friend, Henry Melk. Akku sony VGP-BPS21A
It was finished in 1903 with the help of Arthur's brother, Walter Davidson. Upon completion, the boys found their power-cycle unable to conquer Milwaukee's modest hills without pedal assistance. Will Harley and the Davidsons quickly wrote off their first motor-bicycle as a valuable learning experiment.[6] Akku sony VGP-BPS21B

 

Work immediately began on a new and improved second-generation machine. This first "real" Harley-Davidson motorcycle had a bigger engine of 24.74 cubic inches (405 cc) with 9.75 inches (25 cm) flywheels weighing 28 lb (13 kg). The machine's advanced loop-frame pattern was similar to the 1903 Milwaukee Merkel motorcycle (designed by Joseph Merkel, Akku sony VGP-BPS21/S
later of Flying Merkel fame). The bigger engine and loop-frame design took it out of the motorized-bicycle category and would help define what a modern motorcycle should contain in the years to come. The boys also received help with their bigger engine from outboard motor pioneer Ole Evinrude, who was then building gas engines of his own design for automotive use on Milwaukee's Lake Street. Akku sony VGP-BPS21A/B

 

The prototype of the new loop-frame Harley-Davidson was assembled in a 10 × 15 ft (3.0 × 4.6 m) shed in the Davidson family backyard. Most of the major parts, however, were made elsewhere, including some probably fabricated at the West Milwaukee railshops where oldest brother William A. Davidson was then toolroom foreman. Sony VGP-BPL14 battery
This prototype machine was functional by September 8, 1904, when it competed in a Milwaukee motorcycle race held at State Fair Park. It was ridden by Edward Hildebrand and placed fourth. This is the first documented appearance of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle in the historical record.[7] Sony VGP-BPS14 battery

 

In January 1905, small advertisements were placed in the "Automobile and Cycle Trade Journal" that offered bare Harley-Davidson engines to the do-it-yourself trade. By April, complete motorcycles were in production on a very limited basis. Sony VGP-BPS14/S battery 
That year, the first Harley-Davidson dealer, Carl H. Lang of Chicago, sold three bikes from the dozen or so built in the Davidson backyard shed. (Some years later the original shed was taken to the Juneau Avenue factory where it would stand for many decades as a tribute to the Motor Company's humble origins. Unfortunately, the first shed was accidentally destroyed by contractors in the early 1970s during a clean-up of the factory yard.)  Sony VGP-BPL14/B battery

 

In 1906, Harley and the Davidson brothers built their first factory on Chestnut Street (later Juneau Avenue). This location remains Harley-Davidson's corporate headquarters today. The first Juneau Avenue plant was a 40 × 60 ft (12 × 18 m) single-story wooden structure. The company produced about 50 motorcycles that year. Sony VGP-BPS14/B battery

 

1907 model.

 

Harley-Davidson 1,000 cc HT 1916
In 1907, William S. Harley graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a degree in mechanical engineering. That year additional factory expansion came with a second floor and later with facings and additions of Milwaukee pale yellow ("cream") brick. With the new facilities production increased to 150 motorcycles in 1907. The company was officially incorporated that September. They also began selling their motorcycles to police departments around this time, a market that has been important to them ever since.[8] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M

Production in 1905 and 1906 were all single-cylinder models with 26.84 cubic inches (440 cc) engines. In February 1907 a prototype model with a 45-degree V-Twin engine was displayed at the Chicago Automobile Show. Although shown and advertised, very few V-Twin models were built between 1907 and 1910. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11Z
These first V-Twins displaced 53.68 cubic inches (880 cc) and produced about 7 horsepower (5.2 kW). This gave about double the power of the first singles. Top speed was about 60 mph (100 km/h). Production jumped from 450 motorcycles in 1908 to 1,149 machines in 1909.[9] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ130E/B

 

By 1911, some 150 makes of motorcycles had already been built in the United States – although just a handful would survive the 1910s.

In 1911, an improved V-Twin model was introduced. The new engine had mechanically operated intake valves, as opposed to the "automatic" intake valves used on earlier V-Twins that opened by engine vacuum. With a displacement of 49.48 cubic inches (811 cc), the 1911 V-Twin was smaller than earlier twins, but gave better performance. After 1913 the majority of bikes produced by Harley-Davidson would be V-Twin models. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E

 

By 1913, the yellow brick factory had been demolished and on the site a new 5-story structure of reinforced concrete and red brick had been built. Begun in 1910, the red brick factory with its many additions would take up two blocks along Juneau Avenue and around the corner on 38th Street. Despite the competition, Harley-Davidson was already pulling ahead of Indian and would dominate motorcycle racing after 1914. Production that year swelled to 16,284 machinesAkku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21E
.

 

Ralph Hepburn on his Harley racing bike in this 1919 photo.
[edit] World War I

In 1917, the United States entered World War I and the military demanded motorcycles for the war effort.[10] Harleys had already been used by the military in the Pancho Villa Expedition[11][12] but World War I was the first time the motorcycle had been adopted for combat service.[citation needed] Harley-Davidson provided about 15,000 machines to the military forces during World War I.[13] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21J

 

[edit] 1920s

 

Harley-Davidson 1000 cc HT 1923
By 1920, Harley-Davidson was the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. Their motorcycles were sold by dealers in 67 countries. Production was 28,189 machines.[14]

In 1921, a Harley-Davidson, ridden by Otto Walker, was the first motorcycle ever to win a race at an average speed of over 100 mph (160 km/h).[15][16] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21M

 

During the 1920s, several improvements were put in place, such as a new 74 cubic inch (1,200 cc) V-Twin, introduced in 1922, and the "Teardrop" gas tank in 1925. A front brake was added in 1928.[citation needed] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21S

 

In the late summer of 1929, Harley-Davidson introduced its 45 cubic inches (737 cc) flathead V-Twin to compete with the Indian 101 Scout and the Excelsior Super X.[17] This was the "D" model, produced from 1929 to 1931.[1Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M
8] Riders of Indian motorcycles derisively referred to this model as the "three cylinder Harley" because the generator was upright and parallel to the front cylinder.[19] The 2.745 in (69.7 mm) bore and 3.8125 in (96.8 mm) stroke would continue in most versions of the 750 engine; exceptions include the XA and the XR750.[citation needed] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31E

 

[edit] The Great Depression

 

Harley-Davidson 1,200 cc SV 1931
The Great Depression began a few months after the introduction of their 45 cubic inch model. Harley-Davidson's sales plummeted from 21,000 in 1929 to 3,703 in 1933. Despite those dismal numbers, Harley-Davidson proudly unveiled its lineup for 1934, which included a Flathead with Art Deco styling.[20] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31J

 

In order to survive the remainder of the Depression, the company manufactured industrial powerplants based on their motorcycle engines. They also designed and built a three-wheeled delivery vehicle called the Servi-Car, which remained in production until 1973.[17] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31M

 

 

Harley-Davidson WL
In the mid 1930s, Alfred Rich Child opened a production line in Japan with the 74 cubic inches (1,210 cc) VL. The Japanese license-holder severed its business relations with Harley-Davidson in 1936 and continued manufacturing the VL under the Rikuo name.[21]

An 80 cubic inches (1,300 cc) flathead engine was added to the line in 1935, by which time the single-cylinder motorcycles had been discontinued.[22] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18E

 

In 1936, the 61E and 61EL models with the "Knucklehead" OHV engines was introduced.[23] Valvetrain problems in early Knucklehead engines required a redesign halfway through its first year of production and retrofitting of the new valvetrain on earlier engines.[24] Sony VAIO VGN-FW21E Akku

 

By 1937, all Harley-Davidson's flathead engines were equipped with dry-sump oil recirculation systems similar to the one introduced in the "Knucklehead" OHV engine. The revised 74 cubic inches (1,210 cc) V and VL models were renamed U and UL, the 80 cubic inches (1,300 cc) VH and VLH to be renamed UH and ULH, and the 45 cubic inches (740 cc) R to be renamed W.[23] Sony VAIO VGN-FW21I Akku

 

In 1941, the 74 cubic inches (1,210 cc) "Knucklehead" was introduced as the F and the FL. The 80 cubic inches (1,300 cc) flathead UH and ULH models were discontinued after 1941, while the 74" U & UL flathead models were produced up to 1948.[23] Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z Akku

 

[edit] World War II

 

Harley copied the BMW R71 to produce its XA model.
One of only two American cycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression,[3][25] Harley-Davidson again produced large numbers of motorcycles for the US Army in World War II and resumed civilian production afterwards, producing a range of large V-twin motorcycles that were successful both on racetracks and for private buyers. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M Akku

Harley-Davidson, on the eve of World War II, was already supplying the Army with a military-specific version of its 45 cubic inches (740 cc) WL line, called the WLA. (The A in this case stood for "Army".) Upon the outbreak of war, the company, along with most other manufacturing enterprises, shifted to war work. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M Akku
Over 90,000 military motorcycles, mostly WLAs and WLCs (the Canadian version) would be produced, many to be provided to allies.[26] Harley-Davidson received two Army-Navy ‘E’ Awards, one in 1943 and the other in 1945, which were awarded for Excellence in Production. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31E Akku

 

 

Harley produced the WLC for the Canadian military.
Shipments to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program numbered at least 30,000.[citation needed] The WLAs produced during all four years of war production generally have 1942 serial numbers. Production of the WLA stopped at the end of World War II, but was resumed from 1950 to 1952 for use in the Korean War. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31J Akku

 

The U.S. Army also asked Harley-Davidson to produce a new motorcycle with many of the features of BMW's side-valve and shaft-driven R71. Harley largely copied the BMW engine and drive train and produced the shaft-driven 750 cc 1942 Harley-Davidson XA. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31Z Akku
This shared no dimensions, no parts and no design concepts (except side valves) with any prior Harley-Davidson engine. Due to the superior cooling of the flat-twin engine with the cylinders across the frame, Harley's XA cylinder heads ran 100 °F (56 °C) cooler than its V-twins.[27] The XA never entered full production: the motorcycle by that time had been eclipsed by the Jeep as the Army's general purpose vehicle, Sony VAIO VGN-FW31ZJ Akku
and the WLA—already in production—was sufficient for its limited police, escort, and courier roles. Only 1,000 were made and the XA never went into full production. It remains the only shaft-driven Harley-Davidson ever made. Sony VAIO VGN-FW32J Akku

 

[edit] Small Harleys - Hummers and Aermacchis

 

Harley-Davidson Hummer
See also: Harley-Davidson Hummer and Harley-Davidson Topper
As part of war reparations, Harley-Davidson acquired the design of a small German motorcycle, the DKW RT 125 which they adapted, manufactured, and sold from 1947 to 1966.[28] Various models were made, including the Hummer from 1955 to 1959, but they are all colloquially referred to as "Hummers" at present.[29] BSA in the United Kingdom took the same design as the foundation of their BSA Bantam.[30] Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M Akku

 

 

1971 Aermacchi Harley-Davidson Turismo Veloce
In 1960, Harley-Davidson consolidated the Model 165 and Hummer lines into the Super-10, introduced the Topper scooter, and bought fifty percent of Aeronautica Macchi's motorcycle division.[31] Importation of Aermacchi's 250 cc horizontal single began the following year. The bike bore Harley-Davidson badges and was marketed as the Harley-Davidson Sprint.[32][33] The engine of the Sprint was increased to 350 cc in 1969 and would remain that size until 1974, when the four-stroke Sprint was discontinued.[34] Sony VAIO VGN-FW11 Akku

 

After the Pacer and Scat models were discontinued at the end of 1965, the Bobcat became the last of Harley-Davidson's American-made two-stroke motorcycles. The Bobcat was manufactured only in the 1966 model year.[35] Sony VAIO VGN-FW11E Akku

 

Harley-Davidson replaced their American-made lightweight two-stroke motorcycles with the Aermacchi-built two-stroke powered M-65, M-65S, and Rapido. The M-65 had a semi-step-through frame and tank. The M-65S was a M-65 with a larger tank that eliminated the step-through feature. The Rapido was a larger bike with a 125 cc engine.[36] The Aermacchi-built Harley-Davidsons became entirely two-stroke powered when the 250 cc two-stroke SS-250 replaced the four-stroke 350 cc Sprint in 1974.[37] Sony VGN-NR11M/S Akku

 

Harley-Davidson purchased full control of Aermacchi's motorcycle production in 1974 and continued making two-stroke motorcycles there until 1978, when they sold the facility to Cagiva.[31] Akku Sony VGN-NR11S/S

 

[edit] Tarnished reputation

 

Replica of the "Captain America" bike from the film Easy Rider
In 1952, following their application to the US Tariff Commission for a 40% tax on imported motorcycles, Harley-Davidson was charged with restrictive practices.[38] Hollywood also damaged Harley's image with many outlaw biker gang films produced from the 1950s through the 1970s, following the Hollister riot on July 4, 1947. Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/S
"Harley-Davidson" for a long time was synonymous with the Hells Angels and other outlaw motorcyclists.[citation needed] Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/T

 

 

AMF H-D Electra Glide
In 1969, American Machinery and Foundry (AMF) bought the company, streamlined production, and slashed the workforce. This tactic resulted in a labor strike and a lower quality of bikes. The bikes were expensive and inferior in performance, handling, and quality to Japanese motorcycles. Sales declined, quality plummeted, and the company almost went bankrupt.[39] The "Harley-Davidson" name was mocked as "Hardly Ableson", "Hardly Driveable," and "Hogly Ferguson",[40][41] and the nickname "Hog" became pejorative.[citation needed] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5G2L

 

In 1977, Harley-Davidson produced what has become one of its most controversial models, the Confederate Edition. The bike was essentially a stock Harley with Confederate-specific paint and details.[42] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L

 

[edit] Restructuring and revival

In 1981, AMF sold the company to a group of thirteen investors led by Vaughn Beals and Willie G. Davidson for $80 million.[43] Inventory was strictly controlled using the just-in-time system.
Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L

In the early eighties, Harley-Davidson claimed that Japanese manufacturers were importing motorcycles into the US in such volume as to harm or threaten to harm domestic producers. After an investigation by the US International Trade Commission, President Reagan imposed in 1983 a 45% tariff on imported bikes and bikes over 700 cc engine capacity. Harley Davidson subsequently rejected offers of assistance from Japanese motorcycle makers.[44][45] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5K2L

If REQ64# is asserted during the address phase, the initiator also drives the high 32 bits of the address and a copy of the bus command on the high half of the bus. If the address requires 64 bits, a dual address cycle is still required, but the high half of the bus carries the upper half of the address and the final command code during both address phase cycles; this allows a 64-bit target to see the entire address and begin responding earlier. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L

