PS3 backwards compatibility denied
Hardware conjecture rages
The mists are beginning to clear regarding the PS2 compatibility of the new 40GB PS3s. It appears that playing PS2 games, even on the European 60GB PS3, relies on a "modified" version of the PS2 Graphics Synthesizer chip.
To keep the costs down on the new 40GB PS3, Sony decided to leave out all PS2 hardware. The result is that these new PS3’s can no longer run PS2 games, as even the emulation required some hardware.
Sony recently responded to confusion about this issue in an e-mail to Next-Gen, stating that "the 40GB model, to be launched in Europe on October 10, is a new model and is not equipped with any of the semiconductors from the PS2, and backwards compatibility would therefore have to be achieved by software emulation alone.”
They went on to say that the volume and complexity of PS2 titles makes it expensive to provide ongoing backwards compatibility. If you want to get a PS3 with backward compatibility you will need to grab a 60GB PS3 before they are discontinued; these models will thankfully "continue to support backwards compatibility".
Comments
This was already known, everybody just seemed to ignore it. They said when they released the European PS3 that they removed the PS2's CPU (Emotion Engine), leaving in the GPU meaning the emulation was a combination of both hardware and software. If you read press releases from the EU release you will see this clearly.