A Few Things to Know About the Sega Saturn

 

The Sega Saturn is a 32-bit games console that was manufactured by The SEGA Corporation.

The Saturn was first launched in Japan on the 11th November 1994.

 

 

At its launch the Saturn was an extremely powerful console featuring dual 32-bit RISC processors and a CD quality 32 channel sound processor.

It's processing power was far in advance of it's contemporary rivals at 50-MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second)

Compare this to the PlayStation's 30-MIPS, Atari Jaguar's 26.6 MIPS, PC Engine's 15.5 MIPS and the Amiga CD32's 3.5-MIPS and it becomes obvious how much potential the ill fated Saturn had to become the dominant console in the mid '90's games market.

 

The Saturn's quadrilateral rendering shows less texture distortion than the widely used triangular system used by other consoles at the time, Tomb Raider was originally designed specifically for the Saturn's quadrilateral-based hardware.

Quadrilateral ability allowed the Saturn to render First-person shooter games better than other console at the time, a larger amount of video RAM also allowed larger levels and better draw distances than in any other console releases.

 

Technical Specifications

 

Processors	1. Hitachi SH2 32-Bit RISC @ 28.63MHz (25 MIPS) 2. Hitachi SH2 32-Bit RISC @ 28.63MHz (25 MIPS) 3. Hitachi SH1 32-Bit RISC (CD-ROM Controller) 4. VDP 1 32-Bit Video Display Processor @ 6.71 - 7.15MHz 5. VDP 2 32-Bit Video Display Processor @ 6.71 - 7.15MHz 6. System Control Unit (SCU) with DSP & DMA @ 14.3MHz 7. Motorola 68EC000 Sound Processor @ 11.3MHz 8. Yamaha FH1 (SCSP) Sound Processor  @ 22.6MHz 9. Hitachi 4-Bit MCU System Manager & Peripheral Control
Memory	Work RAM 16Mbit Video RAM 12Mbit Sound RAM 4Mbit CD Buffer RAM 4Mbit IPL ROM 4Mbit Backup RAM 256Kbit
Video	VDP1 32-bit video display processor:   Sprite, Polygon, and Rendering engine Dual 256 KB frame buffer for rotation and scaling effects Texture Mapping Gouraud Shading 512 KB Cache for Textures 200,000 Texture Mapped Polygons/Second 500,000 Flat Shaded Polygons/Second   VDP2 32-bit background and scroll plane video display processor:   Background Engine 5 Simultaneous Scrolling Backgrounds 2 Simultaneous Rotating Playfields Up to 60 frames per second animation 24-Bit True Color Graphics 16.7 Million Available Color 32,768 Colors Display on Screen 704 x 480 Maximum Resolution
Display Resolutions	352 x 240 (Lo-Res Scanline) 640 x 240 704 x 480 (Hi-Res Progressive)
Storage	'Intelligent' JVC-Victor Double Speed CD-ROM* 300 KB/Second Transfer Speed Audio CD Compatible Optional 512 KB Memory Cartridge for Game Save *A few drives were also manufactured by Hitachi or Sanyo.
Audio	SCSP Digital Signal Processor (DSP) @ 22.6MHz Motorola 68EC000 sound processor @ 11.3MHz 32 PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) Channels 8 FM (Frequency Modulation) Channels 44.1 KHz Sampling Rate

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