Sega Dreamcast

From Sega Retro

Dreamcast.jpg
Sega Dreamcast
Manufacturer: Sega
Variants: Sega NAOMI, Atomiswave, Sega Aurora
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Dreamcast
JP
¥29,80029,800 HKT-3000
Sega Dreamcast
US
$199.99199.99 HKT-3020
Sega Dreamcast
DE
DM 499,-499,-[4] HKT-3030
Sega Dreamcast
ES
HKT-3030
Sega Dreamcast
FR
1,690F1,690[3] HKT-3030
Sega Dreamcast
UK
£199.99199.99[2] HKT-3030
Sega Dreamcast
AU
$499.00499.00
Sega Dreamcast
BR
R$899.00899.00
Sega Dreamcast
KR
HKT-3010
Sega Dreamcast
AS
HKT-3010

The Sega Dreamcast (ドリームキャスト) is a home video game console manufactured by Sega as a successor to the Sega Saturn. It was originally released in November 1998, becoming first machine to be released in what is now known as the sixth generation of video game consoles, sharing a platform with the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and the Xbox.

The Dreamcast was Sega's last home video game console, and was discontinued in early 2001. Roughly 10.6 million Dreamcast consoles have been sold worldwide.

An arcade counterpart to the Dreamcast exists as the Sega NAOMI.

Hardware

The Dreamcast is a small, white box with aesthetics designed to appeal to a wide-ranging audience. It was envisioned as an "128-bit" "super console", designed to leapfrog "32-bit" and "64-bit" contemporaries in the form of the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, respectively (although from a technical standpoint, its main processor deals in 32-bit or 64-bit instructions, with the 128-bit figure coming from the graphics hardware). Incidentally the Dreamcast was the last home console to use "bits" as a selling point, with processing capabilities now typically measured in other ways.

Taking design cues from the Nintendo 64 and the Sega Saturn, the Dreamcast contains four control ports, a removable modem, disc drive and an extension port (as well as the expected AV and power inputs). It is not backwards compatible with any prior Sega hardware or software (although its controller derives from the Saturn's 3D Control Pad), and operates in much the same way as the Saturn (and PlayStation) does, with a configurable settings and memory management accessed through a BIOS screen.

The Dreamcast uses a proprietary format of storage called GD-ROMs for games in order to circumvent software piracy, a strategy that ultimately backfired when the first run of discs had a high rate of defects. The format was also cracked fairly quickly (and in some cases, the pirated games were released before the legitimate versions). Sega largely had themselves to blame for the high levels of Dreamcast piracy—their use of the GD-ROM format was completely undermined by the console's support for the Mil-CD format, which allowed the console to boot from a standard CD-R. Mil-CD support was removed from the final Dreamcast revisions toward the end of the console's life.

The GD-ROM format also put the console at a disadvantage when competing against the PlayStation 2 - the PS2 used DVDs, and could therefore run DVD videos making it an inexpensive DVD player as well as a video game console. DVD-ROMs also have more storage space, allowing for bigger games (though the initial run of PS2 games used a blue CD-ROM format). Sega looked into DVD technology during the Dreamcast's development but claimed it was too expensive.

The Dreamcast was the first video game console to ship with a built-in 56k modem, with broadband adapters being made available later on in certain regions. This allowed the system to connect to the internet using a custom, fully-functional web browser and e-mail client. Many games released for the Dreamcast shipped with online play modes, the most popular being Phantasy Star Online and the Sega Sports lineup (now published under the ESPN label). Although other consoles before the Dreamcast had network gaming support, such as the Sega Saturn's NetLink and the Sega Mega Drive's XB∀ND, the Dreamcast was the first game console to include this ability out of the box and is therefore considered the first internet-enabled home game system.

The Dreamcast has a modest hacking enthusiast community. The availability of Windows CE software development kits on the Internet—as well as ports of Linux (LinuxDC) and dreamcast NetBSD operating systems to the Dreamcast—gave programmers a selection of familiar development tools to work with, even though they do not really support the high speed graphics. A homebrew minimal operating system called Kallistios offers support for most hardware, while not offering multi-tasking, which is superfluous for games. Many emulators and other tools (MP3, DivX players, and image viewers) have been ported to or written for the console, taking advantage of the relative ease with which a home user can write a CD which is bootable by an unmodified Dreamcast.

