While it has been rumoured that Sony's next generation console won't come until 2005, the current PlayStation 2 continues to outsell competitors by a considerable margin; with strong game/publisher support, the console might have enough life to survive through the years to come, in fact, some information that was leaked recently indicated that Sony has managed to produce a single chip carrying complete PS2's core logic... a PS2 relaunch is rumoured for next E3, most likely with a juicy price cut...

The new all-in-one chip will be produced on a 90nm embedded DRAM process. The Graphics Synthesiser will keep its 4MB of RAM onboard thanks to the process. The packaged chip will run at the 294MHz of the EmotionEngine, the CPU component of the Playstation 2.

Sony has said that the new package will mean 53.5 million transistors will be squeezed onto a die just 86mm2. In what seems a ridiculously low figure for a chip these days, the chip will use just 8Watts of power. That compares with a combined 37Watts in the previous two chip solution.

They will probably use it for some kind of dinky PS2 redesign, much like they redesigned the original Playstation, especially with its low power consumption, it will be ideal for in car entertainment and the like.