The graphics chip for the PlayStation Portable 2 (PSP2) may have been uncovered via a press release from British company Imagination Technologies Groups.
The company announced that they have signed a license agreement with a new partner. Although not mentioned by name, they state that it is a “major consumer electronics company.”
Industry sources believe that it is almost certainly Sony, and that the chip is the SGX55x graphics chip, which would be used in Sony’s successor to the PSP, their current handheld gaming system. Although speculation, it would make sense that Imagine wouldn’t reveal who exactly they are working for due to the fact that Sony wouldn’t want to reveal that kind of information on their next system just yet.
Imagination Technologies has already put itself on the map with the chip for Apple’s iPhone, the PowerVR MBX chip, so Sony has made a wise choice to go with them, if it indeed turns out to be the case.
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. — Quotes via PSP World
Update August 2009: Sony is staying adamant about their game systems having a 10 year life cycle. That would put a new PSP2 release date in 2015.