Original Sony PlayStation 2 security chip 'broken wide open' after 26 years
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
PS2 security chip MechaCon fully reverse-engineered after 26 years via chemical decapping.
A reverse-engineering enthusiast spent four years chemically decapping and analyzing Sony's CXP102064 MechaCon security chip, finally breaking it. The chip controls the PS2's disc drive and region locking. This could enable optical drive emulators, better homebrew support, and improved game preservation by allowing consoles to read disc images as if they were retail games.
What commenters are saying
Commenters largely praised the effort for improving PS2 preservation, noting potential for hardware disc drive replacements and more accurate emulation. Several pointed out that PS3 and earlier consoles were already jailbroken. A debate arose over modern game preservation: some argued discs today are just keys for downloads, while others countered that most games still install fully from disc. Hardware aging, flash decay, and plastic brittleness were cited as additional preservation challenges.