Some News On PS3 Backwards Compatibility

Well, we’ve got some pretty good news for Sony fans this morning! Straight from Japan’s “Ultra One” tech magazine comes a report that the PS3 hardware will include the PS2 Emotion Engine (PS2 CPU) and Graphics Synthesiser (PS3 Graphics) chip in order to facilitate backwards compatibility. It was previously believed that the PS3 would achieve emulation through software, and not hardware. Software emulation would have been a lot more tricky to implement and it would have been difficult to ensure 100% backwards compatibility, but with some PS2 tech in there the odds just got a whole lot better. The report cautions that this measure is however only temporary, and that once a working solution for  PS2 software emulation has been achieved, the chip will cease to be included. While the inclusion of a PS2 chipset for hardware emulation increases software compatibility, you have to wonder whether we can still expect a performance boost from PS3 running PS2 games. Smoother framerates? Cleaner textures? Will we still get games upscaled to 720/1080p?

The Ultra One report also reveals that the current PS3 as we know it is “nothing more than just the basic system.” Sony plans on future hardware releases expanding upon the machines network features, and units with larger capacity hard drives. This will  however not affect GPU, CPU or memory capacities and speeds, nor any other specifications that might affect game software performance.

Of note is a portion in the article which states the machine will come with a “large amount of flash memory,” to be used for firmware upgrades.  Oh, and get this, it looks like users will be able to swap out the factory default hard drive for any standard hard drive of their choice, ($500 model suddenly looks a lot prettier!) We’re also assured that a situation in which the PS3 loses compatibility with it’s own games later on in its life cycle (as occurred with the PS2’s Slimline version) will not occur as the machine will be able to download software patches to prevent this.

It’s important to note that Sony is being very careful about not repeating the same mistakes Microsoft made regarding backwards compatibility. They’re also making every effort to keep the basic unit on a level playing field with the premium model, ensuring both have hard drives and that we won’t be getting any nasty surprises from a disparity in performance.

It’s becoming more and more obvious that like the PSP, Sony views the PS3 as a living organism and will frequently update, teak, enhance and add features. In a sense the PSP might be considered a test bed of sorts for the PS3’s network systems. It’s also particularly interesting to ponder what uses Sony might have for the newly announced “large amount of flash memory.” Just how much memory is considered “large”, 512MB, 1GB, more? Will it be dedicated to the OS, thereby relieving the rumored memory strain? Surely it couldn’t have gameplay applications, flash memory isn’t anywhere as fast as XDR Ram or GDDR Ram. If you’re a tech head, feel free to speculate and let us know what you think of these new developments in the comments section, and if not, we’d like to hear from you anyway.

Via IGN

Well, we’ve got some pretty good news for Sony fans this morning! Straight from Japan’s “Ultra One” tech magazine comes a report that the PS3 hardware will include the PS2 Emotion Engine (PS2 CPU) and Graphics Synthesiser (PS3 Graphics) chip in order to facilitate backwards compatibility. It was previously believed that the PS3 would achieve emulation through software, and not hardware. Software emulation would have been a lot more tricky to implement and it would have been difficult to ensure 100% backwards compatibility, but with some PS2 tech in there the odds just got a whole lot better. The report cautions that this measure is however only temporary, and that once a working solution for  PS2 software emulation has been achieved, the chip will cease to be included. While the inclusion of a PS2 chipset for hardware emulation increases software compatibility, you have to wonder whether we can still expect a performance boost from PS3 running PS2 games. Smoother framerates? Cleaner textures? Will we still get games upscaled to 720/1080p?

The Ultra One report also reveals that the current PS3 as we know it is “nothing more than just the basic system.” Sony plans on future hardware releases expanding upon the machines network features, and units with larger capacity hard drives. This will  however not affect GPU, CPU or memory capacities and speeds, nor any other specifications that might affect game software performance.

Of note is a portion in the article which states the machine will come with a “large amount of flash memory,” to be used for firmware upgrades.  Oh, and get this, it looks like users will be able to swap out the factory default hard drive for any standard hard drive of their choice, ($500 model suddenly looks a lot prettier!) We’re also assured that a situation in which the PS3 loses compatibility with it’s own games later on in its life cycle (as occurred with the PS2’s Slimline version) will not occur as the machine will be able to download software patches to prevent this.

It’s important to note that Sony is being very careful about not repeating the same mistakes Microsoft made regarding backwards compatibility. They’re also making every effort to keep the basic unit on a level playing field with the premium model, ensuring both have hard drives and that we won’t be getting any nasty surprises from a disparity in performance.

It’s becoming more and more obvious that like the PSP, Sony views the PS3 as a living organism and will frequently update, teak, enhance and add features. In a sense the PSP might be considered a test bed of sorts for the PS3’s network systems. It’s also particularly interesting to ponder what uses Sony might have for the newly announced “large amount of flash memory.” Just how much memory is considered “large”, 512MB, 1GB, more? Will it be dedicated to the OS, thereby relieving the rumored memory strain? Surely it couldn’t have gameplay applications, flash memory isn’t anywhere as fast as XDR Ram or GDDR Ram. If you’re a tech head, feel free to speculate and let us know what you think of these new developments in the comments section, and if not, we’d like to hear from you anyway.

Via IGN