Sony is considering re-using its Cell processor in the PS4. While a die-shrink and slight speed boost will occur, this is the first time Sony has overlooked a new architecture.

According to Impress, Sony is thinking of reusing Cell with PlayStation 4, or whatever the console will be named.

Up till now Sony has gone with a new architecture for every new console, but if they choose to continue using Cell they have gained substantial ground in terms of backwards compatibility and manufacturing costs. The big question mark is the performance.

"The Cell chip itself is likely to speed up but is most likely to see a more modest upgrade than possible. Sony plans to shrink the chip from a 90 nanometer process down to 45 nanometers but is expected to at most increase the number of cores from eight to 12 and may only increase the clock speed slightly over the 3.2GHz Cell in use for the PS3 today."

If Sony decides to use the architecture with the next generation video game console we can most likely count on it using a much more powerful graphics circuits to lift it to new heights. Since PlayStation 4 isn't due until 2011 there is still plenty of time for Sony to weights its options and even go in a completely different direction.