PlayStation 2 technical specifications

In addition, the console can play audio CDs and DVD movies, and is backwards compatible with original PlayStation games.

This is accomplished through the inclusion of the original PlayStation's CPU which also serves as the PS2's I/O processor, clocked at 36.864 MHz in PS2 mode.

The standard PlayStation 2 memory card has an 8 MB capacity and uses Sony's MagicGate encryption.

This requirement prevented the production of memory cards by third parties who did not purchase a MagicGate license.

A PlayStation 2 HDD can be installed via the expansion bay in the back of the console, and was required to play certain games, notably the popular Final Fantasy XI.

[3] GS effects include: Dot3 bump mapping (normal mapping),[31] [21] mipmapping, spherical harmonic lighting,[32] alpha blending, alpha test, destination alpha test, depth test, scissor test, transparency effects, framebuffer effects, post-processing effects, perspective-correct texture mapping, edge-AAx2 (poly sorting required),[9] bilinear, trilinear texture filtering, multi-pass, palletizing (6:1 ratio 4-bit; 3:1 ratio 8-bit), offscreen drawing, framebuffer mask, flat shading, Gouraud shading, cel shading, dithering, texture swizzling.

An SCPH-10000 motherboard
An SCPH-30001 motherboard
An SCPH-39001 motherboard
An SCPH-70001 motherboard
An SCPH-79001 motherboard
Emotion Engine CPU as found in the SCPH-7000x
The combined EE+GS+RDRAM+DRAM found in the SCPH-7900x and SCPH-9000x series
The ASIC from the SCPH-90001 (CXD2976GB) shaved down to show the EE+GS+RDRAM+DRAM silicon
Graphics Synthesizer as found in SCPH-390xx
Back of an SCPH-30001 model PlayStation 2, featuring a power switch, power connector and various input/output ports; the expansion bay has its cover removed