If the initiator sees DEVSEL# asserted without ACK64#, it performs 32-bit data phases. The data which would have been transferred on the upper half of the bus during the first data phase is instead transferred during the second data phase. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L
Typically, the initiator drives all 64 bits of data before seeing DEVSEL#. If ACK64# is missing, it may cease driving the upper half of the data bus.
The REQ64# and ACK64# lines are held asserted for the entire transaction save the last data phase, and deasserted at the same time as FRAME# and DEVSEL#, respectively. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5J1L

The PAR64 line operates just like the PAR line, but provides even parity over AD[63:32] and C/BE[7:4]#. It is only valid for address phases if REQ64# is asserted. PAR64 is only valid for data phases if both REQ64# and ACK64# are asserted. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5K2L

Cache snooping (obsolete)
PCI originally included optional support for write-back cache coherence. This required support by cacheable memory targets, which would listen to two pins from the cache on the bus, SDONE (snoop done) and SBO# (snoop backoff).[13]
Because this was rarely implemented in practice, it was deleted from revision 2.2 of the PCI specification,[5][14] and the pins re-used for SMBus access in revision 2.3.[7] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L

The cache would watch all memory accesses, without asserting DEVSEL#. If it noticed an access that might be cached, it would drive SDONE low (snoop not done). A coherence-supporting target would avoid completing a data phase (asserting TRDY#) until it observed SDONE high. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6S2L

In the case of a write to data that was clean in the cache, the cache would only have to invalidate its copy, and would assert SDONE as soon as this was established. However, if the cache contained dirty data, the cache would have to write it back before the access could proceed. so it would assert SBO# when raising SDONE. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L
This would signal the active target to assert STOP# rather than TRDY#, causing the initiator to disconnect and retry the operation later. In the meantime, the cache would arbitrate for the bus and write its data back to memory. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-6W2L

Targets supporting cache coherency are also required to terminate bursts before they cross cache lines.
Development tools

When developing and/or troubleshooting the PCI bus, examination of hardware signals can be very important. Logic analyzers and bus analyzers are tools which collect, analyze, decode signals for users to view in useful ways. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7111L

Serial ATA (SATA or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) is a computer bus interface for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives. Serial ATA was designed to replace the older ATA (AT Attachment) standard (also known as EIDE), offering several advantages over the older parallel ATA (PATA) interface: reduced cable-bulk and cost (7 conductors versus 40), native hot swapping, faster data transfer through higher signalling rates, and more efficient transfer through an (optional) I/O queuing protocol. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7113L

SATA host-adapters and devices communicate via a high-speed serial cable over two pairs of conductors. In contrast, parallel ATA (theredesignation for the legacy ATA specifications) used a 16-bit wide data bus with many additional support and control signals, all operating at much lower frequency. To ensure backward compatibility with legacy ATA software and applications, SATA uses the same basic ATA and ATAPI command-set as legacy ATA devices. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7133L

As of 2009, SATA has replaced parallel ATA in most shipping consumer desktop and laptop computers, and is expected to eventually replace PATA in embedded applications where space and cost are important factors. SATA’s market share in the desktop PC market was 99% in 2008.[2] PATA remains widely used in industrial and embedded applications that use Compact Flash storage, though even here, the next CFast storage standard will be based on SATA.[3][4] Akku Sony VAIO PCG-7z1L

 

Serial ATA industry compatibility specifications originate from The Serial ATA International Organization (aka. SATA-IO, serialata.org). The SATA-IO group collaboratively creates, reviews, ratifies, and publishes the interoperability specifications, the test cases, and plug-fests. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2L
As with many other industry compatibility standards, the SATA content ownership is transferred to other industry bodies: primarily the INCITS T13subcommittee ATA, the INCITS T10 subcommittee (SCSI); a subgroup of T10 responsible for SAS. The complete specification from SATA-IO.[5] The remainder of this article will try to use the terminology and specifications of SATA-IO. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L

Features

Hotplug
The Serial ATA Spec includes logic for SATA device hotplugging. Devices and motherboards that meet the interoperability spec are capable of hot plugging. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13

Advanced Host Controller Interface
As their standard interface, SATA controllers use the AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface), allowing advanced features of SATA such as hotplug and native command queuing(NCQ). If AHCI is not enabled by the motherboard and chipset, SATA controllers typically operate in "IDE emulation" mode, which does not allow features of devices to be accessed if the ATA/IDE standard does not support them. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13A/B

Windows device drivers that are labeled as SATA are often running in IDE emulation mode unless they explicitly state that they are AHCI mode, in RAID mode, or a mode provided by a proprietary driver and command set that was designed to allow access to SATA's advanced features before AHCI became popular. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13/S
Modern versions of Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD,Linux with version 2.6.19 onward,[6] as well as Solaris and OpenSolaris include support for AHCI, but older OSes such as Windows XP do not. Even in those instances a proprietary driver may have been created for a specific chipset, such as Intel's.[7] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13B/B

Revisions

SATA revision 1.0 (SATA 1.5 Gbit/s)
First-generation SATA interfaces, now known as SATA 1.5 Gbit/s, communicate at a rate of 1.5 Gbit/s. Taking 8b/10b encoding overhead into account, they have an actual uncoded transfer rate of 1.2 Gbit/s (150 MB/s). The theoretical burst throughput of SATA 1.5 Gbit/s is similar to that of PATA/133, but newer SATA devices offer enhancements such as NCQ, which improve performance in a multitasking environment. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13A/S

During the initial period after SATA 1.5 Gbit/s finalization, adapter and drive manufacturers used a "bridge chip" to convert existing PATA designs for use with the SATA interface.[citation needed] Bridged drives have a SATA connector, may include either or both kinds of power connectors, and, in general, perform identically to their PATA equivalents. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13A/Q
Most lack support for some SATA-specific features such as NCQ. Native SATA products quickly eclipsed bridged products with the introduction of the second generation of SATA drives.[citation needed] AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13B/Q

As of April 2010 mechanical hard disk drives can transfer data at up to 157 MB/s,[8] which is beyond the capabilities of the older PATA/133 specification and also exceeds a SATA 1.5 Gbit/s link. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS13Q

SATA revision 2.0 (SATA 3 Gbit/s)
Second generation SATA interfaces running at 3.0 Gbit/s are shipping in high volume as of 2010, and prevalent in all[citation needed] SATA disk drives and the majority of PC and server chipsets. With a native transfer rate of 3.0 Gbit/s, and taking 8b/10b encoding into account, the maximum uncoded transfer rate is 2.4 Gbit/s (300 MB/s). Sony VGN-FZ130E/B Battery
The theoretical burst throughput of SATA 3.0 Gbit/s is roughly double that of PATA/133. In addition, SATA devices offer enhancements such as native command queuing that improve performance in a multitasking environment. Sony VGP-BPL9 Akku

All SATA data cables meeting the SATA spec are rated for 3.0 Gbit/s and will handle current mechanical drives without any loss of sustained and burst data transfer performance. However, high-performance flash drives are approaching SATA 3 Gbit/s transfer rate, and this is being addressed with the SATA 6 Gbit/s interoperability standard. Sony VGP-BPL9/S Akku

SATA revision 3.0 (SATA 6 Gbit/s)
Serial ATA International Organization presented the draft specification of SATA 6 Gbit/s physical layer in July 2008,[9] and ratified its physical layer specification on August 18, 2008.[10]The full 3.0 standard was released on May 27, 2009.[11] Sony VGP-BPL9A/B Akku
It provides peak throughput of about 600 MB/s (Megabytes per second) including the protocol overhead (10b/8b coding with 8 bits to one byte). While even the fastest conventional hard disk drives can barely saturate the original SATA 1.5 Gbit/s bandwidth, Solid-State Drives have already saturated SATA 3 Gbit/s with 285/275 MB/s max read/write speed and 250 MB/s sustained with the Sandforce 1200 and 1500 controller. Sony VGP-BPS21 Akku
However SandForce SSD controllers scheduled for release in 2011 have delivered 500 MB/s read/write rates,[12] and ten channels of fast flash can reach well over 500 MB/s with new ONFI drives – a move from SATA 3 Gbit/s to SATA 6 Gbit/s allows such devices to work at their full speed. Full performance from Crucial's C300 SSD similarly require SATA 3.0. As for standard hard disks, the reads from their built-in DRAM cache will end up faster across the new interface.[13] SATA 6 Gbit/s hard drives and motherboards are now shipping from several suppliers. Sony VGP-BPS21A Akku
Intel's current Sandybridge platform offers 6 Gbit/s SATA ports as standard.
The new specification contains the following changes:
6 Gbit/s for scalable performance when used with SSDs
Continued compatibility with SAS, including SAS 6 Gbit/s. "A SAS domain may support attachment to and control of unmodified SATA devices connected directly into the SAS domain using the Serial ATA Tunneled Protocol (STP)" from the SATA_Revision_3_0_Gold specification. Sony VGP-BPS21B Akku

Isochronous Native Command Queuing (NCQ) streaming command to enable isochronous quality of service data transfers for streaming digital content applications.
An NCQ Management feature that helps optimize performance by enabling host processing and management of outstanding NCQ commands.
Improved power management capabilities.
A small low insertion force (LIF) connector for more compact 1.8-inch storage devices.
A connector designed to accommodate 7 mm optical disk drives for thinner and lighter notebooks. Sony VGP-BPS21A/B Akku

Alignment with the INCITS ATA8-ACS standard.
In general, the enhancements are aimed at improving quality of service for video streaming and high-priority interrupts. In addition, the standard continues to support distances up to a meter. The new speeds may require higher power consumption for supporting chips, factors that new process technologies and power management techniques are expected to mitigate. The new specification can use existing SATA cables and connectors, although some OEMs are expected to upgrade host connectors for the higher speeds.[14] Also, the new standard is backwards compatible with SATA 3 Gbit/s.[15] Sony VGP-BPS21/S Akku

Terminology
The name SATA II has become synonymous with the 3 Gbit/s standard. In order to provide the industry with consistent terminology, the SATA-IO has compiled a set of marketing guidelines for the third revision of the specification.
The SATA 6 Gbit/s specification should be called Serial ATA International Organization: Serial ATA Revision 3.0.
The technology itself is to be referred to as SATA 6 Gb/s.
A product using this standard should be called the SATA 6 Gb/s [product name]. Akku Sony VGP-BPL14 
Using the terms SATA III or SATA 3.0 to refer to a SATA 6 Gbit/s product is unclear and not preferred. SATA-IO has provided a guideline to foster consistent marketing terminology across the industry.[16]
Cables, connectors, and ports

Connectors and cables present the most visible differences between SATA and parallel ATA drives. Unlike PATA, the same connectors are used on 3.5-inch (89 mm) SATA hard disks for desktop and server computers and 2.5-inch (64 mm) disks for portable or small computers; this allows 2.5-inch (64 mm) drives to be used in desktop computers with only a mounting bracket and no wiring adapter. Smaller disks may use the mini-SATA spec, suitable for small-form-factor Serial ATA drives and mini SSDs.[17] Akku Sony VGP-BPL14/B
There is a special connector (eSATA) specified for external devices, and an optionally implemented provision for clips to hold internal connectors firmly in place. SATA drives may be plugged into SAS controllers and communicate on the same physical cable as native SAS disks, but SATA controllers cannot handle SAS disks. AKKU sony VAIO VGN-FW21E

There are female SATA ports (on motherboards for example) for use with SATA data cable with locks or clips, thus reducing the chance of accidentally unplugging while the machine is turned on—As do SATA power/data connectors on optical and high-density devices. Moreover, some SATA cables have orthogonally positioned heads in the shape of an 'L' which in effect ease the connection of devices to circuit boards. AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z

 

A 7-pin Serial ATA right-angle data cable.
The SATA standard defines a data cable with seven conductors (3 grounds and 4 active data lines in two pairs) and 8 mm wide wafer connectors on each end. SATA cables can have lengths up to 1 metre (3.3 ft), and connect one motherboard socket to one hard drive. PATA ribbon cables, in comparison, connect one motherboard socket to one or two hard drives, carry either 40 or 80 wires, and are limited to 45 centimetres (18 in) in length by the PATA specification (however, cables up to 90 centimetres (35 in) are readily available). AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M
Thus, SATA connectors and cables are easier to fit in closed spaces, and reduce obstructions to air cooling. They are more susceptible to accidental unplugging and breakage than PATA, but cables can be purchased that have a locking feature, whereby a small (usually metal) spring holds the plug in the socket. AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M

One of the problems associated with the transmission of data at high speed over electrical connections is described as noise, which is due to electrical coupling between data circuits and other circuits. AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31J
As a result, the data circuits can both affect other circuits, and be affected by them. Designers use a number of techniques to reduce the undesirable effects of such unintentional coupling. One such technique used in SATA links isdifferential signaling. This is an enhancement over PATA, which uses single-ended signaling. Some PATA cables use 80 wires, where only 40 wires carry signals. AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31E

A 15-pin Serial ATA power receptacle.
This connector does not provide the extended
pins 4 and 12 needed for hot-plugging.[18]
The SATA standard specifies a power connector that differs from the decades-old four-pin Molex connector found on pre-SATA devices. Like the data cable, it is wafer-based, but its wider 15-pin shape prevents accidental mis-identification and forced insertion of the wrong connector type. Native SATA devices favor the SATA power-connector, although some early SATA drives retained older 4-pin Molex in addition to the SATA power connector. AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31Z

SATA features more pins than the traditional connector for several reasons:
A third voltage is supplied, 3.3 V, in addition to the traditional 5 V and 12 V.
Each voltage is transmitted through three pins grouped together, because the small contacts by themselves cannot supply sufficient current for some devices. (Each pin should be able to carry 1.5 A.) AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW31ZJ

Five pins grouped together provide ground.
For each of the three voltages, one of the three pins serves for hotplugging. The ground pins and power pins 3, 7, and 13 are longer on the plug (located on the SATA device) so they will connect first. A special hot-plug receptacle (on the cable or a backplane) can connect ground pins 4 and 12 first. AKKU Sony VAIO VGN-FW32Z

Pin 11 can function for staggered spinup, activity indication, or nothing. Staggered spinup is used to prevent many drives from spinning up simultaneously, as this may draw too much power. Activity is an indication of whether the drive is busy, and is intended to give feedback to the user through an LED. AKKU Sony VAIO PCG-5G2L

Adapters are available that convert a 4-pin Molex connector to a SATA power connector. However, because the 4-pin Molex connectors do not provide 3.3 V power, these adapters provide only 5 V and 12 V power and leave the 3.3 V lines unconnected. This precludes the use of such adapters with drives that require 3.3 V power. Because of this, drive manufacturers have largely not used the 3.3 V power lines. However, some 4-pin Molex to SATA power adapters include electronics to provide 3.3 V power. AKKU Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L

Slimline connector
The micro connector originated with SATA 2.6. It is intended for 1.8-inch (46 mm) hard drives. There is also a micro data connector, which is similar to the standard data connector, but is slightly thinner.
SATA (left) and eSATA (right) connectors
Standardized in 2004, eSATA (e=external) provides a variant of SATA meant for external connectivity. It has revised electrical requirements in addition to incompatible cables and connectors: Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L Akku

