Sony has yet to reveal the design of the PS5, but a patent discovered by LetsGoDigital shows how the console will be cooled and hints at its design.

The patent shows a V-shaped cooling system that sends air from one end of the console to the other. The console's processor runs at "constant power" continuously, so airflow is necessary.

We have seen hints of this cooling system in leaked images of the PS5 development kit, and it is possible that this patent is not for the final PS5, but simply for that kit. However, Microsoft has made extensive announcements about how they are cooling the Xbox Series X, and we would not be surprised to hear that the PS5 has a significant cooling system.

While it is reasonably unlikely that the PS5 will look like the concept rendering based on the V-shape, it is quite possible that the system will feature an advanced cooling system. However, it is more likely that this is an internal element that is not very visible from the outside of the console.

Sony has delved deeper into the PS5's specs, but has remained cagey about the console's design and other details, including its cooling system.

"We next addressed the engineering challenge of a cost-effective, high-performance cooling system designed for the specific power level," said Mark Cerny, lead system architect for the PS5. We'll save the details of the cooling solution for the teardown. I think you'll be quite pleased with what the engineering team came up with."

The power level Cerny refers to is the idea that the AMD CPU at the heart of the PS5 will run at a constant speed to provide smoother games with consistent performance. But for a while, chips running at high speeds can get very warm, and eventually the speed will be throttled down to prevent it from getting too hot. However, if they can be cooled, they can run at high speeds for extended periods of time.

Thus, the PS5's ability to continuously power 10.28 teraflops should make it easier for game developers to take advantage of its performance and create games that run smoothly at high resolutions.

We had hoped for a PS5 game showcase this week, but Sony postponed the event to avoid distracting from the protests in the U.S. over the murder of George Floyd. Sony has stated that the big PS5 event will take place "soon," so we won't have to wait too long to see the console in action.