Sega released an arcade board, using the same technology as the Dreamcast, called Sega NAOMI, leading to many Dreamcast-exclusive games with a high level of arcade quality. The NAOMI has the same CPU, the Hitachi SH-4, at the same clock rate, but is more powerful in other ways, with its own updated PowerVR2 that has a higher GPU clock rate, additional RAM and VRAM, higher bandwidth, and faster ROM cartridge storage. The NAOMI released for $1995, ten times the price of the Dreamcast and more expensive than a high-end PC at the time, but cheaper than the Sega Model 3 arcade system (which debuted at $20,000 in 1996). The NAOMI was, in turn, the basis for two significantly more powerful arcade systems, the Hikaru (debuted 1999) and NAOMI 2 (debuted 2000). Sega later packaged the Dreamcast into an arcade board as the Atomiswave. While the Dreamcast is not as powerful as 1997–1999 Sega arcade hardware, including the Model 3 Step 2 (debuted 1997), NAOMI, and Hikaru, the Dreamcast rivalled the Model 3 Step 1 (debuted 1996).

The Dreamcast's PowerVR CLX2 was the basis for the PowerVR PMX1, a PC GPU released with the Neon 250 graphics card. However, the Neon 250 lacks many of the tiled rendering features of the CLX2: the tile size is halved from 32×32 pixels to 32×16 pixels (halving the fillrate), it lacks the CLX2's alpha test capability with hardware front-to-back translucency sorting (further reducing the fillrate and performance, as well as requiring the Neon 250 to render a Z-buffer, which the CLX2 doesn't need), and the tiling is partially handled by software (the CLX2 handles the tiling entirely in hardware). The Neon 250 also lacks the CLX2's latency buffering and palettized texture support while VQ texture compression performance is halved, and it has bus contention due to having a single data bus (whereas the CLX2 has two data buses). The PowerVR2 was also optimized for the Hitachi SH-4's geometry processing capabilities (rather than for a Pentium II or III), while PC drivers and software were not optimized for the Neon 250's tiled rendering architecture (compared to Dreamcast games which were optimized for the CLX2's tiled rendering architecture). The Neon 250 thus had only a fraction of the Dreamcast CLX2's fillrate and rendering performance. The reduction in performance from the Dreamacst's CLX2 to the Neon 250 was comparable to the reduction in performance from the Sega Model 3's Real3D Pro-1000 to the Intel740.

The Dreamcast (DC) was generally the most powerful home system during 1998–1999, outperforming high-end PC hardware at the time. The DC's SH-4 geometry engine calculates 1.4 GFLOPS and more than 10 MPolys/s,[6] higher than a PC with PIII 800 (1999's strongest PC CPU) and Nvidia GF256 (1999's strongest PC GPU) which calculates 800 MFLOPS[7][8] and 6.7 MPolys/s.[9] The DC's CLX2 has an additional 200 MFLOPS for tiled rendering, and has a fillrate of 3.2 GPixels/s with opaque polygons[6] and 500 MPixels/s[10] (500 MTexels/s) with translucent polygons, higher than the V3 TV SE's 200 MPixels/s (400 MTexels/s) and GF256's 480 MPixels/s (480 MTexels/s). The DC's 800 MB/s CPU–GPU transmission bus[6] is faster than the V3's 533 MB/s AGP bus (2x AGP 2.0) and has a higher effective bandwidth than the 1064 MB/s transmission bus from a PIII 800EB (133 MHz FSB) to GF256 (4x AGP 2.0)[11] due to the DC's more efficient bandwidth usage, including its lack of CPU overhead (from operating system) and the CLX2's tiled rendering architecture: textures loaded directly to VRAM (freeing up CPU–GPU transmission bus for polygons), 8:1 VQ texture compression (higher than V3's 4:1 compression and GF256's 6:1 S3TC compression), on-chip tile buffer (no need for Z-buffer), and deferred rendering (no need to draw, shade or texture overdrawn polygons). The CLX2 was the first GPU to support order-independent transparency (which the V3 and GF256 lacked) and Dot3 normal mapping (which the V3 lacked, and a year before the GF256).[12] The CLX2's rendering throughput is 7 MPolys/s,[6] with game engine performance peaking at 5 MPolys/s;[13] in comparison, a Celeron 300A 450 MHz[14] (100 MHz FSB,[15] 364 MFLOPS)[16] with V3 TV (183 MHz) renders 750,000 polys/s,[17] a PIII 800 (800 MFLOPS) with V3 TV SE (200 MHz) renders 1.8 MPolys/s, and a PIII 800 with GF256 has a peak rendering throughput of 6.7 MPolys/s[9] and peak game engine performance of 2.9 MPolys/s.[18] DC game engines rendered 50,000–166,666 polys per scene (3–5 MPolys/s),[13] while PC game engines of 1999 rendered up to 10,000 polys per scene[19][20] (1–1.6 MPolys/s).[15] Character models in particular were significantly more detailed in Dreamcast games than in PC games during 1998–1999.[21]

