Ben Reid
5 Jun 2006 14:11
Japanese magazine Ultra One has revealed that Sony plan to include the Playstation 2 chipset with each of their up and coming Playstation 3 consoles - at least until a proper PS2 emulator is developed.
When Sony initially announced the PlayStation 3's backwards compatibility with both the PS2 and PSone, the indication was given that the it would be provided through emulation. But this new report in the Japanese technology magazine Ultra One (partially translated by IGN) suggests that PS2 emulation is actually achieved through physical hardware, and not emulation.
The PS3 hardware is currently designed to include the PS2 chipset, (the Emotion Engine CPU and Graphic Synthesizer combo chip that is found in the slim model PS2), according to the magazine. With the PS3 already being expensive to manufacture, the inclusion of another chipset can only increase costs. In the same breath, however, the report goes on to say that Sony intends to remove the PS2 chipset from the PS3 once work on an efficient PS2 emulator is completed by its engineers.
Izumi Kawanishi, head of Sony's Software Platform Development Division, told the Ultra One that the PS3 as announced is, "nothing more than just the basic system." It is possible that Sony may release models with even larger hard disks/upgraded network features, but the CPU clock speed and memory specs will not change, as all PS3s must run the same games. The PS3 is also equipped with a "large amount of flash memory," which will be used to house the operating system and all future system updates.
Additionally, "it seems that the hard disk is to be used exclusively for multimedia content and will not contain any system features; users will, after all, be able to swap the built in hard drive out with any standard drive they pick up at a computer hardware store," according to the IGN translation.
Sony went on to assure the magazine that all PS3 models will forever be compatible with every PS3 game. Back when Sony introduced newer PS2 hardware, the new models were incompatible with some of the older software. However, this won't be the case with the PS3, as the console will have the ability to download patches.
Source:
Game Daily Biz