George Hotz, the 'hacker' who made headlines when he unlocked Apple's iPhone in 2007 says he has now hacked Sony's PlayStation 3.

Hotz said he was working on his latest hack effort but intended to post full details online soon.

"I have read/write access to the entire system memory, and HV level access to the processor. In other words, I have hacked the PS3," Hotz wrote on his blog. "The rest is just software. And reversing. I have a lot of reversing ahead of me, as I now have dumps of LV0 and LV1. I've also dumped the NAND without removing it or a modchip," he added.

Sony's PS3 games console has been on the market for three years and it was the only console that has not been hacked.

"3 years, 2 months, 11 days...thats a pretty secure system," Hotx said. "Took 5 weeks, 3 in Boston, 2 here, very simple hardware cleverly applied, and some not so simple software," he added.

Hotz has not revealed the how exploit goes. "The theory isn't really patchable, but they can make implementations much harder. Also, for obvious reasons I can't post dumps. I'm hoping to find the decryption keys and post them, but they may be embedded in hardware. Hopefully keys are setup like the iPhone's KBAG," he said.

The hack, which took about five weeks, could allow others to run pirated games or homemade software. In addition, it would allow people to play older PS2 games on their consoles.

Sony said it was "investigating the report" and would "clarify the situation" when it had more information, in a comment with BBC.