question about backwards compatibility

[Josiah]

PSone runs on the PlayStation 2 through emulation rather than actual hardware. PlayStation 3 will offer the same compatibility for PS2 software and the format will continue forever

I don't get it, I thought PS2 had an actual PS1 CPU inside of it that ran the PS1 games. Is this a mistranslation, or am I missing something?

 

[randycat99]

Yes, basically the I/O processor in the PS2 is a PSX chip. Though I guess you can say the GS is still emulating the graphics processor from the PSX.

 

[phed]

Well, the PS1 stuff isn't idle while doing PS2 specific stuff. So, if you are able to emulate the PS2, you sort of get the PS1 for free. That is at least how I read it.

 

[Megadrive1988]

phed, yes, agreed.