Sony will offer its PSX PlayStation-cum-personal video recorder for under $800, the consumer electronics giant said yesterday.

Two models will ship later this year in Japan, one with a 160GB hard drive, the other with 250GB of hard disk storage - the latter enough to hold 13 and a half days' worth of TV programming, and both larger than the 120GB capacity originally planned for the machine. As yet Sony has not said which of these will be offered to overseas markets - or when.

The Japanese models - dubbed the DESR-5000 and DESR-7000, respectively - will be priced at a US equivalent of $750 and $907. In addition to TiVO-style features, the machines contain PlayStation 2, which also provides PlayStation 1 compatibility.

Programmes recorded on the hard drive can be transferred to DVD using the machines' built in DVD-R/RW drive. A DVD+RW version will be coming further down the line, Sony said. Current machines also provide a Memory Stick slot and a USB port for peripherals.

The PSX is the first Sony system to be based on the company's home grown 90nm EE+GS@90nm processor, which combines the PS2's Emotion Engine and Graphics Synthesiser chips on a single die. Sony is increasingly trying to pull chip development in-house, using its own silicon to drive all future hardware products. ®

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