Are SA-CD compatibility and PS2 compatibility related?
Super Audio CD compatibility and backwards compatibility with PlayStation2 are correlated i.e. there are PS3 models that play both SA-CD and PS2 games and there are other models that play neither while there are none that play one format but not the other. This might lead one to conclude these functions use some shared hardware but most likely it’s pure coincidence and the respective formats require different circuitry that was incidentally eliminated at the same time when Sony needed to find ways to reduce the bill of material yet are completely independent. As explained in the previous answer, SA-CD playback (specifically handling of SA-CD’s proprietary copy protection) requires special logic in the front end i.e. the optical drive. Decoding of the DST and DSD signals in PS3 happens entirely in the back end i.e. on the Cell processor. The fact that here nothing has changed between different generations of PS3 is proven by the fact that all models can play DSD Discs. PS2 games on the
Super Audio CD compatibility and backwards compatibility with PlayStation2 are correlated i.e. there are PS3 models that play both SA-CD and PS2 games and there are other models that play neither while there are none that play one format but not the other. This might lead one to conclude these functions use some shared hardware but most likely it’s pure coincidence and the respective formats require different circuitry that was incidentally eliminated at the same time when Sony needed to find ways to reduce the bill of material yet are completely independent. As explained in the previous answer, SA-CD playback (specifically handling of SA-CD’s proprietary copy protection) requires special logic in the front end i.e. the optical drive. Decoding of the DST and DSD signals in PS3 happens entirely in the back end i.e. on the Cell processor. The fact that here nothing has changed between different generations of PS3 is proven by the fact that all models can play DSD Discs. PS2 games on the
