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The Original PS3 (PS3 Fat)

Image of a Fat PS3, Model is CECHA01. Evan-Amos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Background

Following the massive success of the PS2. Sony felt as if they had to one up that success and create a successor that would redefine what a game console even was. Sony's plan was to create a system of unparalleled power that acted as a fully fledged home media center to do everything from watch movies to play music and obvously, play games. It was first announced at the 2005 E3 conference and was released in late 2006.

Features

The Playstation Fat models had a variety of features with the main listed down below

Online Multiplayer: The PS3s have a feature allowing consoles to connect via The PlayStation Network, what this allowed was for the first time on a Playstation console. People could now play with other people via the internet in something called online multiplayer.
OtherOS: Users with enough knowledge about Linux could now turn their PS3 into a fully fledged Personal Computer.
Native and Emulated PS2 Compatibility: Early PS3 Models (SKU models CECHA to CECHE) had actual PS2 Hardware inside of them which allowed users to play PS2 games as if they were playing them on a real PS2. All models from then on need full emulation to play such games and a jailbreak is needed to run PS2 games from disk on these such consoles.
Blu-ray Compatibility: All PS3s shipped with a disk drive that can play Compact Discs, Digital Video Discs and Blu-ray Discs. All games released for the PS3 used the Blu-ray format which greatly increased the amount of data game developers could put on discs and thus increased game size and complexity from the PS2 drastically.
Internet Connectivity: This allows for many things such as updating the PS3's System Software or downloading games from the PlayStation Store and being able to update those games.

SKU Models

Over the course of its lifetime, the Fat PS3 had 12 individual models.

The model naming works like this: Every PS3 starts with "CECH", this is followed by a model letter, lets say "A". This is then followed by a region number, such as "01". The final model number is then formated like CECHA01. We can tell from this that the system has a COK-001 Motherboard, the console is from North America and it has a 90nm RSX and CELL-BE and it uses NTSC encoding. We can find all this information without dissasembling the console at all

*Minimum downgrade versions can vary.

** The GS (PS2 GPU) is installed on the motherboard while the EE (PS2 CPU) is emulated via software

Model	Motherboard	Flash	Hard Drive	OtherOS	PS2 compatibility	SA-CD compatibility	WiFi	CELL-BE process	RSX process	Number of USB ports	Flash ports	Release Date	Minimum firmware downgrade*
CECHA	COK-001	NAND, 2x 128MB	60GB	Yes	Yes, HW	Yes	Yes	90nm	90nm	4	Yes	8/2006	1.00
CECHB	COK-001	NAND, 2x 128MB	20GB	Yes	Yes, HW	Yes	No	90nm	90nm	4	No	8/2006	1.00
CECHC	COK-002	NAND, 2x 128MB	60GB	Yes	Yes, Hybrid**	Yes	Yes	90nm	90nm	4	Yes	3/2007	1.00
CECHE	COK-002 and COK-002W	NAND, 2x 128MB	80GB	Yes	Yes, Hybrid**	Yes	Yes	90nm	90nm	4	Yes	8/2007	1.00
CECHG	SEM-001	NAND, 2x 128MB	40GB	Yes	No	No	Yes	65nm	90nm	2	No	10/2007	1.90
CECHH	DIA-001	NOR, 1x 16MB	40GB	Yes	No	No	Yes	65nm	90nm	2	No	10/2007	1.97
CECHJ	DIA-002	NOR, 1x 16MB	40GB	Yes	No	No	Yes	65nm	65nm	2	No	8/2008	2.30
CECHK	DIA-002	NOR, 1x 16MB	80GB	Yes	No	No	Yes	65nm	65nm	2	No	8/2008	2.16
CECKL	VER-001	NOR, 1x 16MB	80GB	Yes	No	No	Yes	65nm	65nm	2	No	10/2008	2.30
CECHM	VER-001/DIA-001	NOR, 1x 16MB	80GB	Yes	No	No	Yes	65nm	65nm	2	No	10/2008	?
CECHP	VER-001	NOR, 1x 16MB	160GB	Yes	No	No	Yes	65nm	65nm	2	No	10/2008	2.45
CECHQ	VER-001	NOR, 1x 16MB	160GB	Yes	No	No	Yes	65nm	65nm	2	No	4/2009	?

Motherboard Revisions

Multiple different versions of the PS3's Motherboard were released for different Fat Models

COK-001 (CECHA, CECHB)

The very first PS3 retail motherboard ever produced. Came with HW compatibility with the PS2, The COK-001 found in the CECHB does not have the WiFi and flash reader circuitry found in the CECHA's COK-001.

Top of board. Voodooo83, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bottom of board. Link

COK-002 (CECHC, CECHE)

This motherboard ditched the Emotion Engine found in the COK-001 revision. However the Graphics Synthesiser is still present allowing hybrid backwards compatibilty with PS2 games

Top of board. Link

Bottom of board. Link

COK-002W (CECHE)

From what little information I can find on this board. These motherboards seem to be used specifically for the Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 Bundle and region 01 CECHE consoles. They are almost the exact same as the COK-002 but with a few specific hardware and software differences. Interestingly, it also shares the exact same part number as the COK-002 Motherboard.

Top of board. Link

Bottom of board. Link

SEM-001 (CECHG)

First PS3 Motherboard to not include PS2 hardware, thus all PS2 games from this point foward are only capable of being run via full emulation.

Top of board. Link

Bottom of board. Link

DIA-001 (CECHH, CECHM)

For the first time the PS3's inbuilt flash storage changed from NAND to NOR. This change increased the reliability and longevity of the storage and decreased the chances of bricks.

Top of board. Link

Bottom of board. Link

DIA-002 (CECHJ, CECHK)

This Motherboard was the first to use a RSX manufactured with the 65nm process. This change decreased the amount of YLODs caused by BGA/Bump failures with the RSX and decreased the chance of YLOD with it.

Top of board. My photo

Bottom of board. My photo

VER-001 (CECHL, CECHM, CECHP, CECHQ)

The final Motherboard revision for the Fat PS3. Not much to say apart from the drastic change in Motherboard shape. Also the 65nm GPU went under a revision during this motherboard

Top of board. Link

Bottom of board. Link