Last week, we reported on what may be the operating system behind Sony's next console. It now appears that the likely microprocessor for that console will be discussed on Feb. 16 in San Francisco during the 1999 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Convention.

　　While there do not appear to be any Sony announcements in the works, a listing of attendees on the official conference site lists representatives from Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Toshiba Microelectronics Corp., who will be speaking at the event about a new microprocessor the companies have co-developed.

　　The name on that list that stands out most prominently, to gamers at least, is that of Ken Kutaragi, the oft-referred-to father of the PlayStation. The document refers to the processor as one that will run a 250MHz with 128-bit multimedia extensions and will have an integrated MPEG-2 decoder. The powerful processor will contain 10.5 million transistors in a 17x14.1mm2 die. These specs are not entirely off the mark as a description for a likely console chip. Considering that the only console unit Sony has is the PlayStation, a more powerful processor is a likely candidate for the rumored PlayStation 2.

　　Mr. Kutaragi is known to work out of both SCEI (Japan) and SCEA (US) headquarters. And Mr. Kutaragi's presence at the conference fuels recent rumors about Toshiba's involvement in creating the processing muscle behind the next PlayStation.

　　When asked to elaborate on Kutaragi's presence, a Sony of America spokesperson told us Monday only that Kutaragi would be delivering a paper to convention attendees. When asked if the presentation's content related to PlayStation 2 specs or hardware, the spokesperson said, "I don't have any comment on that."