Compared to the rival PS2, the DC is better at textures, anti-aliasing, and image quality, while the PS2 is better at polygon geometry, particles, and lighting. The PS2 has a more powerful CPU geometry engine (6.2 GFLOPS Emotion Engine), higher translucent fillrate (2.4 GPixels/s), and more main RAM (32 MB, compared to DC's 16 MB), while the DC has more VRAM (8 MB, compared to PS2's 4 MB), higher opaque fillrate (3.2 GPixels/s), and more GPU hardware features, with CLX2 capabilities like tiled rendering, super-sample anti-aliasing, Dot3 normal mapping, order-independent transparency, and texture compression, which the PS2's Graphics Synthesizer GPU lacks. With larger VRAM and tiled rendering, the DC can render a larger framebuffer at higher native resolution (without needing Z-buffer), and with texture compression, it can compress around 20–60 MB of texture data in its VRAM. Because the PS2 has only 4 MB VRAM, it relies on the main RAM to store textures, but the PS2's CPU–GPU transmission bus for transferring polygons and textures has a bandwidth of 1.2 GB/s; while 50% faster than the DC's 800 MB/s CPU–GPU transmission bus, the DC has textures loaded directly to VRAM (freeing up the CPU–GPU transmission bus for polygons) and texture compression gives it around 2–6 GB/s of effective texture bandwidth. DC games were effectively using 20–30 MB of texture data[22] (compressed to around 5–6 MB),[23] while PS2 games up until 2003 peaked at 5.5 MB of texture data (average 1.5 MB). PS2 games up until 2003 rendered up to 7.5 MPolys/s (145,000 polys per scene), with most rendering 2–5 MPolys/s (average 52,000 polys per scene);[24] in comparison, DC game engines rendered up to 5 MPolys/s (166,666 polys per scene), with most games rendering 2–4 MPolys/s (average 50,000 polys per scene).[13] The DC is more user-friendly for developers, making it easier to develop for, while the PS2 is more difficult to develop for; this is the reverse of the 32-bit era, when the PlayStation was more user-friendly, and the Saturn more difficult, for developers.

Models

Main article: Dreamcast consoles.

Japanese Dreamcasts can be identified by the triangle at the front of the unit. Though the power LED is identical across all regions, the piece of plastic attached to the lid of the Japanese model is transparent, while in North America it is grey.

For a full list of special edition Dreamcasts, see Special Dreamcast Models.

Technical specifications

CPU

  • Main CPU: Hitachi SH-4 (RISC, 2‑way Superscalar)[6][25]
    • Operating frequency: 200 MHz
    • Units: 128‑bit SIMD vector unit with graphic functions, 64‑bit floating‑point unit, 32‑bit fixed‑point unit
    • 128‑bit SIMD @ 200 MHz: Vector unit, geometry processor, graphic functions, DMA controller, interrupt controller[26]
    • 128‑bit graphic computational engine: Calculates geometry and lighting of polygons, creates display lists of polygons for tiling, DMA allows SH4 access to VRAM and PowerVR2 access to Main RAM, store queue mechanism (allowing high‑speed packet transfers between Main RAM and VRAM)[27]
    • Bus width: 128‑bit internal, 64‑bit external
    • Bandwidth: 3.2 GB/s internal, 1.6 GB/s external
  • Fixed‑point performance: 360 MIPS
  • Floating‑point performance: 1.4 GFLOPS (7 MFLOPS per 16 MB/s)

