<P> The PlayStation 4 has been produced in various models: the original, the Slim, and the Pro . Successive models have added or removed various features, and each model has variations of Limited Edition consoles . </P> <P> On September 7, 2016, Sony announced a hardware revision of PlayStation 4, model number CUH - 2000, known colloquially as the PlayStation 4 Slim . It is a revision of the original PS4 hardware with a smaller form factor; it has a rounded body with a matte finish on the top of the console rather than a two - tone finish, and is 40% smaller in size than the original model . The two USB ports on the front have a larger gap between them, and the optical audio port was removed . It was released on September 15, 2016, with a 500 GB model at the same price as the original version of the PlayStation 4 . On April 18, 2017, Sony announced that it had replaced the 500 GB base model with a new 1 TB version, with no change in pricing . </P> <P> PlayStation 4 Pro (codenamed Neo) was announced on September 7, 2016, and launched worldwide on November 10, 2016 . Its model number is CUH - 7000 . It is an upgraded version of the PlayStation 4 with improved hardware to enable 4K rendering and improved PlayStation VR performance, including an upgraded GPU with 4.2 teraflops of processing power and hardware support for checkerboard rendering, and a higher CPU clock . The PS4 Pro also includes 1 GB of DDR3 memory that is used to swap out non-gaming applications that run in the background, allowing games to utilize an additional 512 MB of the console's GDDR5 memory . Games marketed as PS4 Pro Enhanced may be optimized for higher graphics quality, resolution, or HDR support when running on PS4 Pro . Although capable of streaming 4K video, the PS4 Pro does not support Ultra HD Blu - ray . </P> <P> Rendering games at 4K resolution is achieved through various rendering techniques and hardware features; PlayStation technical chief Mark Cerny explained that Sony could not "brute force" 4K without compromising form factor and cost, so the console was designed to support "streamlined rendering techniques" using custom hardware, "best - in - breed temporal and spatial anti-aliasing algorithms", and "many new features from the AMD Polaris architecture as well as several even beyond it". The most prominent technique used is checkerboard rendering, wherein the console only renders portions of a scene using a checkerboard pattern, and then uses algorithms to fill in the non-rendered segments . The checkerboarded screen can then be smoothed using an anti-aliasing filter . Hermen Hulst of Guerrilla Games explained that PS4 Pro could render something "perceptively so close (to 4K) that you wouldn't be able to see the difference". </P>

When did the playstation 4 pro come out