Minimum transmit potential increased: Range is 500–600 mV instead of 400–600 mV.
Minimum receive potential decreased: Range is 240–600 mV instead of 325–600 mV.
Identical protocol and logical signaling (link/transport-layer and above), allowing native SATA devices to be deployed in external enclosures with minimal modificationSony VAIO PCG-6W3L Akku

Maximum cable length of 2 metres (6.6 ft) (USB and FireWire allow longer distances.)
The external cable connector equates to a shielded version of the connector specified in SATA 1.0a with these basic differences:
The external connector has no "L"-shaped key, and the guide features are vertically offset and reduced in size. This prevents the use of unshielded internal cables in external applications and vice-versa. Sony VAIO PCG-7113L Akku

To prevent ESD damage, the design increased insertion depth from 5 mm to 6.6 mm and the contacts are mounted farther back in both the receptacle and plug.
To provide EMI protection and meet FCC and CE emission requirements, the cable has an extra layer of shielding, and the connectors have metal contact-points.
The connector shield has springs as retention features built in on both the top and bottom surfaces. Sony VAIO PCG-7z1L Akku

The external connector and cable have a design-life of over five thousand insertions and removals, whereas the internal connector is specified to withstand only fifty.
Aimed at the consumer market, eSATA enters an external storage market already served by the USB and FireWire interfaces. Most external hard-disk-drive cases with FireWire or USB interfaces use either PATA or SATA drives and "bridges" to translate between the drives' interfaces and the enclosures' external ports, and this bridging incurs some inefficiency. Some single disks can transfer 157 MB/s during real use,[8Sony VAIO PCG-7133L Akku
]about four times the maximum transfer rate of USB 2.0 or FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a) and almost twice as fast as the maximum transfer rate of FireWire 800, though the S3200 FireWire1394b spec reaches ~400 MB/s (3.2 Gbit/s). Finally, some low-level drive features, such as S.M.A.R.T., may not operate through some USB [2] or FireWire or USB+FireWire bridges. Sony VAIO PCG-8Y1L Akku
eSATA does not suffer from these issues provided that the controller manufacturer (and its drivers) presents eSATA drives as ATA devices, rather than as "SCSI" devices (as has been common with Silicon Image, JMicron, and NVIDIA nForce drivers for Windows Vista); In those cases, even SATA drives will not have low-level features accessible. Akku Sony VGN-NR11M/S
USB 3.0's 4.8 Gbit/s and Firewire's future 6.4 Gb/s (768 MB/s) will be faster than eSATA I, but the eSATA version of SATA 6G will operate at 6.0 Gb/s (the term SATA III is being eschewed by the SATA-IO to avoid confusion with SATA II 3.0 Gbit/s, which was colloquially referred to as "SATA 3G" [bps] or "SATA 300" [MB/s] since 1.5 Gbit/s SATA I and 1.5 Gbit/s SATA II were referred to as both "SATA 1.5G" [b/s] or "SATA 150" [MB/s]). Therefore, they will operate with negligible differences between them.[19] Akku Sony VGN-NR11S/S

eSATA can be differentiated from USB 2.0 and FireWire external storage for several reasons. As of early 2008, the vast majority of mass-market computers have USB ports and many computers and consumer electronic appliances have FireWire ports, but few devices have external SATA connectors. Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/S
For small form-factor devices (such as external 2.5-inch (64 mm) disks), a PC-hosted USB or FireWire link supplies sufficient power to operate the device. Where a PC-hosted port is concerned, eSATA connectors cannot supply power, and would therefore be more cumbersome to use. Note that this problem has been solved by the introduction of eSATAp.[20] Some e-sata ports double as eSATA/USB. Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/T

Owners of desktop computers that lack a built-in eSATA interface can upgrade them with the installation of an eSATA host bus adapter (HBA), while notebooks can be upgraded withCardbus[21] or ExpressCard[22] versions of an eSATA HBA. With passive adapters, the maximum cable length is reduced to 1 metre (3.3 ft) due to the absence of compliant eSATA signal-levels. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M

eSATAp
Main article: eSATAp

An eSATAp port (left) and an eSATAport (right)

1 cable solution. An eSATAp HDDenclosure from Delock
eSATAp is also known as Power over eSATA or eSATA/USB Combo. eSATAp port combines the strength of both eSATA (high speed) and USB (compatibility) into a single port. eSATAp devices are now capable of being self powered. On a desktop workstation, eSATAp port can supply 12 V to power up a 3.5" hard disk drive (HDD) or a 5.25" DVD-RW without needing separate power source as compared to eSATA and USB 2.0. On a notebook eSATAp port can supply 5 V to power up a 2.5" HDD/SSD as compared to eSATA. Many notebooks are now equipped with this combo port. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11Z

eSATAp can be implemented in all machines with a spare SATA port. These machines include PC notebooks, desktops, Apple Mac Pro, and Linux or Unix servers. This makes eSATAp an easy, economical, cross platform solution for external storage. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E

Pre-standard implementations
Prior to the final eSATA 3 Gbit/s specification, a number of products existed designed for external connections of SATA drives. Some of these use the internal SATA connector or even connectors designed for other interface specifications, such as FireWire. These products are not eSATA compliant. The final eSATA specification features a specific connector designed for rough handling, similar to the regular SATA connector, but with reinforcements in both the male and female sides, inspired by the USB connector. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21E
eSATA resists inadvertent unplugging, and can withstand yanking or wiggling, which could break a male SATA connector (the hard-drive or host adapter, usually fitted inside the computer). With an eSATA connector, considerably more force is needed to damage the connector, and if it does break it is likely to be the female side, on the cable itself, which is relatively easy to replace.[citation needed] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21J

Prior to the final eSATA 6 Gbit/s specification many add-on cards and some motherboards advertise eSATA 6 Gbit/s support because they have 6 Gbit/s SATA 3.0 controllers for internal-only solutions. Those implementations are non standard and eSATA 6 Gbit/s requirements will be ratified in the upcoming SATA 3.1 specification.[23] These products might not be eSATA 6 Gbit/s compliant.
mSATA
Mini-SATA not to be confused with the micro connector was announced by the Serial ATA International Organization, September 21, 2009.[24]
Applications include netbooks and other devices that require a smaller Solid-state drive. The connector resembles a miniPCIe (mini PCI Epxress) card interface.[25] Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21M

Protocol

The SATA specification defines three distinct protocol layers: physical, link, and transport.
Physical layer
The physical layer defines SATA's electrical and physical characteristics (such as cable dimensions and parasitics, driver voltage level and receiver operating range), as well as the physical coding subsystem (bit-level encoding, device detection on the wire, and link initialization). Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21S

Physical transmission uses differential signaling. The SATA PHY contains a transmit pair and receive pair. When the SATA-link is not in use (example: no device attached), the transmitter allows the transmit pins to float to their common-mode voltage level. When the SATA-link is either active or in the link-initialization phase, the transmitter drives the transmit pins at the specified differential voltage (1.5v in SATA/I.) Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M

SATA physical coding uses a line encoding system known as 8b/10b encoding. This scheme serves multiple functions required to sustain a differential serial link. First, the stream contains necessary synchronization information that allows for SATA host/drive to extract clocking. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z
The 8b/10b encoded sequence embeds periodic edge transitions to allow the receiver to achieve bit-alignment without the use of a separately transmitted reference clock waveform. The sequence also maintains a neutral (DC-balanced) bitstream, which allows the transmit drivers and receiver inputs to be AC-coupled. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31E

Also, Serial/ATA uses some of the of special characters defined in 8b/10b. In particular, the PHY layer uses the comma (K28.5) character to maintain symbol-alignment. A specific 4-symbol sequence, the ALIGN primitive, is used for clock rate-matching between the two devices on the link. Other special symbols communicate flow control information produced and consumed in the higher layers (link and transport.) Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31J

Separate point-to-point AC-coupled LVDS links are used for physical transmission between host and drive.
The PHY layer is responsible for detecting the other SATA/device on a cable, and link initialization. During the link-initialization process, the PHY is responsible for locally generating special out-of-band signals by switching the transmitter between electrical-idle and specific 10b-characters in a defined pattern, negotiating a mutually supported signalling rate (1.5, 3.0, or 6.0 Gbps), and finally synchronizing to the far-end device's PHY-layer data stream. During this time, no data is sent from the link-layer. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31M

Once link-initialization has completed, the link-layer takes over data-transmission, with the PHY providing only the 8b/10b conversion before bit transmission.
Link layer
After the PHY-layer has established a link, the link layer is responsible for transmission and reception of FISs over the SATA link. FISs are packets containing control information or payload data. Each packet contains a header (identifying its type), and payload whose contents are dependent on the type. The link layer also manages flow control between over the link. HP Probook 4510 Battery

Topology

 

SATA topology: host – expansor - device
SATA uses a point-to-point architecture. The physical connection between a controller and a storage device is not shared among other controllers and storage devices. SATA defines multipliers, which allows a single SATA controller to drive multiple storage devices. HP Probook 4510S Battery
The multiplier performs the function of a hub; the controller and each storage device is connected to the hub.
Modern PC systems have SATA controllers built into the motherboard, typically featuring 2 to 6 ports. Additional ports can be installed through add-in SATA host adapters (available in variety of bus-interfaces: USB, PCI, PCI-e.) HP Probook 4510 Battery

Backward and forward compatibility

SATA and PATA
At the device level, SATA and PATA (Parallel AT Attachment) devices remain completely incompatible—they cannot be interconnected. At the application level, SATA devices can be specified to look and act like PATA devices.[26] Many motherboards offer a "legacy mode" option, which makes SATA drives appear to the OS, like PATA drives on a standard controller. HP Probook 4710S Battery
This eases OS installation by not requiring a specific driver to be loaded during setup but sacrifices support for some features of SATA and, in general, disables some of the boards' PATA or SATA ports, since the standard PATA controller interface supports only 4 drives. (Often which ports are disabled is configurable.) HP Pavilion DV5Z Battery

The common heritage of the ATA command set has enabled the proliferation of low-cost PATA to SATA bridge-chips. Bridge-chips were widely used on PATA drives (before the completion of native SATA drives) as well as standalone "dongles." When attached to a PATA drive, a device-side dongle allows the PATA drive to function as a SATA drive. Host-side dongles allow a motherboard PATA port to function as a SATA host port. HP Pavilion DV5Z-1100 Battery

The market has produced powered enclosures for both PATA and SATA drives that interface to the PC through USB, Firewire or eSATA, with the restrictions noted above. PCI cards with a SATA connector exist that allow SATA drives to connect to legacy systems without SATA connectors.
SATA 1.5 Gbit/s, SATA 3 Gbit/s and SATA 6 Gbit/sHP Pavilion DV5Z-1000 Battery

The designers of SATA aimed for backward and forward compatibility with future revisions of the SATA standard.[citation needed]
According to the hard drive manufacturer Maxtor, motherboard host controllers using the VIA and SIS chipsets VT8237, VT8237R, VT6420, VT6421L, SIS760, SIS964 found on the ECS 755-A2 manufactured in 2003, do not support SATA 3 Gbit/s drives. Additionally, these host controllers do not support SATA 3 Gbit/s optical disc drives. Users with a SATA 1.5 Gbit/s motherboard with one of the listed chipsets should either buy an ordinary SATA 1.5 Gbit/s hard disk, buy a SATA 3 Gbit/s hard disk switchable to 1.5 Gbit/s, or buy a PCI or PCI-E card to add full SATA 3 Gbit/s capability and compatibility. HP Pavilion G71 Battery

To address interoperability problems many manufacturers allow to switch drives to the SATA1 mode. For example, Seagate/Maxtor has added a user-accessible jumper-switch known as the Force 150, to switch between 1.5 Gbit/s and 3 Gbit/s operation. Western Digital uses a jumper setting called OPT1 Enabled to force 1.5 Gbit/s data transfer speed (OPT1 is used by putting the jumper on pins 5 & 6). Samsung drives can be switched to 1.5 Gbit/s mode by using software downloadable from the manufacturer website. This needs a SATA2 controller to use temporarily while programming the drive. HP Pavilion G70 Battery

The Force 150 switch is also useful when placing SATA 300 hard drives on SATA controllers on PCI cards, since many of these controllers (such as the Silicon Images chips) will run at SATA300 even though the PCI bus cannot even reach SATA150 speeds. This can cause data corruption in operating systems (e.g. FreeBSD which version?) that do not specifically test for this condition and limit the disk transfer speed. HP Pavilion G60 Battery

Comparison to other interfaces

SATA and SCSI
SCSI uses a more complex bus than SATA, usually resulting in higher manufacturing-costs. SCSI buses also allow connection of several drives on one shared channel, whereas SATA allows one drive per channel, unless using a port multiplier. HP Pavilion G50 Battery

SATA 3 Gbit/s offers a maximum bandwidth of 300 MB/s per device compared to SCSI with a maximum of 320 MB/s in total for all devices on a bus.[27] Also, SCSI drives provide greater sustained throughput than multiple SATA drives connected via a simple (i. e. command-based) port multiplier because of disconnect-reconnect and aggregating performance.[28] In general, SATA devices link compatibly to SAS enclosures and adapters, whereas SCSI devices cannot be directly connected to a SATA bus. HP Pavilion DV6Z-2000 Battery

SCSI, SAS, and fibre-channel (FC) drives are typically more expensive so they are traditionally used in servers and disk arrays where the added cost is justifiable. Inexpensive ATA and SATA drives evolved in the home-computer market, hence there is a view that they are less reliable. As those two worlds overlapped, the subject of reliability became somewhat controversial. Note that, in general, the failure rate of a disk drive is related to the quality of its heads, platters and supporting manufacturing processes, not to its interface. HP Pavilion DV6Z-1100 Battery

Serial ATA in the business market has increased from 21.6% in 2006 to 27.6% in 2008. http://www.serialata.org/documents/SATA-Rev-30-Presentation.pdf
* USB 3.0 specification released to hardware vendors 17 November 2008.
Unlike PATA, both SATA and eSATA support hot-swapping by design. However, this feature requires proper support at the host, device (drive), and operating-system level. In general, all SATA devices (drives) support hot-swapping (due to the requirements on the device-side), also most SATA host adapters support this command.[1] HP Pavilion DV6Z Battery

SCSI-3 devices with SCA-2 connectors are designed for hot-swapping. Many server and RAID systems provide hardware support for transparent hot-swapping. The designers of the SCSI standard prior to SCA-2 connectors did not target hot-swapping, but, in practice, most RAID implementations support hot-swapping of hard disks. HP Pavilion DV6T Battery

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is designed for hot-swapping.
Development tools

