Sony partners with MediaTek to develop chips powering PS VR2

The steady trickle of information regarding Sony's upcoming PlayStation VR2 has kept interest for the peripheral high. Now we know what (or at least, who) will be powering the PS VR2.

At its recent executive summit, MediaTek announced that it will provide the silicon that will be used in the PS VR2 headset and PS Sense controllers. Vince Hu, an executive at MediaTek, announced the partnership with Sony during the event. Sony stated that it chose to work with MediaTek because it could manufacture chips that would deliver high performance, reduce latency, and run efficiently.

No details about the SoCs MediaTek designed are known at this time. Since the PlayStation 5 will do most of the computational heavy lifting, the MediaTek chips won't need to be terribly powerful. Rather, they will likely relay positional information and translate graphical data sent from the PS5 to the OLED monitors in the headset.

The partnership is somewhat unique in that Qualcomm has historically been the go-to ARM chip developer for other VR headsets. MediaTek's recent SoCs have shown themselves to be competent chips, though. It's likely Sony chose MediaTek for cost issues, as the Taiwanese OEM typically manufactures its chips for cost-conscious devices. 

The PS VR2 sports two 2000x2040 displays (one in each eye) with up to a 120 Hz refresh rate. There are also numerous cameras and sensors between the headset and controllers for positional tracking. As such, the MediaTek silicon should be powerful to govern these trackers and push the high-res displays, which is no small task. 

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