Dutch website, FGNOnline today claims that the next Sony console will be powered by the IBM Power7 CPU, which has been in development at the company since 2006.

This follows the news that development of the current IBM cell,the PowerXCell-8i processor, used in the PS3 and also some T.V's and lap-tops, is being scrapped.

Yesterday, an IBM spokesperson said that despite the end of development for the processor it will continue to manufacture it for the PS3 and will "look forward to continue developing next-generation processors for the gaming market."

If the next step in the PlayStation's evolution is the Power7 processor, FGOnline claims that the PS4 CPU will boast a double precision performance approaching 200GFLOPS and an increase in performance 10 fold over the PS3. Specifications released on the Power7 processor shows that it will be manufactured using the 45nm process and will boast a 4.04 GHz clock speed. It will come in variants of four, six or eight cores per chip and will be capable of running four threads.

Earlier this month, there were also rumours that the GPU for the PS4 has been decided. FGNOnline claims a world exclusive in discovering that the PS3 will apparently utilise IMGTEC's PowerVR Series 6 chipset, due to be released in 2012.

Sony has yet to officially comment on the rumours.