The PlayStation 4 used the x86-64 processor architecture for its CPU.
Sony built the console around a custom AMD Accelerated Processing Unit containing eight low-power Jaguar cores. Moving to x86-64 represented a major architectural change from the PlayStation 3’s Cell Broadband Engine, giving developers a more familiar environment for multiplatform game development.
The PlayStation 4’s main processor combined CPU and graphics components in one package. This design helped Sony balance performance, cost, and development accessibility while retaining a custom console-focused configuration.
The architecture is sometimes described simply as x86, but x86-64 is the more precise term because the processor supports the 64-bit extension of the x86 instruction set. The console’s CPU architecture should also not be confused with its graphics architecture, which was based on AMD Radeon technology.