PS3: It has a PS2 inside! (Old news that's new again)

[JKTrix]

Found here.

This is another thing that was delaying the release of the PS3 and driving up the price (since you're basically buying a PS2 again), aside from all the BluRay stuff. They couldn't get the Emulation to work for a lot of PS2 games and most PS1 games, so they had to essentially stuff the PS2 hardware in there to make it work.
This apparently happened back at the PS2 launch as well, the launch PS2s had PS1 chips inside to get the backwards compat working before they figured out the software emulation.

People have known/hinted at this for a while, but this was an article just made up yesterday. It might be new to some people.

(Note, the release date is not incorrect. This is a Japanese article.)

Along with Cell, First Generation PS3 Features EE, GS Developed for PS2

Nov 08, 2006 15:57
Rocky Eda, Nikkei Electronics

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s "PlayStation 3" (PS3) game console for home to be released on November 11, 2006, is embedded with the Emotion Engine (EE) microprocessor and the Graphics Synthesizer (GS) drawing circuit developed for the preceding "PlayStation 2" (PS2). Ken Kutaragi, President and Group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), revealed this in an interview by Nikkei Electronics.

SCE has so far set out the principle to secure the PS3's compatibility with the PS2 using an emulator that works on the Cell. According to SCE, it decided to mount the EE and GS on the PS3 to guarantee operation of certain game titles, which do not use the library recommended by SCE. The company, however, said the EE and GS will be "removed before long" (Kutaragi), indicating its will to comprehensively shift toward the compatibility secured by the emulator in a relatively short period of time.

Nonetheless, the number of PS2 game title names reaches a total of 8,181 across the world as of September 30, 2006. It is uncertain if the emulator can support all of them. Meanwhile, the first-generation PS3 embedded with the EE and GS may get a premium among certain consumers.

In other news, FF13 won't be coming out in Japan until 2008. Apparently it's only 3% done right now. Depending on when in 2008 it comes out, this means we won't be FFXIII'ing until 2009. 'Til then, there are all the re-releases coming on the Nintendo systems, including 2 new Crystal Chronicles games for your FF fix.