@ Cgi: there have been reports of a new filing by sony with the exact same numbers, so in fact the new parts are for real.

I'm guessing that Sony is finally switching to the 45nm RSX and is shrinking the motherboard a bit with it. Doubt we'll get a new form factor.

This could explain the shortages if (and this is just speculation) there was a delay in switching to the new parts (as in waiting for a newer/smaller component to be produced) for the lighter model.

This will actually save them a LOT of money lol. Reducing half a pound off of a product that you ship in the millions adds up.

there isn't any real link between the shortness of stock is US and this revision of hardware... at least that is proved... revision are so ordinary that most of the time goes unnoticed by public in general!

I read about this two weeks ago on Joystiq Japan, which got its information from this article at PS3 News:

http://www.ps3news.com/PlayStation-3/two-new-ps3-slim-models-cech-2101a-and-cech-2101b-hit-fcc/

Misleading thread title.

Lighter, not slimmer.

Probably for cost. Price drop in 2010?

it's probably a revision but not something people while notice

That would be great, i think the PS3 Slim is very eye-candy, we need to see how would the X360 Slim would look like.