In development of new products, or when troubleshooting the Serial ATA bus, examination of hardware signals can be very important to find problems. Logic analyzers and bus analyzersare tools which collect, analyze, decode, store signals so people can view the high-speed waveforms at their leisure. HP Pavilion DV6 Battery

PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe, is a computer expansion card standard designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X, and AGP bus standards. PCIe has numerous improvements over the aforementioned bus standards, including higher maximum system bus throughput, lower I/O pin count and smaller physical footprint, better performance-scaling for bus devices, a more detailed error detection and reporting mechanism, and native hot plugging. More recent revisions of the PCIe standard support hardware I/O virtualization. HP Pavilion DV7 Battery

The PCIe electrical interface is also used in a variety of other standards, most notably ExpressCard, a laptop expansion card interface.
Format specifications are maintained and developed by the PCI-SIG (PCI Special Interest Group), a group of more than 900 companies that also maintain the Conventional PCI specifications. PCIe 3.0 is the latest standard for expansion cards that is available on mainstreampersonal computers.[1][2] HP Pavilion DV5T Battery

PCI Express is used in consumer, server, and industrial applications, as a motherboard-level interconnect (to link motherboard-mounted peripherals) and as an expansion card interface for add-in boards.
In virtually all modern PCs, from consumer laptops and desktops to enterprise data servers, the PCIe bus serves as the primary motherboard-level interconnect, connecting the host system processor with both integrated-peripherals (surface mounted ICs) and add-on peripherals (expansion cards.) In most of these systems, the PCIe bus co-exists with 1 or more legacy PCI busses, for backward compatibility with the large body of existing PCI peripherals. HP Pavilion DV5 Battery

Architecture

Conceptually, the PCIe bus can be thought of as a high-speed serial replacement of the older PCI/PCI-X bus[3], an interconnect bus using shared address/data lines. HP Pavilion DV5-1020TX Battery

A key difference between PCIe bus and the older PCI is the bus topology. PCI uses a shared parallel bus architecture, where the PCI host and all devices share a common set of address/data/control lines. In contrast, PCIe is based on point-to-point topology, with separate serial links connecting every device to the root complex (host). HP Pavilion DV5-1020 Battery
Due to its shared bus topology, access to the PCI bus is arbitrated (in the case of multiple masters), and limited to 1 master at a time, in a single direction. Furthermore, PCI's clocking scheme limits the bus clock to the slowest peripheral on the bus (regardless of the devices involved in the bus transaction). HP Pavilion DV5-1019TX Battery
In contrast, a PCIe bus link supports full-duplex communication between any two endpoints, with no inherent limitation on concurrent access across multiple endpoints.
In terms of bus protocol, PCIe communication is encapsulated in packets. The work of packetizing and depacketizing data and status-message traffic is handled by the transaction layer of the PCIe port (described later). Radical differences in electrical signa lling and bus protocol require the use of a different mechanical form factor and expansion connectors (and thus, new motherboards and new adaptor boards); HP Pavilion DV5-1011EA Battery
PCI slots and PCIe slots are not interchangeable. At the software level, PCIe preserves backward compatibility with PCI; legacy PCI system software can detect and configure newer PCIe devices without explicit support for the PCIe standard, though PCIe's new features will not be accessible. (And PCIe cards cannot be inserted into PCI slots). HP Pavilion DV5-1010 Battery

The PCIe link between 2 devices can consist of anywhere from 1 to 32 lanes. In a multi-lane link, the packet data is striped across lanes, and peak data-throughput scales with the overall link width. The lanecount is automatically negotiated during device initialization, and can be restricted by either endpoint. HP Pavilion DV5-1002 Battery
For example, a single-lane PCIe (x1) card can be inserted into a multilane slot (x4, x8, etc.), and the initialization cycle will autonegotiate the highest mutually supported lanecount. The link can dynamically downconfigure the link to use fewer lanes, thus providing some measure of failure tolerance in the presence of bad/unreliable lanes. HP Pavilion DV4-1070 Battery
The PCIe standard defines slots and connectors for multiple widths: x1, x4, x8, x16, x32. This allows PCIe bus to serve both cost-sensitive applications where high throughput is not needed, as well as performance-critical applications such as 3D graphics, network (10 Gigabit Ethernet, multiport Gigabit Ethernet), and enterprise storage (SAS, Fibre Channel.) HP Pavilion DV4-1050 Battery

As a point of reference, a PCI-X (133 MHz 64 bit) device and PCIe device at 4-lanes (x4), Gen1 speed have roughly the same peak transfer rate in a single-direction: 1064MB/sec. The PCIe bus has the potential to perform better than the PCI-X bus in cases where multiple devices are transferring data communicating simultaneously, or if communication with the PCIe peripheral is bidirectional. HP Pavilion DV4-1030EE Battery

Interconnect
PCIe devices communicate via a logical connection called an interconnect[4] or link. A link is a point-to-point communication channel between 2 PCIe ports, allowing both to send/receive ordinary PCI-requests (configuration read/write, I/O read/write, memory read/write) and interrupts (INTx, MSI, MSI-X). At the physical level, a link is composed of 1 or more lanes.[4] Low-speed peripherals (such as an 802.11 Wi-Fi card) use a single-lane (×1) link, while a graphics adapter typically uses a much wider (and thus, faster) 16-lane link. HP Pavilion DV4-1020US Battery

Lane
A lane is composed of a transmit and receive pair of differential lines. Each lane is composed of 4 wires or signal paths, meaning conceptually, each lane is a full-duplex byte stream, transporting data packets in 8 bit 'byte' format, between endpoints of a link, in both directions simultaneously.[5] Physical PCIe slots may contain from one to thirty-two lanes, in powers of two (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32).[4] Lane counts are written with an × prefix (e.g., ×16 represents a sixteen-lane card or slot), with ×16 being the largest size in common use.[6] HP Pavilion DV4-1016T Battery

Serial bus
The bonded serial format was chosen over a traditional parallel format due to the phenomenon of timing skew. Timing skew is a direct result of the limitations imposed by the speed of an electrical signal travelling down a wire, which it does at the finite speed of electricity. Because signal paths across an interface have different finite lengths, parallel signals transmitted simultaneously arrive at their destinations at slightly different times. HP Pavilion DV4-1015T Battery
When the interface clock rate increases to the point where the wavelength of a single bit is less than the smallest difference between path lengths, the bits of a single word do not arrive at their destination simultaneously, making parallel recovery of the word difficult. Thus, the speed of the electrical signal, combined with the difference in length between the longest and shortest path in a parallel interconnect, leads to a naturally imposed maximum bandwidth. HP Pavilion DV4-1000 Battery
Serial channel bonding avoids this issue by not requiring the bits to arrive simultaneously. PCIe is just one example of a general trend away from parallel buses to serial interconnects. Other examples includeSerial ATA, USB, SAS, FireWire and RapidIO. Multichannel serial design increases flexibility by allowing slow devices to be allocated fewer lanes than fast devices. HP Pavilion DV4 Battery

Form factors

PCI Express (standard)

PCI Express slots (from top to bottom: ×4 , ×16, ×1 and ×16), compared to a traditional 32-bit PCI slot (bottom), as seen on DFI’s LanParty nF4 SLI-DR.
A PCIe card will fit into a slot of its physical size or larger, but may not fit into a smaller PCIe slot. Some slots use open-ended sockets to permit physically longer cards and will negotiate the best available electrical connection. The number of lanes actually connected to a slot may also be less than the number supported by the physical slot size. Dell Studio 1737 battery
An example is a ×8 slot that actually only runs at ×1; these slots will allow any ×1, ×2, ×4 or ×8 card to be used, though only running at ×1 speed. This type of socket is described as a ×8 (×1 mode) slot, meaning it physically accepts up to ×8 cards but only runs at ×1 speed. The advantage gained is that a larger range of PCIe cards can still be used without requiring the motherboard hardware to support the full transfer rate, which keeps design and implementation costs down.
MiniPCI and MiniPCI Express cards in comparisonDell Studio 1735 battery

PCI Express Mini Card (also known as Mini PCI Express, Mini PCIe, and Mini PCI-E) is a replacement for the Mini PCI form factor based on PCI Express. It is developed by the PCI-SIG. The host device supports both PCI Express and USB 2.0 connectivity, and each card uses whichever the designer feels most appropriate to the task. Most laptop computers built after 2005 are based on PCI Express and can have several Mini Card slots.[citation needed] Dell Studio 1537 battery

Physical dimensions
PCI Express Mini Cards are 30×50.95 mm. There is a 52 pin edge connector, consisting of two staggered rows on a 0.8 mm pitch. Each row has 8 contacts, a gap equivalent to 4 contacts, then a further 18 contacts. A half-length card is also specified 30×26.8 mm. Cards have a thickness of 1.0 mm (excluding components).. Dell Studio 1535 battery

 Mini PCIe SSD connector
Some netbooks (notably the Asus EeePC,MacBook Air, and Dell mini9 and mini10) use a variant of the PCI Express Mini Card as anSSD. This variant uses the reserved and several non-reserved pins to implement SATA and IDE interface passthrough, keeping only USB, ground lines, and sometimes the core PCIe 1x bus intact.[7Dell XPS M1310 battery
] This makes the 'miniPCIe' flash and solid state drives sold for netbooks largely incompatible with true PCI Express Mini implementations. Also, the typical Asus miniPCIe SSD is 71mm long, causing the Dell 51mm model to often be (incorrectly) referred to as half length. A true 51mm Mini PCIe SSD was announced in 2009, with two stacked PCB layers, which allows for higher storage capacity. The announced design preserves the PCIe interface, making it compatible with the standard mini PCIe slot. No working product has yet been developed, likely as a result of the popularity of the alternative variant. Dell XPS M1710 battery

PCI Express External Cabling
PCI Express External Cabling (also known as External PCI Express, Cabled PCI Express, or ePCIe) specifications were released by the PCI-SIG in February 2007.[8][9] Dell XPS 13 battery

Standard cables and connectors have been defined for ×1, ×4, ×8, and ×16 link widths, with a transfer rate of 250 MB/s per lane. The PCI-SIG also expects the norm will evolve to reach the 500 MB/s as found in PCI Express 2.0. The maximum cable length hasn't been determined yet. An example of the uses of Cabled PCI Express is a metal enclosure, containing a number of PCI slots and PCI-to-ePCIe adapter circuitry. This device would not be possible had it not been for the ePCIe spec. Dell Studio XPS 13 Battery

Derivative forms
There are several other expansion card types derived from PCIe. These include:
Low height card
ExpressCard: successor to the PC card form factor (with ×1 PCIe and USB 2.0; hot-pluggable)
PCI Express ExpressModule: a hot-pluggable modular form factor defined for servers and workstations
XMC: similar to the CMC/PMC form factor (with ×4 PCIe or Serial RapidI/O)
AdvancedTCA: a complement to CompactPCI for larger applications; supports serial based backplane topologiesDell Latitude D830 Battery

AMC: a complement to the AdvancedTCA specification; supports processor and I/O modules on ATCA boards (×1, ×2, ×4 or ×8 PCIe).
FeaturePak: a tiny expansion card format (43 x 65 mm) for embedded and small form factor applications; it implements two x1 PCIe links on a high-density connector along with USB, I2C, and up to 100 points of I/O. Dell Latitude D810 Battery

Universal IO: A variant from Super Micro Computer Inc designed for use in low profile rack mounted chassis. It has the connector bracket reversed so it cannot fit in a normal PCI Express socket, but is pin compatible and may be inserted if the bracket is removed.
Thunderbolt: A variant from Intel that combines DisplayPort and PCIe protocols in a form factor compatible with Mini DisplayPort. Dell Latitude D820 Battery

History

While in development, PCIe was initially referred to as HSI (for High Speed Interconnect), and underwent a name change to 3GIO (for 3rd Generation I/O) before finally settling on its PCI-SIG name PCI Express. It was first drawn up by a technical working group named the Arapaho Work Group (AWG) which, for initial drafts, consisted of an Intel only team of architects. Subsequently the AWG was expanded to include industry partners. Dell Latitude D630 Battery
PCIe is a technology under constant development and improvement. The current PCI Express implementation is version 3.0.
PCI Express 1.0a
In 2003, PCI-SIG introduced PCIe 1.0a, with a data rate of 250 MB/s and a transfer rate of 2.5 GT/s.
PCI Express 1.1
In 2005, PCI-SIG introduced PCIe 1.1. This updated specification includes clarifications and several improvements, but is fully compatible with PCI Express 1.0a. No changes were made to the data rate. Dell Latitude D610 Battery
PCI Express 2.0
PCI-SIG announced the availability of the PCI Express Base 2.0 specification on 15 January 2007.[10] The PCIe 2.0 standard doubles the per-lane throughput from the PCIe 1.0 standard's 250 MB/s to 500 MB/s. This means a 32-lane PCI connector (x32) can support throughput up to 16 GB/s aggregate. The PCIe 2.0 standard uses a base clock speed of 5 GHz, while the first version operates at 2.5 GHz. Dell Inspiron E1705 Battery

PCIe 2.0 motherboard slots are fully backward compatible with PCIe v1.x cards. PCIe 2.0 cards are also generally backward compatible with PCIe 1.x motherboards, using the available bandwidth of PCI Express 1.1. Overall, graphic cards or motherboards designed for v 2.0 will be able to work with the other being v 1.1 or v 1.0. Sony VGP-BPL9 Battery

The PCI-SIG also said that PCIe 2.0 features improvements to the point-to-point data transfer protocol and its software architecture.[11]
Intel 's first PCIe 2.0 capable chipset was the X38 and boards began to ship from various vendors (Abit, Asus, Gigabyte) as of October 21, 2007.[12] AMD started supporting PCIe 2.0 with its AMD 700 chipset series and nVidia started with the MCP72.[13]All of Intel's prior chipsets, including the Intel P35 chipset, supported PCIe 1.1 or 1.0a.[14]
PCI Express 2.1Sony VGP-BPS9A Battery

PCI Express 2.1 supports a large proportion of the management, support, and troubleshooting systems planned to be fully implemented in PCI Express 3.0. However, the speed is the same as PCI Express 2.0. Most motherboards sold currently come with PCI Express 2.0 connectors. Sony VGP-BPS9A/B Battery

PCI Express 3.0
PCI Express 3.0 Base specification revision 3.0 was made available in November 2010, after multiple delays. In August 2007, PCI-SIG announced that PCI Express 3.0 would carry a bit rate of 8 gigatransfers per second, and that it would be backwards compatible with existing PCIe implementions. At that time, it was also announced that the final specification for PCI Express 3.0 would be delayed until 2011,[15Sony VGP-BPS9/B Battery
] although more recent sources (see below) stated that it may be available towards the end of 2010. New features for the PCIe 3.0 specification include a number of optimizations for enhanced signaling and data integrity, including transmitter and receiver equalization, PLL improvements, clock data recovery, and channel enhancements for currently supported topologies.[16] Sony VGP-BPS9 Battery

