The Zoo 1: Unborn/The Zoo 1 - Unborn.adf/ARTICLES/newconsoles.txt

Text File | 1992-10-23 | 4KB | 68 lines

@H@3Next Generation Consoles
@A@2By Kult
@FHnewcentury24
@FAbigwall16
@FMdarkparticle08
2
{2@1The PSX is one of the most powerful of the upcoming "Next Generation"
1consoles, it beats the 3DO, Jaguar(suprise), CD32 and the mighty SEGA Saturn.
1The question is will it be better than Nintendo/Silicon Graphics ULTRA 64?
1
1The PSX has some of the most advanced hardware for a console, for example
1it can handle so many sprites it uses them to texture map. When Sega found
1out that Sony where making the PSX they shit themselvles bad-style To bring
1the Saturn up to the specs of the PSX they shuved in another processor. The
1Saturn's hardware was then made up of 2 microprocessors, both called the
1SH-2 (the Sh-2 is a RISC chip by the way). These set of chips are capable of
125MIPS, and thats not including another set of processors also on board, the
1SH-1(20Mhz) and the SCU(28Mhz).
1Another processor inside the Saturn, which we should be famailier with is
1the 68EC00, clocked at 11.3Mhz.
1
1As the Saturn was being tested, problems started to occour with having 2 main
1processors on board, only one could access memory at a time, whooops. This
1means that the processors have to wait for each other to finish accessing
1the memory. This makes programming the Saturn a very difficult task indeed.
1An example of the 2 processors being used in parralel can be seen in Sega's
1Virtua Fighters, the first SH-2 calculates player 1 and the other calculates
1player 2.
1
1There are 3 custom processors on the Saturn, one for sprites, one for
1backgrounds and another for the sound.
1The sprite chip not only handles all the sprites but, as with the PSX,
1texture maps objects. The background chip is capable of generating 5
1backgrounds simultainiosly, two of them which can be rotating at the same
1time (now thats fucking powerful!). The sound chip is the best part of the
1Saturn and it is far better than any other console (even better then the
1PSX!). The 68EC00 is used with the Yamaha FH1 processor to generate 32
1voices, FM sysnthesis, PCM synthesis. It also includes a built in DMA for
1file transfer, a 16 channel digital mixer and a 128-step DSP (whoaaah!).
1The memory in the Saturn is split between all the processors and amasses to
14.5Mb (not bad for a console). The ROM takes up 512k(big!).
1
1Enough of the Saturn and onto the PSX. Heres a quick lowdown on what
1it is capable of and whats inside that box:
1
1- R3000A 32bit RISC CPU running at 33Mhz
1- It can do 1.5 million (count-em!!) flat shaded polygons per second!
1- 500000 texture mapped and lightsourced polygons per second(might even be
1         able to do Birds Of Prey!)
1- 24 sound channels, sampling frequncy of 44.1Hz.
1- 24bit colour in 256x224 or 640-480
1- 4000(!) 8*8 sprites with individual scaling AND rotation
1
1Not bad eh!?! This IS power. As well as being a great machine it is also
1signed up with some great software houses, at the top is the mighty NAMCO.
1This means great arcades like Ridge Racer, Cybersled and Startblade(now
1called Starblade Alpha) are to be converted. If you havn't seen any shots of
1Ridge Racer running on a PSX then they are truly spectacular. To keep the
1speed up the coders had the textures cut down from 256 colours to 16 and use
1a lower resolution. Its damn smooth and the spectacular tunnels and buildings
1look brilliant as you whizz past them at 200mph! The conversions of cybersled
1and Starblade are intersting as they are BETTER than the arcade! The PSX
1versions are fully texture mapped and still run at about the same speed.
1For all you beat-em-up fans the PSX will be 'lucky' to have Super Street
1Fighter II Turbo(brill).
1
X0*]