Renesas Announces "Dreamcast On A Chip"

[DCEmu_Newsposter]

ExtremeTech (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1667689,00.asp) reports that Renesas Technology has taken many of the technologies used in the Sega Dreamcast game console and combined them into a single core.[br][br]Officials from Japan's Renesas, which assumed control over the development of the SH processor from ST Microelectronics on Sept. 28, announced the SH3707 embedded processor at the Fall Processor Forum here today. The SH3707 combines both an advanced SuperH core and a PowerVR graphics core, the components found in the original Dreamcast. [br][br]Specifically, the Dreamcast console contained a 200-MHz Hitachi SH4 with the capability to perform 360 million instructions per second (MIPS) and 1.4 million megaflops, or floating-point operations per second. The Dreamcast also contained an NEC PowerVR2 graphics chip.[br][br]The new SH3707 uses a faster 540 MIPS/2.1 gigaflops engine, with a 64-bit interface to memory. The core also contains a PowerVR MBX chip, a core that Imagination Technologies has licensed to Intel and Texas Instruments, among others. [br][br]According to Miyazaki, the target specification for the platform is to achieve up to 1024 x 768 resolution, 10 million to 13 million vertices or 5 million to 6 million triangles per second, with up to 20 percent translucency per scene – in other words, anticipating a game where some of the polygons would be enhanced with transparency effects. That would place the SH3707 at somewhat over twice the performance of the Dreamcast, which could handle up to 3 million triangles per second. The SH3707 also has the capability of processing MPEG-1, -2, and -4 video and eight-channel PCM/ADCPM audio.[br][br]The SH3707 will ship in the first quarter of 2005, Miyazaki said.

[ShinAkuma]

cOol documentation..., anybody with sreenshots?
Very interresting!!!!
:)

[quzar]

lets just hope that this isused for backwards compatible, DC-like machines. Imagine, with this you get a DC half the size that can play DSNES fullspeed =P

[wraggster]

its very interesting thats for sure

[WHurricane16]

What's the purpose? I've been in the hole for a couple of days so I have no clue on what's going on. Does this mean there is someone out there this chip is targeted to be used by? No one does something like this without a profitable reason.

[quzar]

This allows you to use a single chip instead of having a seperate cpu and gpu.

[WHurricane16]

This allows you to use a single chip instead of having a seperate cpu and gpu.

Wow, I could have never have figured that out on my own, quzar.

I guess my question was over your head.

[MetaFox]

What's the purpose? I've been in the hole for a couple of days so I have no clue on what's going on. Does this mean there is someone out there this chip is targeted to be used by? No one does something like this without a profitable reason.I'll use my recycled quote :P

All this is saying is that someone can make a new console with the technology used in the Dreamcast. You would need more than just the technology behind the Dreamcast to make the console compatible with Dreamcast games. It would be cool if someone licensed the backwards-compatibility for the system to play Dreamcast games from Sega, but I doubt it's going to happen.

And to elaborate more - no one has yet picked up this technology, but I'm sure someone will make use of it (probably in cell-phones or TiVos or other non-console related items, even though Renesas wants it to be used in game machines). I'd love for a company like NEC, Panasonic, or another big electronics company with money to blow to make a console using the technology - and while I'm dreaming - license backwards compatibility with the system from Sega, and the GD-ROM technology from Yamaha. But, honestly, that's as likely as Sega making their own console out of this.

So, why did I post it: just because I found it interesting. Nothing more, nothing less. ;)

[WHurricane16]

And to elaborate more - no one has yet picked up this technology, but I'm sure someone will make use of it (probably in cell-phones or TiVos or other non-console related items, even though Renesas wants it to be used in game machines).

That's the answer I was looking for, but I'm thinking they must have pitched this idea to someone already and they must have thought it was interesting.

Let's hope the Dreamcast gets reborn by this very cool idea, and better yet it even makes a world wide impact instead of being localized in Japan or in Europe.

[quzar]

Wow, I could have never have figured that out on my own, quzar.

I guess my qqestion was over your head.


You dont have to insult me just cause i didnt answer what you wanted to know.

The most likely thing is that this will lead to a set top entertainment center device that can also play DC games. But I just figured everyone knew that pvr's MBX line is designed for set top applications, as are all the newer Renesas chips, to it would be ovbious that it will be in a set top device...

