Latest PlayStation 4 rumour details dev kit specs and controller - Report

The recent rush of next-gen details continues, with new information about the latest PlayStation 4 dev kit--allegedly known as DVKT-KS000K--surfacing on Kotaku and obtained from leaker SuperDae. The rumours claim to further last week's speculation of a touch screen in the PS4 controller.

The latest dev kit spec sheet alleges that the touch screen rumour posted last week is actually about re-creating the PS Vita's rear touchpad on the back of PS4 controller as opposed to its front touch screen.

There was no mention of the previously rumoured biometric support in the controller, but the rear touchpad will also be able to be clicked in to take the role of an additional button.

The report also states that the PS4 controller will also feature a new "Share" button, which implies some sort of interactivity with social networking, and that an improved version of the Sixaxis-style motion control will be present.

Additionally, the report claims Sony is looking to expand on the single-user login system used by most consoles and implement a concept "multi-user simultaneous logins," done by linking controllers with local user accounts stored on the console. How these plans might be incorporated with PlayStation Network was not detailed.

Despite the new controller, the DualShock 3 and Sixaxis controllers are still supported by current dev kits.

As for the PS4 dev kits themselves, the report claims that as of January 2013, the systems feature 8GB of system memory, 2.2GB of video memory, an AMD Bulldozer eight-core processor, and an AMD R10XX GPU.

There's also a Blu-ray drive, four USB 3.0 ports, two Ethernet ports, and a 160GB hard drive. It is likely the hard drive and duo of Ethernet ports are for the benefit of developers rather than consumers. A retail PS4 would likely be very different in these areas.

Some of the specs match with another recent PS4 report by Digital Foundry, such as the eight-core CPU, but others are different. Interestingly, a similar CPU was detailed in the most recent Xbox 720 information. If the next PlayStation and Xbox both featured such internal architecture in their retail models, however, there would be far fewer differences between them than in their current-gen equivalents, and both machines would be much closer to a PC-style development environment than in any previous generation of console hardware.

A Sony representative said it was not making any formal announcements and that it does not comment on rumour and speculation.

Earlier this week, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai hinted to British newspaper The Times that Sony would likely release the PS4 after Microsoft releases its own next-gen console.