Following a six-month technical analysis of the feasibility of scaling the PCIe interconnect bandwidth, PCI-SIG's analysis found out that 8 gigatransfers per second can be manufactured in mainstream silicon process technology, and can be deployed with existing low-cost materials and infrastructure, while maintaining full compatibility (with negligible impact) to the PCIe protocol stack. Sony VGP-BPS21/S Battery
PCIe 2.0 delivers 5 GT/s, but employs an 8b/10b encoding scheme which results in a 20 percent overhead on the raw bit rate. PCIe 3.0 removes the requirement for 8b/10b encoding and instead uses a technique called "scrambling" in which "a known binary polynomial is applied to a data stream in a feedback topology. Sony VGP-BPS21A/B Battery
Because the scrambling polynomial is known, the data can be recovered by running it through a feedback topology using the inverse polynomial"[17] and also uses a 128b/130b encoding scheme, reducing the overhead to approximately 1.5%, as opposed to the 20% overhead of 8b/10b encoding used by PCIe 2.0. PCIe 3.0's 8 GT/s bit rate effectively delivers double PCIe 2.0 bandwidth. According to an official press release by PCI-SIG on 8 August 2007: Sony VGP-BPS21B Battery

The final PCIe 3.0 specifications, including form factor specification updates, may be available by late 2009, and could be seen in products starting in 2010 and beyond.
—[18]
As of January 2010, the release of the final specifications had been delayed until Q2 2010.[19] PCI-SIG expects the PCIe 3.0 specifications to undergo rigorous technical vetting and validation before being released to the industry. This process, which was followed in the development of prior generations of the PCIe Base and various form factor specifications, includes the corroboration of the final electrical parameters with data derived from test silicon and other simulations conducted by multiple members of the PCI-SIG. Sony VGP-BPS21A Battery

On May 31, 2010, it was announced that the 3.0 specification would be coming in 2010, but not until the second half of the year.[20] Then, on June 23, 2010, the PCI Special Interest Group released a timetable showing the final 3.0 specification due in the fourth quarter of 2010.[21]
Finally, on November 18, 2010, the PCI Special Interest Group officially publishes the finalized PCI Express 3.0 specification to its members to build devices based on this new version of PCI Express.[22] Sony VGP-BPL14/B Battery

Current status
PCI Express has replaced AGP as the default interface for graphics cards on new systems. With a few exceptions, all graphics cards being released as of 2009 and 2010 from AMD(ATI) and NVIDIA use PCI Express. NVIDIA uses the high bandwidth data transfer of PCIe for its Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology, which allows multiple graphics cards of the same chipset and model number to be run in tandem, allowing increased performance. Sony VGP-BPS14/B Battery 
ATI has also developed a multi-GPU system based on PCIe called CrossFire. AMD and NVIDIA have released motherboard chipsets which support up to four PCIe ×16 slots, allowing tri-GPU and quad-GPU card configurations. Sony VGP-BPS14/S Battery 

Uptake for other forms of PC expansion has been much slower and conventional PCI remains dominant. PCI Express is commonly used for disk array controllers, onboard gigabit Ethernet, and Wi-Fi but except for graphics cards, add-in cards are still generally conventional PCI, particularly at the lower end of the market. Sony VGP-BPL14 Battery
Sound cards, TV/capture-cards, modems, serial port/USB/Firewire cards, network/WiFi cards and other cards with low-speed interfaces are still nearly all conventional PCI. Sony VGP-BPS13B/S Battery
For this reason most motherboards supporting PCI Express offer conventional PCI slots as well. As of 2010 many of these cards are starting to make their way over to x8, x4, or x1 PCIe slots which are present in motherboards. For instance, almost all new sound cards from the second half of 2010 are now PCIe.[citation needed] Sony VGP-BPS13B/G Battery

Hardware protocol summary

The PCIe link is built around dedicated unidirectional couples of serial (1-bit), point-to-point connections known as lanes. This is in sharp contrast to the earlier PCI connection, which is a bus-based system where all the devices share the same bidirectional, 32-bit or 64-bit parallel bus.
PCI Express is a layered protocol, consisting of a transaction layer, a data link layer, and a physical layer. Sony VGP-BPS13A/Q Battery
The Data Link Layer is subdivided to include a media access control (MAC) sublayer. The Physical Layer is subdivided into logical and electrical sublayers. The Physical logical-sublayer contains a physical coding sublayer (PCS). (Terms borrowed from the IEEE 802 model of networking protocol.) Sony VGP-BPS13/Q Battery

Physical layer
The PCIe Physical Layer (PHY, PCIEPHY , PCI Express PHY, or PCIe PHY) specification is divided into two sub-layers, corresponding to electrical and logical specifications. The logical sublayer is sometimes further divided into a MAC sublayer and a PCS, although this division is not formally part of the PCIe specification. Sony VGP-BPS13A/S Battery
A specification published by Intel, the PHY Interface for PCI Express (PIPE),[23] defines the MAC/PCS functional partitioning and the interface between these two sub-layers. The PIPE specification also identifies the physical media attachment (PMA) layer, which includes the serializer/deserializer (SerDes) and other analog circuitry; however, since SerDes implementations vary greatly among ASIC vendors, PIPE does not specify an interface between the PCS and PMA. Sony VGP-BPS13/S Battery

At the electrical level, each lane consists of two unidirectional LVDS or PCML pairs at 2.525 Gbit/s. Transmit and receive are separate differential pairs, for a total of 4 data wires per lane.
A connection between any two PCIe devices is known as a link, and is built up from a collection of 1 or more lanes. All devices must minimally support single-lane (x1) link. Devices may optionally support wider links composed of 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, or 32 lanes. This allows for very good compatibility in two ways: Sony VGP-BPS13A/B Battery

a PCIe card will physically fit (and work correctly) in any slot that is at least as large as it is (e.g., an ×1 sized card will work in any sized slot);
a slot of a large physical size (e.g., ×16) can be wired electrically with fewer lanes (e.g., ×1, ×4, ×8, or ×12) as long as it provides the ground connections required by the larger physical slot size.
In both cases, PCIe will negotiate the highest mutually supported number of lanes. Many graphics cards, motherboards and bios versions are verified to support ×1, ×4, ×8 and ×16 connectivity on the same connection. Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L Battery

Even though the two would be signal-compatible, it is not usually possible to place a physically larger PCIe card (e.g., a ×16 sized card) into a smaller slot —though if the PCIe slots are open-ended, by design or by hack, some motherboards will allow this.[citation needed] Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2L Battery

The width of a PCIe connector is 8.8 mm, while the height is 11.25 mm, and the length is variable. The fixed section of the connector is 11.65 mm in length and contains 2 rows of 11 (22 pins total), while the length of the other section is variable depending on the number of lanes. The pins are spaced at 1 mm intervals, and the thickness of the card going into the connector is 1.8 mm.[24][25]
Lanes        Pins  LengthSony VAIO PCG-8Y1L Battery

PCIe sends all control messages, including interrupts, over the same links used for data. The serial protocol can never be blocked, so latency is still comparable to conventional PCI, which has dedicated interrupt lines. Sony VAIO PCG-6W2L Battery

Data transmitted on multiple-lane links is interleaved, meaning that each successive byte is sent down successive lanes. The PCIe specification refers to this interleaving as "data striping". While requiring significant hardware complexity to synchronize (or deskew) the incoming striped data, striping can significantly reduce the latency of the nth byte on a link. Due to padding requirements, striping may not necessarily reduce the latency of small data packets on a link. Sony VAIO PCG-6W3L Battery

As with other high data rate serial transmission protocols, clocking information is embedded in the signal. At the physical level, PCI Express 2.0 utilizes the 8b/10b encoding scheme[17]to ensure that strings of consecutive ones or consecutive zeros are limited in length. This was used to prevent the receiver from losing track of where the bit edges are. In this coding scheme every 8 (uncoded) payload bits of data are replaced with 10 (encoded) bits of transmit data, causing a 20% overhead in the electrical bandwidth. Sony VAIO PCG-6S2L Battery
To improve the available bandwidth, PCI Express version 3.0 employs 128b/130b encoding instead: similar but with much lower overhead.
Many other protocols (such as SONET) use a different form of encoding known as scrambling to embed clock information into data streams. The PCIe specification also defines a scrambling algorithm, but it is used to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) by preventing repeating data patterns in the transmitted data stream. Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L Battery

Data link layer
The Data Link Layer implements the sequencing of the transaction layer packets (TLPs) that are generated by the transaction layer, data protection via a 32-bit cyclic redundancy checkcode (CRC, known in this context as LCRC) and an acknowledgement protocol (ACK and NAK signaling). TLPs that pass an LCRC check and a sequence number check result in an acknowledgement, or ACK, Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L Battery
while those that fail these checks result in a negative acknowledgement, or NAK. TLPs that result in a NAK, or timeouts that occur while waiting for an ACK, result in the TLPs being replayed from a special buffer in the transmit data path of the data link layer. This guarantees delivery of TLPs in spite of electrical noise, barring any malfunction of the device or transmission medium. Sony VAIO PCG-5G2L Battery

ACK and NAK signals are communicated via a low-level packet known as a data link layer packet (DLLP). DLLPs are also used to communicate flow control information between the transaction layers of two connected devices, as well as some power management functions. Sony VAIO VGN-CR42Z Battery

Transaction layer
PCI Express implements split transactions (transactions with request and response separated by time), allowing the link to carry other traffic while the target device gathers data for the response. Sony VAIO VGN-CR41ZR Battery

PCI Express utilizes credit-based flow control. In this scheme, a device advertises an initial amount of credit for each of the receive buffers in its transaction layer. The device at the opposite end of the link, when sending transactions to this device, will count the number of credits consumed by each TLP from its account. The sending device may only transmit a TLP when doing so does not result in its consumed credit count exceeding its credit limit. Sony VAIO VGN-CR41Z Battery
When the receiving device finishes processing the TLP from its buffer, it signals a return of credits to the sending device, which then increases the credit limit by the restored amount. The credit counters are modular counters, and the comparison of consumed credits to credit limit requires modular arithmetic. Sony VAIO VGN-CR41S Battery
The advantage of this scheme (compared to other methods such as wait states or handshake-based transfer protocols) is that the latency of credit return does not affect performance, provided that the credit limit is not encountered. This assumption is generally met if each device is designed with adequate buffer sizes. Sony VAIO VGN-CR31Z Battery

PCIe 1.x is often quoted to support a data rate of 250 MB/s in each direction, per lane. This figure is a calculation from the physical signaling rate (2.5 Gbaud) divided by the encoding overhead (10 bits per byte.) This means a sixteen lane (×16) PCIe card would then be theoretically capable of 16×250 MB/s = 4 GB/s in each direction. While this is correct in terms of data bytes, more meaningful calculations will be based on the usable data payload rate, which depends on the profile of the traffic, which is a function of the high-level (software) application and intermediate protocol levels. Sony VAIO VGN-CR31E Battery

Like other high data rate serial interconnect systems, PCIe has a protocol and processing overhead due to the additional transfer robustness (CRC and acknowledgements). Long continuous unidirectional transfers (such as those typical in high-performance storage controllers) can approach >95% of PCIe's raw (lane) data rate. These transfers also benefit the most from increased number of lanes (×2, ×4, etc.) Sony VAIO VGN-CR21S Battery
But in more typical applications (such as a USB or Ethernet controller), the traffic profile is characterized as short data packets with frequent enforced acknowledgements.[27] This type of traffic reduces the efficiency of the link, due to overhead from packet parsing and forced interrupts (either in the device's host interface or the PC's CPU.) Being a protocol for devices connected to the same printed circuit board, it does not require the same tolerance for transmission errors as a protocol for communication over longer distances, and thus, this loss of efficiency is not particular to PCIe. Sony VAIO VGN-CR21E Battery

Uses

External PCIe cards
Theoretically, external PCIe could give a notebook the graphics power of a desktop, by connecting a notebook with any PCIe desktop video card (enclosed in its own external housing, with strong power supply and cooling); This is possible with an ExpressCard interface, which provides single lane v1.1 performance. Sony VAIO VGN-CR11Z Battery

[28][29][30][31][32]
IBM/Lenovo has also included a PCI-Express slot in their Advanced Docking Station 250310U. It provides a half sized slot with an x16 length slot, but only x1 connectivity.[33] However, docking stations with expansion slots are becoming less common as the laptops are getting more advanced video cards and either DVI-D interfaces, or DVI-D pass through for port replicators and docking stations. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11Z/T Battery

Additionally, Nvidia has developed Quadro Plex external PCIe Video Cards that can be used for advanced graphic applications. These video cards require a PCI Express ×8 or ×16 slot for the interconnection cable.[34] AMD has recently announced the ATI XGP technology based on proprietary cabling solution which is compatible with PCIe x8 signal transmissions.[ Sony VAIO VGN-NR11Z/S Battery35] This connector is available on the Fujitsu Amilo and the Acer Ferrari One notebooks. Only Fujitsu has an actual external box available, which also works on the Ferrari One. Recently Acer launched the Dynavivid graphics dock for XGP. Shuttle introduced their own external graphics solutions, GXT. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11S/S Battery

There are now card hubs in development that one can connect to a laptop through an ExpressCard slot, though they are currently rare, obscure, or unavailable on the open market. These hubs can have full-sized cards placed in them. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11M/S Battery

Magma and ViDock also makes use of ExpressCard and implements the usage of External graphic solutions .ViDock are expansion chassis tailored specifically for adapting PCI Express graphics cards for use with ExpressCard equipped laptop PCs. This enables user to make use of connecting PCIe cards externally. Although, the developments in these technologies are still ongoing. Other examples that underwent are - MSI GUS , Asus XG Station . Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/S Battery

Competing protocols

Several communications standards have emerged based on high bandwidth serial architectures. These include InfiniBand, RapidIO, HyperTransport, QPI and StarFabric. The differences are based on the tradeoffs between flexibility and extensibility vs latency and overhead. An example of such a tradeoff is adding complex header information to a transmitted packet to allow for complex routing (PCI Express is not capable of this). Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/T Battery
The additional overhead reduces the effective bandwidth of the interface and complicates bus discovery and initialization software. Also making the system hot-pluggable requires that software track network topology changes. Examples of buses suited for this purpose are InfiniBand and StarFabric. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/T Battery

Another example is making the packets shorter to decrease latency (as is required if a bus is to be operated as a memory interface). Smaller packets mean that the packet headers consume a higher percentage of the packet, thus decreasing the effective bandwidth. Examples of bus protocols designed for this purpose are RapidIO and HyperTransport.
Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/S Battery

PCI Express falls somewhere in the middle, targeted by design as a system interconnect (local bus) rather than a device interconnect or routed network protocol. Additionally, its design goal of software transparency constrains the protocol and raises its latency somewhat. Sony VGN-FW31ZJ battery

