Kotaku - Sony Patents Method To Emulate PS2 On PS3 - PS3

yay!

...um, so basically, what the patent describes is a method where the instruction sets on the EE (emotion engine) and the GS (graphics synthesizer) are emulated via spus and the two threads on the "PPE" (the main processor element), before they're sent to the graphics card. The ps2 is a **** to emulate because the GS was used as part of the EE for effects and shaders because of the high memory bandwidth. Meaning that if you wanted to do the same calculations on the low level on a PC- like architecture, you would eat up all the bandwidth on the bus by constant small fetches and updates (which are expensive). But if the batches of instructions can be applied on the memory areas with the help of the spus (after programming them with the GS + EE instruction sets), that problem would be solved.

Anyway - so I guess the question is: will anyone at all be playing ps2 games on their ps3? ;)

This seems like too late of a move for me. However, if they can bring this in alongside a price drop, I bet they would see a sales increase. Hell I'd consider getting one.

So, basically, they finally decided to bring in backwards compatability, something that was already in earlier PS3 models, reportedly great in hardware emulation models and fairly hit & miss in software emulation models, and eventually dropped because they thought "**** it"?

Jesus Christ, show some goddamned consistency Sony!

Yeah.. I think they had a fight about removing the b/c on the inside too. No doubt they removed the HW- based emulation at least partially because they didn't want to stall the ps2 sales. Could even have something to do with licensing issues while the ps2 is still being produced.. that the custom chips were too expensive to make, etc. There's probably a security- issue involved as well.. But yeah, there has to have been a reversal going on here that they didn't plan on. So, good news, imo - it should be a good add- on, at least.

But I doubt they're going to create bargain deals, or do a sales package on the features. Sony really doesn't do things like that. They're more into the "oh, you want the ps3 do you? What it does it do? Buy one and find out, ok! Stupid!"- pitch, it seems.

I probably wouldn't just because the quality would drive me insane, I've been spoiled with the new stuff.

I agree with you. :D
The quality would drive me crazy too.

You know, I'm all for letting people decide what they want and all. But it makes me weep inside a little when people can't enjoy older games simply because the graphics are outdated.