PCSX2 is an open source Playstation 2 emulator. Its purpose is to mimic the the PS2 hardware, using a combination of MIPS CPU [Interpreters](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpreter_\(computing\)), [Recompilers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_recompilation) and a [Virtual Machine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_machine) which manages hardware states and PS2 system memory.
The PCSX2 project has been running for more than ten years. Once able to run only a few public domain demos, recent versions enable many games to work at full speed, including popular titles such as *Final Fantasy X* or *Devil May Cry 3*. Visit the *[PCSX2 homepage](http://pcsx2.net)* to check the latest compatibility status of games (with more than 2000 titles tested), or ask your doubts in the *[Official forums](http://forums.pcsx2.net/)*.
* RAM: 1GB on Linux/Windows XP, 2GB or more on Vista
**Note**: Because of copyright issues, and the complexity of trying to work around it, you need a BIOS dump extracted from a legitimately owned Playstation 2 console to use the emulator.
**Note:** PCSX2 mainly takes advantage of 2 CPU cores. As of r4865 PCSX2 can now take advantage of a 3rd core using the MTVU speedhack. This can be a significant speedup on CPUs with 3+ cores, however on GS limited games (or on dual core CPUs) it may be a slowdown.
