On November 21st, 1994, SEGA's next-generation mainframe appeared in Japan in a hurry. It was priced at 44,8 yen. Officially, it was named SEGA SATURN(SS) because it was the sixth mainframe of SEGA, so it was named SATURN, the sixth planet in the solar system. Before that, the five mainframes were SG-. Mark ⅱ, Mark ⅲ, Master System, Megadrive.
The hardware function of SS can be described as "epoch-making scientific and technological crystallization" according to SEGA officials. It has two SH2 32-bit RISC CPU from Hitachi with a clock frequency of 28.6 MHz. The speed can reach 5. The sound processor is MOTOROLA 68 with 28MIPS. It has the display ability of up to 5 reels, plus special display effects such as zooming in and out, twisting, deforming, gyrating and zooming out, translucency, shadow, etc. SS adopts 32 channels of PCM sound source and 8 channels of FM sound source. It has 3D loop stereo. The sampling frequency is up to 44.1KHz, with CD sound quality. SS*** and 36Mbit of on-board memory. On the whole, The plane function of SS is worthy of being a generation of "2D polar hardware".
DC introduction:
Manufacturer: SEGA
Release date: November 27, 1998
Performance introduction:
CPU: Hitachi SH-SH-4 128 BIT RISC CPU(2 MHz) (operation speed: 36MIPS).
floating-point computing power: 14G FLOPS (four times stronger than PENTIUM II)
graphics chip: NEC PowerVR2 (3 million PLOYGUN/S)
sound system: YAMAHA XG3D SOUND CHIP (64 channels ADPCM/PCM sound source loop stereo)
memory: 16MB main RAM, 8MB video memory, 2MB audio memory
GD-ROM: 12X
Hair color number: 16777216 colors
Modem: 33.6kps (external)
OS (operating system): Microsoft Windows CE 2. (Windows CE is a special operating system for handheld computers, This WINDOWS CE is dedicated to DREAMCAST. Because it can access the INTERNET, it will also have a browser. I heard that it is an improved version of IE4) The following host is DREAMCAST. You can see that it has four handles like N64. Is there a bit of SATURN in any way? And all the hosts didn't see the 'SEGA' trademark, so they had to put it up when it was officially released? Because the configuration of this mainframe is very close to that of the popular personal computer, its interchangeability with personal computers will be very high in the future, and the transplanting speed will be very fast. Moreover, with its super-strong functions, some problems of playing the next-generation computer in the past (such as slow disc reading, poor 3D function, serious skipping situation, etc.) can be greatly improved.
Sega launched a 128-bit game console DC symbolically after losing in the MD and SS markets, but it feels like it. However, there are still many good games on DC, such as Sammu, Resident Evil-Veronica, and Eternal Arcadia.
Introduction of SFC:
As the successor of Nintendo's 8-bit mainframe, Super Famicom(SFC), a 16-bit home computer, was released in 1991. First in Japan, then in America and Europe. Of course, the name was changed to Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).
SFC uses a 16-bit 65c816 CPU. The speed is 3. 58MHz。 A 2. The SPC7 CPU core with built-in digital sound processor at 48MHz is responsible for the sound effect part, with SONY digital 8 sound sources and stereo 4 sound sources. Two dedicated graphics chips are used to support the resolution of 512x478 (but the most commonly used one is 25x224). The maximum chromatic number is 32768, which can be displayed together with 256. The maximum number of active blocks is 128 (the size is 64x64), and scaling, gyration and mosaic effects are supported. There is 128k working RAM on the host computer, including 64k video RAM and 64k sound CPU RAM.
regarding the hardware function of SFC, there is a very detailed explanation in the attached document of Snes9x, and interested friends can read it here.
as SFC was released late, it has better image expressive force (mostly with the help of special effects such as Mode 7, mosaic and HDMA) and sound effects compared with other 16-bit hosts (SegaMD).
interestingly, the 65c816 has a simulation mode, which can perfectly simulate the 652 chip. Obviously, Nintendo had a plan to make SFC compatible with FC software, but it failed (or gave up for some reason).
although in a sense, there are no losers in the 16-bit host (MD is partial to Europe and America, PC-E is popular in Japan, and NEOGEO gains high-end), SFC is undoubtedly the ultimate winner of the 16-bit host war. Due to its strong hardware functions, it brings softer and brighter pictures, more pleasant music and more realistic human language effects than other hosts. This makes SFC produce excellent RPG games which are popular in Asia. However, due to the slow CPU, it is a bit difficult to deal with ACT. In the late SFC, many games are equipped with DSP processing chips inside the cassette to make up for the lack of processing power of the host.
the actual lifetime of p>SFC is shorter than that of other successful hosts (FC, GB), which is the trend of the times. However, so far, Nintendo officials have not given up SFC like terminating FC and VB, and there are still new works published on SFC. It's just that Nintendo seems to be the only manufacturer left:) As of March 1996, the sales volume of SFC reached 38.21 million units, which is worthy of being the successor of FC.
It is worth mentioning that Nintendo and SONY*** have developed a SFC CD-ROM system. Maybe after seeing the fiasco of SEGA-CD, Nintendo unilaterally terminated the cooperation. This undoubtedly angered SONY, and in order not to let the molded products miscarry, SONY decided to go ahead with the plan alone. Ironically, it was this system based on SFC-CD abandoned by Nintendo that later became the king of the next generation mainframe, almost overwhelming Nintendo. It can be said that SONY was forced to join the video game industry by Nintendo, and the heavy price that Nintendo paid for it from the current perspective is unprecedented. The Ren Shi dynasty in the home video game industry is over.