Graphics

Graphical specifications of the Dreamcast:[28][27][29]

  • GPU: 2 graphics processors (SH‑4 SIMD, CLX2)
    • Cores: 6 cores (SH‑4 SIMD, 5 CLX2 cores)
  • GPU Geometry Processor: Hitachi SH‑4 SIMD @ 200 MHz (1.4 GFLOPS)
  • GPU Rasterizer: NECVideoLogic PowerVR CLX2 (PVR2DC/HOLLY) @ 100 MHz (PowerVR2 series)
  • CLX2 Cores: Tile Accelerator (TA), Image Synthesis Processor (ISP), Texture & Shading Processor (TSP), Triangle Setup FPU, RAMDAC[30]
    • CLX2 units: 50 rendering units (37 ISP units, 10 TSP units, 2 FPU units, 1 RAMDAC)
  • TA Tile Accelerator: Tile renderer, partitions infinite strip polygon data, divides polygons into tiles, performs tile clipping, generates object lists, retrieves display lists from SH4 (through store queues and DMA), generates ISP/TSP parameters
  • ISP Image Synthesis Processor: Rasterizer, depth‑sorting, parallel‑processing of tiles/pixels/polygons at high speeds, reduces bandwidth requirements[33]
    • 37 ISP units: ISP Precalc Unit, ISP PE Array (32 PE), Depth Accumulation Buffer, Span RLC, Span Sorter, ISP Parameter Cache[34]
    • ISP PE Array: 32 processor elements (PE), on-chip depth sorting, 3D processing of 32 pixels/cycle per PE, 1024 pixels/cycle, 3 cycles/polygon, 1 tile/cycle, 32-bit depth data processing, eliminates need for Z-buffer,[35]
    • ISP Parameter Cache: 12 KB
    • Span RLC: RLE tile/polygon compression, 32 pixels/cycle, 32-bit
  • TSP Texture & Shading Processor: Shader and texture‑mapping unit, avoids shading/texturing overdrawn pixels/tiles and back‑facing polygons to maximize bandwidth for on‑screen pixels/tiles and front‑facing polygons, perspective correction for all texture/shading elements (including fog and alpha blending)[33]
    • 10 TSP units: TSP Precalc, Parameter Cache, Texture Cache, Iterator Array, Pixel Processing Engine, Tile Accumulation Buffer, Secondary Accumulation Buffer, Combine & Bump Map Unit, Fog Unit, Alpha Blending Unit[36]
    • Pixel Processing Engine: Texturing/Shading for 32-pixel data processed by ISP[35]
    • TSP Parameter Cache: 12 KB[34]
    • Texture Cache: 1 KB (64-bit), VQ texture compression/decompression
    • Tile Accumulation Buffer: 4 KB (32-bit),[37] 32×32 pixels[38]
    • Secondary Accumulation Buffer: 4 KB (32-bit),[37] 32×32 pixels
  • Triangle Setup FPU: 2 FPU rendering units, 200 MFLOPS
    • ISP Setup FPU: 100 MHz, 100 MFLOPS, 14 cycles/polygon, 7,142,857 polygons/sec
    • TSP Setup FPU: 100 MHz, 100 MFLOPS
  • RAMDAC: 230 MHz[39]
  • CLX2 Bandwidth:
    • Internal: 2.8 GB/s (224‑bit, 100 MHz) (32-bit TA tile buffer,[31] 32-bit ISP registers, 32-bit TSP registers,[40] 64-bit TSP Texture Cache,[33] 32-bit TSP Tile Accumulation Buffer, 32-bit Secondary Accumulation Buffer)
    • External: 800 MB/s (64-bit, 100 MHz)[41]
  • CLX2 Capabilities:
  • Display Resolution: 320×240 to 800×608 pixels, interlaced and progressive scan, TV and VGA
    • Internal resolution: 320×240 to 1600×1200 pixels[39]
    • Texture map resolutions: 8×8 to 2048×2048 texels
  • Refresh rate: 30–60 Hz (NTSC/PAL60), 25–50 Hz (PAL50)[59]
    • Maximum frame rate: 60 FPS (NTSC/PAL60), 50 FPS (PAL50)
  • Color Depth: 16‑bit RGB to 32‑bit ARGB,[49] 65,536 colors (16‑bit color) to 16,777,216 colors (24‑bit color) with 8‑bit (256 levels) alpha blending, YUV and RGB color spaces, color key overlay[60]
  • Framebuffer: Optional (raster method can be used with tile buffer)[61][62]
    • Strip/Tile buffer: 32×32×16‑bit (4 KB) to 32×32×32‑bit (8 KB) in local tile buffer cache memory[27]
    • Full framebuffer: 320×240×16-bit (300 KB) to 1600×1200×24‑bit (5625 KB) or 2048×2048×16‑bit (8 MB) in VRAM (optional)[62]
    • Note: Due to deferred rendering, framebuffer only needs to be filled once per frame for opaque polygons, while translucent polygons can overdraw with up to 100 MPixels/s (200–300 MB/s).