Development tools

When developing and/or troubleshooting the PCI Express bus, examination of hardware signals can be very important to find the problems. Logic analyzers and bus analyzers are tools which collect, analyze, decode, store signals so people can view the high-speed waveforms at their leisure. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M Battery

Peripheral Component Interconnect

]Conventional PCI (PCI is an initialism formed from Peripheral Component Interconnect,[1] part of the PCI Local Bus standard and often shortened to PCI) is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer. Sony VGP-BPS9 Battery
These devices can take either the form of an integrated circuit fitted onto the motherboard itself, called a planar device in the PCI specification, or an expansion card that fits into a slot. The PCI Local Bus is common in modern PCs, where it has displaced ISA and VESA Local Bus as the standard expansion bus, and it also appears in many other computer types. Despite the availability of faster interfaces such as PCI-X and PCI Express, conventional PCI remains a very common interface. Sony VGP-BPS9A Battery

The PCI specification covers the physical size of the bus (including the size and spacing of the circuit board edge electrical contacts), electrical characteristics, bus timing, and protocols. The specification can be purchased from the PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG). Sony VGP-BPS9B Battery

Typical PCI cards used in PCs include: network cards, sound cards, modems, extra ports such as USB or serial, TV tuner cards and disk controllers. Historically video cards were typically PCI devices, but growing bandwidth requirements soon outgrew the capabilities of PCI. PCI video cards remain available for supporting extra monitors and upgrading PCs that do not have any AGP or PCI Express slots.[2] Sony VGP-BPS13 Battery

Many devices traditionally provided on expansion cards are now commonly integrated onto the motherboard itself, meaning that modern PCs often have no cards fitted. However, PCI is still used for certain specialized cards, although many tasks traditionally performed by expansion cards may now be performed equally well by USB devices. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/B Battery

Work on PCI began at Intel's Architecture Development Lab circa 1990.
A team of Intel engineers (composed primarily of ADL engineers) defined the architecture and developed a proof of concept chipset and platform (Saturn) partnering with teams in the company's desktop PC systems and core logic product organizations. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13B/B Battery
The original PCI architecture team included, among others, Dave Carson, Norm Rasmussen, Brad Hosler, Ed Solari, Bruce Young, Gary Solomon, Ali Oztaskin, Tom Sakoda, Rich Haslam, Jeff Rabe, and Steve Fischer. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13/S Battery

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) was immediately put to use in servers, replacing MCA and EISA as the server expansion bus of choice. In mainstream PCs, PCI was slower to replace VESA Local Bus (VLB), and did not gain significant market penetration until late 1994 in second-generation Pentium PCs. By 1996 VLB was all but extinct, and manufacturers had adopted PCI even for 486 computers.[ Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/S Battery
3] EISA continued to be used alongside PCI through 2000. Apple Computer adopted PCI for professional Power Macintosh computers (replacingNuBus) in mid-1995, and the consumer Performa product line (replacing LC PDS) in mid-1996. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13B/S Battery

Later revisions of PCI added new features and performance improvements, including a 66 MHz 3.3 V standard and 133 MHz PCI-X, and the adaptation of PCI signaling to other form factors. Both PCI-X 1.0b and PCI-X 2.0 are backward compatible with some PCI standards. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13/Q Battery

The PCI-SIG introduced the serial PCI Express in 2004. At the same time they renamed PCI as Conventional PCI. Since then, motherboard manufacturers have included progressively fewer Conventional PCI slots in favor of the new standard. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13A/Q Battery

PCI History[4]

PCI provides separate memory and I/O port address spaces for the x86 processor family, 64 and 32 bits, respectively. Addresses in these address spaces are assigned by software. A third address space, called the PCI Configuration Space, which uses a fixed addressing scheme, allows software to determine the amount of memory and I/O address space needed by each device. Each device can request up to six areas of memory space or I/O port space via its configuration space registers. Sony VAIO VGP-BPS13B/Q Battery

In a typical system, the firmware (or operating system) queries all PCI buses at startup time (via PCI Configuration Space) to find out what devices are present and what system resources (memory space, I/O space, interrupt lines, etc.) each needs. It then allocates the resources and tells each device what its allocation is. Sony VGP-BPS21 Battery

The PCI configuration space also contains a small amount of device type information, which helps an operating system choose device drivers for it, or at least to have a dialogue with a user about the system configuration. Sony VGP-BPS21A Battery

Devices may have an on-board ROM containing executable code for x86 or PA-RISC processors, an Open Firmware driver, or an EFI driver. These are typically necessary for devices used during system startup, before device drivers are loaded by the operating system. Sony VGP-BPS21B Battery

In addition there are PCI Latency Timers that are a mechanism for PCI Bus-Mastering devices to share the PCI bus fairly. "Fair" in this case means that devices won't use such a large portion of the available PCI bus bandwidth that other devices aren't able to get needed work done. Note, this does not apply to PCI Express. Sony VGP-BPS21/S Battery

How this works is that each PCI device that can operate in bus-master mode is required to implement a timer, called the Latency Timer, that limits the time that device can hold the PCI bus. The timer starts when the device gains bus ownership, and counts down at the rate of the PCI clock. Sony VGP-BPS21A/b Battery
When the counter reaches zero, the device is required to release the bus. If no other devices are waiting for bus ownership, it may simply grab the bus again and transfer more data.[6] Sony VGP-BPL14 battery

Interrupts

Devices are required to follow a protocol so that the interrupt lines can be shared. The PCI bus includes four interrupt lines, all of which are available to each device. However, they are not wired in parallel as are the other PCI bus lines. Sony VGP-BPS14 battery  The positions of the interrupt lines rotate between slots, so what appears to one device as the INTA# line is INTB# to the next and INTC# to the one after that. Single-function devices use their INTA# for interrupt signaling, so the device load is spread fairly evenly across the four available interrupt lines. This alleviates a common problem with sharing interrupts. Sony VGP-BPS14/S battery 

PCI bridges (between two PCI buses) map the four interrupt traces on each of their sides in varying ways. Some bridges use a fixed mapping, and in others it is configurable. In the general case, software cannot determine which interrupt line a device's INTA# pin is connected to across a bridge. The mapping of PCI interrupt lines onto system interrupt lines, through the PCI host bridge, is similarly implementation-dependent. Sony VGP-BPS14/S battery 
The result is that it can be impossible to determine how a PCI device's interrupts will appear to software. Platform-specific BIOS code is meant to know this, and set a field in each device's configuration space indicating which IRQ it is connected to, but this process is not reliable. Sony VGP-BPS14/B battery 

PCI interrupt lines are level-triggered. This was chosen over edge-triggering in order to gain an advantage when servicing a shared interrupt line, and for robustness: edge triggered interrupts are easy to miss. Sony VAIO PCG-5G3L Battery

Later revisions of the PCI specification add support for message-signaled interrupts. In this system a device signals its need for service by performing a memory write, rather than by asserting a dedicated line. Sony VAIO PCG-5J1L Battery
This alleviates the problem of scarcity of interrupt lines. Even if interrupt vectors are still shared, it does not suffer the sharing problems of level-triggered interrupts. It also resolves the routing problem, because the memory write is not unpredictably modified between device and host. Finally, because the message signaling is in-band, it resolves some synchronization problems that can occur with posted writes and out-of-band interrupt lines. Sony VAIO PCG-5J2L Battery

PCI Express does not have physical interrupt lines at all. It uses message-signaled interrupts exclusively.
Conventional hardware specifications

 

A PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet expansion card. Note both 5 V and 3.3 V support notches are present.
Typical PCI cards present either one or two key notches, depending on their signaling voltage. Cards requiring 3.3 volts have a notch 56.21 mm from the front of the card (where the external connectors are) while those requiring 5 volts have a notch 104.47 mm from the front of the card. So called "Universal cards" have both key notches and can accept both types of signal. Sony VAIO PCG-5K2L Battery

Connector pinout
The PCI connector is defined as having 62 contacts on each side of the edge connector, but two or four of them are replaced by key notches, so a card has 60 or 58 contacts on each side. Pin 1 is closest to the backplate. B and A sides are as follows, looking down into the motherboard connector.[5][7][8] Sony VAIO PCG-5K1L Battery

Ground pin       Zero volt reference
Power pin         Supplies power to the PCI card
Output pin        Driven by the PCI card, received by the motherboard
Initiator output        Driven by the master/initiator, received by the target
I/O signal May be driven by initiator or target, depending on operation
Target output  Driven by the target, received by the initiator/master
Input         Driven by the motherboard, received by the PCI card
Open drain       May be pulled low and/or sensed by multiple cards
Reserved Not presently used, do not connectSony VAIO PCG-6S1L Battery

Most lines are connected to each slot in parallel. The exceptions are:
Each slot has its own REQ# output to, and GNT# input from the motherboard arbiter.
Each slot has its own IDSEL line, usually connected to a specific AD line.
TDO is daisy-chained to the following slot's TDI. Cards without JTAG support must connect TDI to TDO so as not to break the chain. Sony VAIO PCG-6S2L Battery

PRSNT1# and PRSNT2# for each slot have their own pull-up resistors on the motherboard. The motherboard may (but does not have to) sense these pins to determine the presence of PCI cards and their power requirements.
REQ64# and ACK64# are individually pulled up on 32-bit only slots. Sony VAIO PCG-6W1L Battery

The interrupt lines INTA# through INTD# are connected to all slots in different orders. (INTA# on one slot is INTB# on the next and INTC# on the one after that.) Sony VAIO PCG-6W2L Battery

Notes:
IOPWR is +3.3V or +5V, depending on the backplane. The slots also have a ridge in one of two places which prevents insertion of cards that do not have the corresponding key notch, indicating support for that voltage standard. Universal cards have both key notches and use IOPWR to determine their I/O signal levels. Sony VAIO PCG-6W3L Battery

The PCI SIG strongly encourages 3.3 V PCI signaling,[5] requiring support for it since standard revision 2.3,[7] but most PC motherboards use the 5 V variant. Thus, while many currently available PCI cards support both, and have two key notches to indicate that, there are still a large number of 5 V-only cards on the market. Sony VAIO PCG-8Y2L Battery
The M66EN pin is an additional ground on 5V PCI busses found in most PC motherboards. Cards and motherboards that do not support 66 MHz operation also ground this pin. If all participants support 66 MHz operation, a pull-up resistor on the motherboard raises this signal high and 66 MHz operation is enabled. Sony VAIO PCG-8Z1L Battery

At least one of PRSNT1# and PRSNT2# must be grounded by the card. The combination chosen indicates the total power requirements of the card (25 W, 15 W, or 7.5 W).
SBO# and SDONE are signals from a cache controller to the current target. They are not initiator outputs, but are colored that way because they are target inputs. Sony VAIO PCG-8Z2L Battery

Physical card dimensions

Full-size card
The original "full-size" PCI card is specified as a height of 107 mm (4.2 inches) and a depth of 312 mm (12.283 inches). The height includes the edge card connector. However, most modern PCI cards are half-length or smaller (see below) and many modern PCs cannot fit a full-size card. Sony VAIO PCG-7112L Battery

Card backplate
In addition to these dimensions the physical size and location of a card's backplate are also standardized. The backplate is the part that fastens to the card cage to stabilize the card and also contains external connectors, so it usually attaches in a window so it is accessible from outside the computer case. The backplate is fixed to the cage by a 6-32 screw. Sony VAIO PCG-7113L Battery

The card itself can be a smaller size, but the backplate must still be full-size and properly located so that the card fits in any standard PCI slot.
Half-length extension card (de-facto standard)
This is in fact the practical standard now – the majority of modern PCI cards fit inside this length.
Width: 0.6 inches (15.24 mm)
Depth: 6.9 inches (175.26 mm)
Height: 4.2 inches (106.68 mm)
Low-profile (half-height) card
The PCI organization has defined a standard for "low-profile" cards, which basically fit in the following ranges: Sony VAIO PCG-7133L Battery

Height: 1.42 inches (36.07 mm) to 2.536 inches (64.41 mm)
Depth: 4.721 inches (119.91 mm) to 6.6 inches (167.64 mm)
The bracket is also reduced in height, to a standard 3.118 inches (79.2 mm). The smaller bracket will not fit a standard PC case, but will fit in a 2U rack-mount case. Many manufacturers supply both types of bracket (brackets are typically screwed to the card so changing them is not difficult). Sony VAIO PCG-7Z2L Battery

These cards may be known by other names such as "slim".
Low Profile PCI FAQ
Low Profile PCI Specification
Mini PCI

Mini PCI Wi-Fi card Type IIIB
Mini PCI was added to PCI version 2.2 for use in laptops; it uses a 32-bit, 33 MHz bus with powered connections (3.3 V only; 5 V is limited to 100 mA) and support for bus mastering and DMA. The standard size for Mini PCI cards is approximately 1/4 of their full-sized counterparts. As there is limited external access to the card compared to desktop PCI cards, there are limitations on the functions they may perform. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/S Battery

 

PCI-to-MiniPCI converter Type III

MiniPCI and MiniPCI Express cards in comparison
Many Mini PCI devices were developed such as Wi-Fi, Fast Ethernet, Bluetooth, modems (often Winmodems), sound cards, cryptographic accelerators, SCSI, IDE–ATA, SATA controllers and combination cards. Mini PCI cards can be used with regular PCI-equipped hardware, using Mini PCI-to-PCI converters. Mini PCI has been superseded by PCI Express Mini Card. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11S/T Battery

Technical details of Mini PCI
Mini PCI cards have a 2 W maximum power consumption, which also limits the functionality that can be implemented in this form factor. They also are required to support the CLKRUN# PCI signal used to start and stop the PCI clock for power management purposes. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/T Battery

There are three card form factors: Type I, Type II, and Type III cards. The card connector used for each type include: Type I and II use a 100-pin stacking connector, while Type III uses a 124-pin edge connector, i.e. the connector for Types I and II differs from that for Type III, where the connector is on the edge of a card, like with a SO-DIMM. Sony VAIO VGN-NW11Z/S Battery
The additional 24 pins provide the extra signals required to route I/O back through the system connector (audio, AC-Link, LAN, phone-line interface). Type II cards have RJ11 and RJ45 mounted connectors. These cards must be located at the edge of the computer or docking station so that the RJ11 and RJ45 ports can be mounted for external access. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11M/S Battery

Mini PCI should not be confused with 144-pin Micro PCI.[9]
Other physical variations
Typically consumer systems specify "N × PCI slots" without specifying actual dimensions of the space available. In some small-form-factor systems, this may not be sufficient to allow even "half-length" PCI cards to fit. Despite this limitation, these systems are still useful because many modern PCI cards are considerably smaller than half-length. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11S/S Battery

