Siliconera reports that Sony has filed a patent for an Emotion Engine emulation system to be used in conjunction with the PlayStation 3’s Cell processor.
For those unaware, the Emotion Engine was the name given to the chip designed to function as the PlayStation 2’s CPU, a feature that is notably missing from latter PS3 SKUs, hence why they aren’t backwards compatible.
However, utilizing this new technology, it would now be theoretically possible for PS3’s lacking the Emotion Engine to emulate the last-gen chip and play PS2 games without any additional hardware modifications. We’ll have more on this story as it becomes available.