  • VRAM: 8 MB (unified framebuffer and texture memory, effectively 21–63 MB with texture compression)[63][27]
    • Framebuffer: 300–5625 KB (optional), average 1200 KB (640×480, 16-bit color, double-buffered)
    • Polygons: Stored in double-buffered display lists,[64][65] 22 bytes per triangle (flat/Gouraud shading, 43 bytes double-buffered), 31 bytes per textured triangle (Gouraud shading, 62 bytes double-buffered), 36 bytes per triangle (Gouraud shading, bump mapping, 72 bytes double-buffered), 38 bytes per textured triangle (Gouraud shading, modifier volumes, 75 bytes double-buffered), 96 bytes per textured quad (sprite, flat shading, 192 bytes double-buffered)[66]
    • Textures: 32 KB (8×8 texture, 16 colors) to 8 MB (effectively 21–63 MB with texture compression),[44] average 5 MB[23] (effectively 20–30 MB with texture compression),[22] 32 bytes (8×8×4-bit) to 386 KB (1024×1024×24-bit)[44] or 1026 KB (2048×2048×16-bit) per texture[43]
    • VRAM bandwidth: 800 MB/s (effectively up to 2.1–6.3 GB/s with texture compression)
    • Note: Main RAM also used to store polygon display lists. Textures transferred directly to VRAM. Main RAM can also optionally be used to store textures.
  • Floating-Point Performance: 1.6 GFLOPS
    • SH-4 SIMD: 1.4 GFLOPS geometry
    • CLX2: 200 MFLOPS rendering
  • Rendering Fillrate:[6][27]
    • 3.2 GPixels/s: Opaque polygons (32 pixels/cycle)[33]
    • 500 MPixels/s: Translucent and opaque polygons[10]
    • 100 MPixels/s: Translucent polygons with hardware sort depth of 60 (1 pixel/cycle)
    • 100 MPixels/s to 3.2 GPixels/s, depending on opacity/translucency of polygons (1–32 pixels/cycle)[29]
  • Texture Fillrate:
    • 500 MTexels/s: Effective fillrate (including overdrawn and back‑facing textures)
    • 100 MTexels/s: Front‑facing textures drawn on screen
  • SH-4 Polygon T&L Geometry: 1.4 GFLOPS[67][6][68]
    • Vertices: 32,558,139 vertices/sec (43 FLOPS/vertex)[69]
    • Flat-shaded polygons: 14,141,414 polygons/sec (99 FLOPS/vertex)
    • Flat-shaded polygons with lighting: 12,068,965 polygons/sec (116 FLOPS/polygon)
    • Gouraud-shaded polygons: 10,852,713 polygons/sec (129 FLOPS/polygon)
    • Gouraud-shaded polygons with lighting: 7,777,777 polygons/sec (180 FLOPS/polygon)
  • CLX2 Polygon Rendering: Front‑facing polygons drawn on screen, not including overdrawn and back‑facing polygons[6][70][66]
    • 21,428,571 vertices/s: 14 ISP FPU cycles per 3 vertices[71]
    • 7,142,857 polys/s: 14 ISP FPU cycles/poly,[71] lighting, Gouraud shading, 119,047–187,938 polys/scene, 14–448 pixels/poly
    • 7,000,000–7,142,857 polys/s: Lighting, texture mapping, Gouraud shading, 116,666–130,326 polys/scene, 14–70 texels/poly
    • 7,000,000 polys/s: Lighting, texture mapping, shadows,[72] 116,666–116,667 polys/scene, 14–71 texels/poly
    • 7,000,000 polys/s: Lighting, texture mapping, trilinear filtering,[73] 116,666–116,667 polys/scene, 14–71 texels/poly
    • 5,000,000–6,464,160 polys/s: Lighting, texture mapping, Gouraud shading, shadows, modifier volumes, bump mapping, 83,334–107,736 polys/scene, 28–140 texels/poly
    • 4,129,920 polys/s: Lighting, texture mapping, anisotropic filtering, 68,832 polys/scene,[74] 24–121 texels/poly
  • 2D sprite capabilities: Sprites rendered as textured translucent quad polygons[75]
    • Colors per sprite: 16 colors (4-bit color) to 16,777,216 colors (24-bit color)[76]
    • Sprite sizes: 8×8 texels (224 bytes) to 2048×2048 texels (1026.2 KB)[42][44]
    • Sprite fillrate: 100 MTexels/s
    • Maximum sprites per frame: 26,041 sprites (8×8, 60 FPS), 31,250 sprites (8×8, 50 FPS)
    • Maximum texels per scanline: 6944 texels (NTSC/PAL60), 8333 texels (PAL50)
    • Maximum sprites per scanline: 868 sprites (NTSC/PAL60), 1041 sprites (PAL50)
  • Full Motion Video: MPEG decoding, video compression, 320×240 to 640×320 and 320×480 video resolutions, 3D polygons can be superimposed over FMV video[6]