PCI bus transactions

PCI bus traffic is made of a series of PCI bus transactions. Each transaction is made up of an address phase followed by one or more data phases. The direction of the data phases may be from initiator to target (write transaction) or vice-versa (read transaction), but all of the data phases must be in the same direction. Either party may pause or halt the data phases at any point. (One common example is a low-performance PCI device that does not support burst transactions, and always halts a transaction after the first data phase.) Sony VAIO VGN-NR11Z/S Battery

Any PCI device may initiate a transaction. First, it must request permission from a PCI bus arbiter on the motherboard. The arbiter grants permission to one of the requesting devices. The initiator begins the address phase by broadcasting a 32-bit address plus a 4-bit command code, then waits for a target to respond. All other devices examine this address and one of them responds a few cycles later. Sony VAIO VGN-NR11Z/T Battery
64-bit addressing is done using a two-stage address phase. The initiator broadcasts the low 32 address bits, accompanied by a special "dual address cycle" command code. Devices which do not support 64-bit addressing can simply not respond to that command code. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11 Battery
The next cycle, the initiator transmits the high 32 address bits, plus the real command code. The transaction operates identically from that point on. To ensure compatibility with 32-bit PCI devices, it is forbidden to use a dual address cycle if not necessary, i.e. if the high-order address bits are all zero. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M Battery

While the PCI bus transfers 32 bits per data phase, the initiator transmits a 4 byte enable signals indicating which 8-bit bytes are to be considered significant. In particular, a write must affect only the enabled bytes in the target PCI device. They are of little importance for memory reads, but I/O reads might have side effects. The PCI standard explicitly allows a data phase with no bytes enabled, which must behave as a no-op. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11S Battery

PCI address spaces
PCI has three address spaces: memory, I/O address, and configuration.
Memory addresses are 32 bits (optionally 64 bits) in size, support caching and can be burst transactions.
I/O addresses are for compatibility with the Intel x86 architecture's I/O port address space. Although the PCI bus specification allows burst transactions in any address space, most devices only support it for memory addresses and not I/O. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21E Battery

Finally, PCI configuration space provides access to 256 bytes of special configuration registers per PCI device. Each PCI slot gets its own configuration space address range. The registers are used to configure devices memory and I/O address ranges they should respond to from transaction initiators. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z Battery
When a computer is first turned on, all PCI devices respond only to their configuration space accesses. The computers BIOS scans for devices and assigns Memory and I/O address ranges to them. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M Battery

If an address is not claimed by any device, the transaction initiator's address phase will time out causing the initiator to abort the operation. In case of reads, it is customary to supply all-ones for the read data value (0xFFFFFFFF) in this case. PCI devices therefore generally attempt to avoid using the all-ones value in important status registers, so that such an error can be easily detected by software. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M Battery

PCI command codes
There are 16 possible 4-bit command codes, and 12 of them are assigned. With the exception of the unique dual address cycle, the least significant bit of the command code indicates whether the following data phases are a read (data sent from target to initiator) or a write (data sent from an initiator to target). PCI targets must examine the command code as well as the address and not respond to address phases which specify an unsupported command code. Sony Vaio VGN-FW31ZJ Battery
The commands that refer to cache lines depend on the PCI configuration space cache line size register being set up properly; they may not be used until that has been done. Sony Vaio VGN-FW32J Battery

0000
Interrupt Acknowledge
This is a special form of read cycle implicitly addressed to the interrupt controller, which returns an interrupt vector. The 32-bit address field is ignored. One possible implementation is to generate an interrupt acknowledge cycle on an ISA bus using a PCI/ISA bus bridge. This command is for IBM PC compatibility; if there is no Intel 8259 style interrupt controller on the PCI bus, this cycle need never be used. Sony Vaio VGN-FW41M/H Battery

0001
Special Cycle
This cycle is a special broadcast write of system events that PCI card may be interested in. The address field of a special cycle is ignored, but it is followed by a data phase containing a payload message. The currently defined messages announce that the processor is stopping for some reason (e.g. to save power). No device ever responds to this cycle; it is always terminated with a master abort after leaving the data on the bus for at least 4 cycles. Sony Vaio VGN-FW51B/W Battery

0010
I/O Read
This performs a read from I/O space. All 32 bits of the read address are provided, so that a device can (for compatibility reasons) implement less than 4 bytes worth of I/O registers. If the byte enables request data not within the address range supported by the PCI device (e.g. a 4-byte read from a device which only supports 2 bytes of I/O address space), it must be terminated with a target abort. Multiple data cycles are permitted, using linear (simple incrementing) burst ordering. HP Pavilion DV4 Battery

The PCI standard is discouraging the use of I/O space in new devices, preferring that as much as possible be done through main memory mapping.
0011
I/O Write
This performs a write to I/O space.
010x
Reserved
A PCI device must not respond to an address cycle with these command codes.
0110
Memory Read
This performs a read cycle from memory space. Because the smallest memory space a PCI device is permitted to implement is 16 bits, the two least significant bits of the address are not needed; equivalent information will arrive in the form of byte select signals. They instead specify the order in which burst data must be returned. If a device does not support the requested order, it must provide the first word and then disconnect. HP Pavilion DV4T Battery

If a memory space is marked as "prefetchable", then the target device must ignore the byte select signals on a memory read and always return 32 valid bits. HP Pavilion DV5 Battery

0111
Memory Write
This operates similarly to a memory read. The byte select signals are more important in a write, as unselected bytes must not be written to memory.
Generally, PCI writes are faster than PCI reads, because a device can buffer the incoming write data and release the bus faster. For a read, it must delay the data phase until the data has been fetched. HP Pavilion DV5T Battery

100x
Reserved
A PCI device must not respond to an address cycle with these command codes.
1010
Configuration Read
This is similar to an I/O read, but reads from PCI configuration space. A device must respond only if the low 11 bits of the address specify a function and register that it implements, and if the special IDSEL signal is asserted. It must ignore the high 21 bits. Burst reads (using linear incrementing) are permitted in PCI configuration space. HP Pavilion DV7 Battery

Unlike I/O space, standard PCI configuration registers are defined so that reads never disturb the state of the device. It is possible for a device to have configuration space registers beyond the standard 64 bytes which have read side effects, but this is rare.[10] HP Pavilion DV6 Battery

Configuration space accesses often have a few cycles of delay in order to allow the IDSEL lines to stabilize, which makes them slower than other forms of access. Also, a configuration space access requires a multi-step operation rather than a single machine instruction. Thus, it is best to avoid them during routine operation of a PCI device. HP Pavilion DV6T Battery

1011
Configuration Write
This operates analogously to a configuration read.
1100
Memory Read Multiple
This command is identical to a generic memory read, but includes the hint that a long read burst will continue beyond the end of the current cache line, and the target should internally prefetch a large amount of data. A target is always permitted to consider this a synonym for a generic memory read. HP Pavilion DV6Z Battery

1101
Dual Address Cycle
When accessing a memory address that requires more than 32 bits to represent, the address phase begins with this command and the low 32 bits of the address, followed by a second cycle with the actual command and the high 32 bits of the address. PCI targets that do not support 64-bit addressing can simply treat this as another reserved command code and not respond to it. This command code can only be used with a non-zero high-order address word; it is forbidden to use this cycle if not necessary. HP Pavilion DV6Z-1100 Battery

1110
Memory Read Line
This command is identical to a generic memory read, but includes the hint that the read will continue to the end of the cache line. A target is always permitted to consider this a synonym for a generic memory read. HP Pavilion DV6Z-2000 Battery

1111
Memory Write and Invalidate
This command is identical to a generic memory write, but comes with the guarantee that one or more whole cache lines will be written, with all byte selects enabled. This is an optimization for write-back caches snooping the bus. Normally, a write-back cache holding dirty data must interrupt the write operation long enough write its own dirty data first. If the write is performed using this command, the data to be written back is guaranteed to be irrelevant, and can simply be invalidated in the write-back cache. HP Pavilion G50 Battery

This optimization only affects the snooping cache, and makes no difference to the target, which may treat this as a synonym for the memory write command. HP Pavilion G60 Battery

PCI bus latency

Soon after promulgation of the PCI specification, it was discovered that lengthy transactions by some devices, due to slow acknowledgments, long data bursts, or some combination, could cause buffer underrun or overrun in other devices. Recommendations on the timing of individual phases in Revision 2.0 were made mandatory in revision 2.1:[11] HP Pavilion G71 Battery

A target must be able to complete the initial data phase (assert TRDY# and/or STOP#) within 16 cycles of the start of a transaction.
An initiator must complete each data phase (assert IRDY#) within 8 cycles.
Additionally, as of revision 2,1, all initiators capable of bursting more than 2 data phases must implement a programmable latency timer. The timer starts counting clock cycles when a transaction starts (initiator asserts FRAME#). If the timer has expired and the arbiter has removed GNT#, then the initiator must terminate the transaction at the next legal opportunity. This is usually the next data phase, but Memory Write and Invalidate transactions must continue to the end of the cache line. HP Pavilion DV5Z-1000 Battery

Delayed transactions
Devices unable to meet those timing restrictions must use a combination of posted writes (for memory writes) and delayed transactions (for other writes and all reads). In a delayed transaction, the target records the transaction (including the write data) internally and aborts (asserts STOP# rather than TRDY#) the first data phase. The initiator must retry exactly the same transaction later. In the interim, the target internally performs the transaction, and waits for the retried transaction. When the retried transaction is seen, the buffered result is delivered. HP Pavilion DV5Z-1100 Battery

A device may be the target of other transactions while completing one delayed transaction; it must remember the transaction type, address, byte selects and (if a write) data value, and only complete the correct transaction. HP Probook 4410S Battery

If the target has a limit on the number of delayed transactions that it can record internally (simple targets may impose a limit of 1), it will force those transactions to retry without recording them. They will be dealt with when the current delayed transaction is completed. If two initiators attempt the same transaction, a delayed transaction begun by one may have its result delivered to the other; this is harmless. HP Probook 4411SBattery

A target abandons a delayed transaction when a retry succeeds in delivering the buffered result, the bus is reset, or when 215=32768 clock cycles (approximately 1 ms) elapse without seeing a retry. The latter should never happen in normal operation, but it prevents a deadlock of the whole bus if one initiator is reset or malfunctions. HP Probook 4415S Battery
PCI bus bridges

The PCI standard permits multiple independent PCI busses to be connected by bus bridges that will forward operations on one bus to another when required. Although conventional PCI tends not to use many bus bridges, PCI express systems use many; each PCI express slot appears to be a separate bus, connected by a bridge to the others. HP Probook 4416S Battery

Posted writes
Generally, when a bus bridge sees a transaction on one bus that must be forwarded to the other, the original transaction must wait until the forwarded transaction completes before a result is ready. One notable exception occurs in the case of memory writes. Here, the bridge may record the write data internally (if it has room) and signal completion of the write before the forwarded write has completed. Or, indeed, before it has begun. HP Probook 4510S Battery
Such "sent but not yet arrived" writes are referred to as "posted writes", by analogy with a postal mail message. Although they offer great opportunity for performance gains, the rules governing what is permissible are somewhat intricate.[12] HP Probook 4515S Battery

Combining, merging, and collapsing
The PCI standard permits bus bridges to convert multiple bus transactions into one larger transaction under certain situations. This can improve the efficiency of the PCI bus.
Combining
Write transactions to consecutive addresses may be combined into a longer burst write, as long as the order of the accesses in the burst is the same as the order of the original writes. It is permissible to insert extra data phases with all byte enables turned off if the writes are almost consecutive. HP Probook 4710S Battery

Merging
Multiple writes to disjoint portions of the same word may be merged together into a single write with multiple byte enables asserted. In this case, writes were presented to the bus bridge in a particular order are merged so they occur at the same time when forwarded. HP Probook 6540B Battery

Collapsing
Multiple writes to the same byte or bytes may not be combined, for example, by performing only the second write and skipping the first write that was overwritten. This is because the PCI specification permits writes to have side effects. HP Probook 6440B Battery

PCI bus signals

PCI bus transactions are controlled by five main control signals, two driven by the initiator of a transaction (FRAME# and IRDY#), and three driven by the target (DEVSEL#, TRDY#, and STOP#). There are two additional arbitration signals (REQ# and GNT#) which are used to obtain permission to initiate a transaction. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9/SAll are active-low, meaning that the active or assertedstate is a low voltage. Pull-up resistors on the motherboard ensure they will remain high (inactive or deasserted) if not driven by any device, but the PCI bus does not depend on the resistors to change the signal level; all devices drive the signals high for one cycle before ceasing to drive the signals. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9A/S,
Signal timing
All PCI bus signals are sampled on the rising edge of the clock. Signals nominally change on the falling edge of the clock, giving each PCI device approximately one half a clock cycle to decide how to respond to the signals it observed on the rising edge, and one half a clock cycle to transmit its response to the other device.  AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9/B

