The latest news comes from a recent EETimes article that talks about a joint venture with Imagination Technologies Group to manufacture a certain chip set for a unit called the “PSP 2.”

The chip set in question is similar to the POWERVR SGX graphics processor, and you can find the SGX chip sets in everything from palmtops to mobile PCs and that is the SGX55x graphics chip will be used in the upcoming PSP2.

The secrecy on the part of Imagination Technologies makes sense, because Sony is understandably unwilling to announce its plans for a PSP successor just yet.

The SGX55x chip promises to be much more powerful than what is currently found in the PSP. At the moment, the PSP uses a proprietary GPU designed by Sony that is very similar to the older graphics processor in the PS2.

PSP GPU Specifications:
166 mhz core speed
2 MB VRAM
Up to 33 million polygons per second
664 million pixels per second (fill rate)

PowerVR SGX530 Specifications:
200 MHz Core Speed
13.5 million polygons per second
1200 million pixels per second (fill rate)
DirectX 9 Shader Model 3 support / OpenGL 2.0
128-bit color precision
Multi-sampling and anti-aliasing

Note that the specifications above are for the current generation SGX530. The SGX55x, which is still in development, is expected to be much more powerful. With unified shader architecture and OpenGL 2.0 support, we expect the next-generation PSP GPU to be somewhat in-line with the graphics capabilities of the RSX chip currently found in the PS3, just on a smaller scale. Two images below are taken from recent technical demonstrations by Imagination Technologies. These images show what the pixel shaders in the SGX GPU can do to add realism and effects to 3D games.

However, Sony will neither confirm or deny that research and development of a new PSP is either currently taking place or coming to a close, so everything is just speculation at this point. Then again, when something carries the title of “PSP 2? with it, it’s difficult to imagine the aforementioned joint venture is anything but a team dedicated to a Sony handheld sequel.

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