Metafox: Although those were just examples, really dont think that NEC or Panasonic would be releasing new consoles after their prior failed forays into the market.

[MetaFox]

Metafox: Although those were just examples, really dont think that NEC or Panasonic would be releasing new consoles after their prior failed forays into the market.Me neither - hence why I said it's just as likely for Sega to release a new console.

ie: it's not going to happen. ;)

[LyonHrt]

http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/091/091105p1.html?fromint=1
Do you remember this, pace were going to have dreamcast techology in its set top box's (never came out though)

So the set top box idea for dreamcast, isn't new.

[MetaFox]

http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/091/091105p1.html?fromint=1
Do you remember this, pace were going to have dreamcast techology in its set top box's (never came out though)

So the set top box idea for dreamcast, isn't new.No, but the single chip with enhanced technology is. :P

I doubt set top boxes are the target system anyway. With the small size of a single chip, it would be perfect for phones, or "internet appliances", or if you're a big day-dreamer, even handheld game systems. :)

[quzar]

I assumed set top and not handheld because of the target max resolution and information i have seen about the graphics specs of that gpu, as well as the power consumption for something like that.

[WHurricane16]

You dont have to insult me just cause i didnt answer what you wanted to know.

No, I insulted you because you were stating the obvious.

[quzar]

No, I insulted you because you were stating the obvious.



oh ok, nevermind, it's perfectly ok then. ::)

[Alexvrb]

Children, children. You should know BETTER than to be ignorant. Oh, and I'm not just referring to that. ;D

Didn't anyone read the article? It's *not* a Dreamcast on a chip, it's not even remotely compatible with Dreamcast. :-[ It's an SH chip (we don't even know if it's fully compatible with the SH4 in the DC) and a PVR MBX chip. MBX, their new mobile-oriented graphics chip, not a Series 2 chip like in the DC. Also where are the other parts? :P

[MetaFox]

Alexvrb, Did you even bother to read any of the comments made before you made your insulting statements?

This is built with the Dreamcast in mind (Renesas themselves even described it as an enhanced version of "the technology behind the Dreamcast" in their press conference. If you want to be nitpicky about the "Dreamcast on a Chip" title, blame the author of the original article at ExtremeTech, not me (though I agree with his choice of title - it's thought provoking, and is, in essense an enhanced "Dreamcast on a Chip" minus the GD-ROM mechanism).

No one really believes this is going to be a Dreamcast 2 anyway. I stated that it would take more than technology to have this compatible with the Dreamcast, and it would most likely be used in other ways such as cell phones or TiVos.

Read the whole thread before insulting everyone. Your comments are rude, and do nothing but incite a flamewar. Keep your immature statements to yourself. The board as a whole will appreciate you for it.

[quzar]

You know, seriously I would much rather to see any info from Renesas or NEC which is nowhere to be found...

[Eric]

all i have to say is Alex is very smart nobody can stand up to him :o just kidding

[guymelef]

or we could dev out a neoDC system our selves buy using the core and slapping some better ram and the GDrom from a dc. but has hard as that would it would still be the easy part as we still need an OS that's 100% compatibable with the pre-existing software. but if we are overclocking our dc's and upgrading ram modules(and re-routing memory addresses) why not. what else we got to do. I am afraid that projects like divx, and 16 bit emulation, and PS emulation is hinging on this. and I would be the first sytem created by the scene for the scene. but of course it would be easier to just use a PC and write a dedicated emulation os.

[DreamDogg]

Who knows, maybe the chipmaker Renesas is targeting converged devices. More DVD players now ship with game features:

Polaroid PDV-0801A
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3298566

Orbit PTDVD-768S
http://www.china-orbit.com/eproducts/show_detail.php?id=124

If consumers demand game features, then these faster and richer processors will proliferate in converged media devices such as portable DVD players, MP3 players, set-top boxes, and ???
Just speculating, but who knows ...
::)

[ShinAkuma]

...What more could you ask for?
thats good...but where is SEGA... in all of this? :X

lets wait and see!

[Mental2k]

if this chip was cheap enough could it be used in one of those hand-held plug into the tv console thingy's.