The PCI bus requires that every time the device driving a PCI bus signal changes, one turnaround cycle must elapse between the time the one device stops driving the signal and the other device starts. Without this, there might be a period when both devices were driving the signal, which would interfere with bus operation. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9A/B,
The combination of this turnaround cycle and the requirement to drive a control line high for one cycle before ceasing to drive it means that each of the main control lines must be high for a minimum of two cycles when changing owners. The PCI bus protocol is designed so this is rarely a limitation; only in a few special cases (notably fast back-to-back transactions) is it necessary to insert additional delay to meet this requirement. AKKU Sony VGP-BPS9,
Arbitration
Any device on a PCI bus that is capable of acting as a bus master may initiate a transaction with any other device. To ensure that only one transaction is initiated at a time, each master must first wait for a bus grant signal, GNT#, from an arbiter located on the motherboard. Each device has a separate request line REQ# that requests the bus, but the arbiter may "park" the bus grant signal at any device if there are no current requests. Sony VGP-BPl13 Akku,,
The arbiter may remove GNT# at any time. A device which loses GNT# may complete its current transaction, but may not start one (by asserting FRAME#) unless it observes GNT# asserted the cycle before it begins. Sony VGP-BPS13A/B Akku,
The arbiter may also provide GNT# at any time, including during another master's transaction. During a transaction, either FRAME# or IRDY# or both are asserted; when both are deasserted, the bus is idle. A device may initiate a transaction at any time that GNT# is asserted and the bus is idle. Sony VGP-BPS13A/S Akku,
Address phase
A PCI bus transaction begins with an address phase. The initiator, seeing that it has GNT# and the bus is idle, drives the target address onto the AD[31:0] lines, the associated command (e.g. memory read, or I/O write) on the C/BE[3:0]# lines, and pulls FRAME# low. Sony VGP-BPS13S Akku,
Each other device examines the address and command and decides whether to respond as the target by asserting DEVSEL#. A device must respond by asserting DEVSEL# within 3 cycles. Devices which promise to respond within 1 or 2 cycles are said to have "fast DEVSEL" or "medium DEVSEL", respectively. (Actually, the time to respond is 2.5 cycles, since PCI devices must transmit all signals half a cycle early so that they can be received three cycles later.) Sony VGP-BPS13A/Q Akku,
Note that a device must latch the address on the first cycle; the initiator is required to remove the address and command from the bus on the following cycle, even before receiving a DEVSEL# response. The additional time is available only for interpreting the address and command after it is captured. Sony VGP-BPS13B/Q Akku,
On the fifth cycle of the address phase (or earlier if all other devices have medium DEVSEL or faster), a catch-all "subtractive decoding" is allowed for some address ranges. This is commonly used by an ISA bus bridge for addresses within its range (24 bits for memory and 16 bits for I/O).
On the sixth cycle, if there has been no response, the initiator may abort the transaction by deasserting FRAME#. This is known as master abort termination and it is customary for PCI bus bridges to return all-ones data (0xFFFFFFFF) in this case. PCI devices therefore are generally designed to avoid using the all-ones value in important status registers, so that such an error can be easily detected by software. Sony VGP-BPS13/Q Akku,
On the rising edge of clock 0, the initiator observes FRAME# and IRDY# both high, and GNT# low, so it drives the address, command, and asserts FRAME# in time for the rising edge of clock 1. Targets latch the address and begin decoding it. They may respond with DEVSEL# in time for clock 2 (fast DEVSEL), 3 (medium) or 4 (slow). Subtractive decode devices, seeing no other response by clock 4, may respond on clock 5. If the master does not see a response by clock 5, it will terminate the transaction and remove FRAME# on clock 6.
TRDY# and STOP# are deasserted (high) during the address phase. The initiator may assert IRDY# as soon as it is ready to transfer data, which could theoretically be as soon as clock 2.
Dual-cycle address
To allow 64-bit addressing, a master will present the address over two consecutive cycles. First, it sends the low-order address bits with a special "dual-cycle address" command on the C/BE[3:0]#. On the following cycle, it sends the high-order address bits and the actual command. Dual-address cycles are forbidden if the high-order address bits are zero, so devices which do not support 64-bit addressing can simply not respond to dual cycle commands. Akku sony VGP-BPS21A

    
Configuration access
Addresses for PCI configuration space access are decoded specially. For these, the low-order address lines specify the offset of the desired PCI configuration register, and the high-order address lines are ignored. Instead, an additional address signal, the IDSEL input, must be high before a device may assert DEVSEL#. Each slot connects a different high-order address line to the IDSEL pin, and is selected using one-hot encoding on the upper address lines. Akku sony VGP-BPS21B

Data phases
After the address phase (specifically, beginning with the cycle that DEVSEL# goes low) comes a burst of one or more data phases. In all cases, the initiator drives active-low byte select signals on the C/BE[3:0]# lines, but the data on the AD[31:0] may be driven by the initiator (in case of writes) or target (in case of reads). Akku sony VGP-BPS21/S

During data phases, the C/BE[3:0]# lines are interpreted as active-low byte enables. In case of a write, the asserted signals indicate which of the four bytes on the AD bus are to be written to the addressed location. In the case of a read, they indicate which bytes the initiator is interested in. For reads, it is always legal to ignore the byte enable signals and simply return all 32 bits; cacheable memory resources are required to always return 32 valid bits. The byte enables are mainly useful for I/O space accesses where reads have side effects. Akku sony VGP-BPS21A/B

A data phase with all four C/BE# lines deasserted is explicitly permitted by the PCI standard, and must have no effect on the target (other than to advance the address in the burst access in progress). Sony VGP-BPL14 battery

The data phase continues until both parties are ready to complete the transfer and continue to the next data phase. The initiator asserts IRDY# (initiator ready) when it no longer needs to wait, while the target asserts TRDY# (target ready). Whichever side is providing the data must drive it on the AD bus before asserting its ready signal. Sony VGP-BPS14 battery

Once one of the participants asserts its ready signal, it may not become un-ready or otherwise alter its control signals until the end of the data phase. The data recipient must latch the AD bus each cycle until it sees both IRDY# and TRDY# asserted, which marks the end of the current data phase and indicates that the just-latched data is the word to be transferred. Sony VGP-BPS14/S battery 

To maintain full burst speed, the data sender then has half a clock cycle after seeing both IRDY# and TRDY# asserted to drive the next word onto the AD bus.  Sony VGP-BPL14/B battery

    
This continues the address cycle illustrated above, assuming a single address cycle with medium DEVSEL, so the target responds in time for clock 3. However, at that time, neither side is ready to transfer data. For clock 4, the initiator is ready, but the target is not. On clock 5, both are ready, and a data transfer takes place (as indicated by the vertical lines). For clock 6, the target is ready to transfer, but the initator is not. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11L
On clock 7, the initiator becomes ready, and data is transferred. For clocks 8 and 9, both sides remain ready to transfer data, and data is transferred at the maximum possible rate (32 bits per clock cycle). Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11M

In case of a read, clock 2 is reserved for turning around the AD bus, so the target is not permitted to drive data on the bus even if it is capable of fast DEVSEL.
Fast DEVSEL# on reads
A target that supports fast DEVSEL could in theory begin responding to a read the cycle after the address is presented. This cycle is, however, reserved for AD bus turnaround. Thus, a target may not drive the AD bus (and thus may not assert TRDY#) on the second cycle of a transaction. Note that most targets will not be this fast and will not need any special logic to enforce this condition.
Ending transactionsAkku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11S

Either side may request that a burst end after the current data phase. Simple PCI devices that do not support multi-word bursts will always request this immediately. Even devices that do support bursts will have some limit on the maximum length they can support, such as the end of their addressable memory. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ11Z

Initiator burst termination
The initiator can mark any data phase as the final one in a transaction by deasserting FRAME# at the same time as it asserts IRDY#. The cycle after the target asserts TRDY#, the final data transfer is complete, both sides deassert their respective RDY# signals, and the bus is idle again. The master may not deassert FRAME# before asserting IRDY#, nor may it deassert FRAME# while waiting, with IRDY# asserted, for the target to assert TRDY#.Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ130E/B

The only minor exception is a master abort termination, when no target responds with DEVSEL#. Obviously, it is pointless to wait for TRDY# in such a case. However, even in this case, the master must assert IRDY# for at least one cycle after deasserting FRAME#. (Commonly, a master will assert IRDY# before receiving DEVSEL#, so it must simply hold IRDY# asserted for one cycle longer.) This is to ensure that bus turnaround timing rules are obeyed on the FRAME# line. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E

Target burst termination
The target requests the initiator end a burst by asserting STOP#. The initiator will then end the transaction by deasserting FRAME# at the next legal opportunity; if it wishes to transfer more data, it will continue in a separate transaction. There are several ways for the target to do this: Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21E

Disconnect with data
If the target asserts STOP# and TRDY# at the same time, this indicates that the target wishes this to be the last data phase. For example, a target that does not support burst transfers will always do this to force single-word PCI transactions. This is the most efficient way for a target to end a burst. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21J

Disconnect without data
If the target asserts STOP# without asserting TRDY#, this indicates that the target wishes to stop without transferring data. STOP# is considered equivalent to TRDY# for the purpose of ending a data phase, but no data is transferred. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21M

Retry
A Disconnect without data before transferring any data is a retry, and unlike other PCI transactions, PCI initiators are required to pause slightly before continuing the operation. See the PCI specification for details. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ21Z

Target abort
Normally, a target holds DEVSEL# asserted through the last data phase. However, if a target deasserts DEVSEL# before disconnecting without data (asserting STOP#), this indicates a target abort, which is a fatal error condition. The initiator may not retry, and typically treats it as a bus error. Note that a target may not deassert DEVSEL# while waiting with TRDY# or STOP# low; it must do this at the beginning of a data phase. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ38M

There will always be at least one more cycle after a target-initiated disconnection, to allow the master to deassert FRAME#. There are two sub-cases, which take the same amount of time, but one requires an additional data phase: Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31E

Disconnect-A
If the initiator observes STOP# before asserting its own IRDY#, then it can end the burst by deasserting FRAME# at the end of the current data phase. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31J

Disconnect-B
If the initiator has already asserted IRDY# (without deasserting FRAME#) by the time it observes the target's STOP#, it is already committed to an additional data phase. The target must wait through an additional data phase, holding STOP# asserted without TRDY#, before the transaction can end. Akku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ31M

If the initiator ends the burst at the same time as the target requests disconnection, there is no additional bus cycle.
Burst addressing
For memory space accesses, the words in a burst may be accessed in several orders. The unnecessary low-order address bits AD[1:0] are used to convey the initiator's requested order. A target which does not support a particular order must terminate the burst after the first word. Some of these orders depend on the cache line size, which is configurable on all PCI devices.
PCI burst orderingAkku Sony VAIO VGN-FZ18E
If the starting offset within the cache line is zero, all of these modes reduce to the same order.
Cache line toggle and cache line wrap modes are two forms of critical-word-first cache line fetching. Toggle mode XORs the supplied address with an incrementing counter. This is the native order for Intel 486 and Pentium processors. It has the advantage that it is not necessary to know the cache line size to implement it. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21E Akku

PCI version 2.1 obsoleted toggle mode and added the cache line wrap mode,[1] where fetching proceeds linearly, wrapping around at the end of each cache line. When one cache line is completely fetched, fetching jumps to the starting offset in the next cache line. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21I Akku

Note that most PCI devices only support a limited range of typical cache line sizes; if the cache line size is programmed to an unexpected value, they force single-word access.
PCI also supports burst access to I/O and configuration space, but only linear mode is supported. (This is rarely used, and may be buggy in some devices; they may not support it, but not properly force single-word access either.) Sony VAIO VGN-FW21Z Akku
Transaction examples
This is the highest-possible speed four-word write burst, terminated by the master:

On clock edge 1, the initiator starts a transaction by driving an address, command, and asserting FRAME# The other signals are idle (indicated by ^^^), pulled high by the motherboard's pull-up resistors. That might be their turnaround cycle. On cycle 2, the target asserts both DEVSEL# and TRDY#. As the initiator is also ready, a data transfer occurs. Sony VAIO VGN-FW21M Akku
This repeats for three more cycles, but before the last one (clock edge 5), the master deasserts FRAME#, indicating that this is the end. On clock edge 6, the AD bus and FRAME# are undriven (turnaround cycle) and the other control lines are driven high for 1 cycle. On clock edge 7, another initiator can start a different transaction. This is also the turnaround cycle for the other control lines. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31M Akku

The equivalent read burst takes one more cycle, because the target must wait 1 cycle for the AD bus to turn around before it may assert TRDY#:

On clock edge 6, the target indicates that it wants to stop (with data), but the initiator is already holding IRDY# low, so there is a fifth data phase (clock edge 7), during which no data is transferred. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31E Akku

Parity
The PCI bus detects parity errors, but does not attempt to correct them by retrying operations; it is purely a failure indication. Because of this, there is no need to detect the parity error before it has happened, and the PCI bus actually detects it a few cycles later. During a data phase, whichever device is driving the AD[31:0] lines computes even parity over them and the C/BE[3:0]# lines, and sends that out the PAR line one cycle later. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31J Akku
All access rules and turnaround cycles for the AD bus apply to the PAR line, just one cycle later. The device listening on the AD bus checks the received parity and asserts the PERR# (parity error) line one cycle after that. This generally generates a processor interrupt, and the processor can search the PCI bus for the device which detected the error. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31Z Akku

The PERR# line is only used during data phases, once a target has been selected. If a parity error is detected during an address phase (or the data phase of a Special Cycle), the devices which observe it assert the SERR# (System error) line.
Even when some bytes are masked by the C/BE# lines and not in use, they must still have some defined value, and this value must be used to compute the parity. Sony VAIO VGN-FW31ZJ Akku

Fast back-to-back transactions
Due to the need for a turnaround cycle between different devices driving PCI bus signals, in general it is necessary to have an idle cycle between PCI bus transactions. However, in some circumstances it is permitted to skip this idle cycle, going directly from the final cycle of one transfer (IRDY# asserted, FRAME# deasserted) to the first cycle of the next (FRAME# asserted, IRDY# deasserted). Sony VAIO VGN-FW32J Akku

An initiator may only perform back-to-back transactions when:
they are by the same initiator (or there would be no time to turn around the C/BE# and FRAME# lines),
the first transaction was a write (so there is no need to turn around the AD bus), and
the initiator still has permission (from its GNT# input) to use the PCI bus. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M Akku

Additional timing constraints may come from the need to turn around are the target control lines, particularly DEVSEL#. The target deasserts DEVSEL#, driving it high, in the cycle following the final data phase, which in the case of back-to-back transactions is the first cycle of the address phase. The second cycle of the address phase is then reserved for DEVSEL# turnaround, so if the target is different from the previous one, it must not assert DEVSEL# until the third cycle (medium DEVSEL speed). Sony VAIO VGN-FW11 Akku

One case where this problem cannot arise is if the initiator knows somehow (presumably because the addresses share sufficient high-order bits) that the second transfer is addressed to the same target as the previous one. In that case, it may perform back-to-back transactions. All PCI targets must support this. Sony VAIO VGN-FW11E Akku

It is also possible for the target keeps track of the requirements. If it never does fast DEVSEL, they are met trivially. If it does, it must wait until medium DEVSEL time unless:
the current transaction was preceded by an idle cycle (is not back-to-back), or
the previous transaction was to the same target, or
the current transaction began with a double address cycle.
Targets which have this capability indicate it by a special bit in a PCI configuration register, and if all targets on a bus have it, all initiators may use back-to-back transfers freely. Akku Sony VGN-NR11S/S

A subtractive decoding bus bridge must know to expect this extra delay in the event of back-to-back cycles in order to advertise back-to-back support.
64-bit PCI
This section explains only basic 64-bit PCI; the full PCI-X protocol extension is much more extensive.
The PCI specification includes optional 64-bit support. This is provided via an extended connector which provides the 64-bit bus extensions AD[63:32], C/BE[7:4]#, and PAR64. (It also provides a number of additional power and ground pins.) Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/S

Memory transactions between 64-bit devices may use all 64 bits to double the data transfer rate. Non-memory transactions (including configuration and I/O space accesses) may not use the 64-bit extension. During a 64-bit burst, burst addressing works just as in a 32-bit transfer, but the address is incremented twice per data phase. The starting address must be 64-bit aligned; i.e. AD2 must be 0. The data corresponding to the intervening addresses (with AD2 = 1) is carried on the upper half of the AD bus. Akku Sony VGN-NR11Z/T

To initiate a 64-bit transaction, the initiator drives the starting address on the AD bus and asserts REQ64# at the same time as FRAME#. If the selected target can support a 64-bit transfer for this transaction, it replies by asserting ACK64# at the same time as DEVSEL#. Note that a target may decide on a per-transaction basis whether to allow a 64-bit transfer. Akku Sony VAIO PCG-5G2L