My question was WHY?  However, here is the scoop:

PlayStation 3s without PS2 backwards compatibility are missing the Emotion Engine, a chip Sony designed as the PS2’s CPU. What if the PS3’s cell processor could emulate the Emotion Engine? Theoretically, all PlayStation 3s would be able to play PS2 games even if a console didn’t have the proper hardware. According to a recent patent filed by Sony Computer Entertainment in the US, Sony has the code and technology ready to do this. 

There are two main ways to emulate hardware. Interpretation is when target code is decoded and converted into a language the host can understand. The other strategy is to decode and recompile programs in the host’s language.

Maybe the concept is better explained another way. Interpretation is like having someone constantly translating English to Japanese for you, non stop, twenty four hours a day wherever you go. Decoding and recompiling is like someone translating a sets of words and putting them in a dictionary you can reference.

Sony developed a way to translate instructions from an Emotion Engine chip into chunks that can be referenced.

There aren’t too many reasons why Sony would want the PS3’s Cell processor to emulate the PS2’s Emotion Engine and the key one is, backwards compatibility.

Perhaps, a firmware update or the new PlayStation 3 slim, which our friends at Ars Technica say is coming this fall, will utilize this technology? 

This smells like a rebirth of BwC, because too many people have complained and stood firm with Sony, because THEY DID promise 100% BwC!  Not only that, the sales of PS2s are still high; they are discontinuing the PS2, and with with this technology, not have any real regrets.  This will close assure the close down MFRing for PS2, saving them money, while focusing on PS3 now; knowing it can do the job...  Hmmm, I wonder...

One can only hope, or is it to late?