Memory

  • System RAM: 26.125 MB
    • Main RAM: 16 MB SDRAM (Hyundai HY57V161610D)
      • Can be used for storing textures and polygon display lists, accessible by SH4 and PowerVR2 (via SH4 DMA)[27]
    • VRAM: 8 MB SDRAM (unified framebuffer and texture memory)[63]
      • Accessible by Power VR2 and SH4 (via DMA and store queues)
    • Sound RAM: 2 MB SDRAM
    • GD-ROM buffer RAM: 128 KB[28]
  • System ROM: 2 MB[28]
  • Flash Memory: 128 KB[27]
  • Internal Processor Cache: 93,390 bytes (91.201 KB)[27]
    • SH4: 26,178 bytes (8 KB instruction cache, 16 KB data cache, 64 bytes store queue cache,[77] 1538 bytes registers)
    • CLX2: 33.625 KB (34,432 bytes)
      • Register memory: 8.25 KB[78] (2397 bytes TA tile buffer,[32][31] 509 bytes fog table, 4093 bytes palette RAM)[79]
      • ISP cache: 16.125 KB (12 KB Parameter Cache,[34] 128 bytes Depth Accumulation Buffer, 4 KB TSP Parameter Cache)[34]
      • TSP cache: 9 KB (1 KB Texture Cache,[33] 4 KB Tile Accumulation Buffer,[38][37] 4 KB Secondary Accumulation Buffer)[37]
      • FIFO buffer: 256 bytes
    • AICA: 32,780 bytes (32 KB sound registers, 8 bytes RTC registers,[28] 4 bytes FIFO buffer)
  • GD-ROM Drive: 12× maximum speed (when running in Constant Angular Velocity mode)[28][27]
    • Disc formats: GD‑ROM, CD‑ROM, CD‑DA, , Photo CD, Video CD, CD Extra, CD+G, CD+EG
    • Storage capacity: 1 GB per GD‑ROM, 656 MB per CD‑ROM

Bandwidth

  • System RAM Bandwidth: 1.75 GB/s (4 buses, 160-bit bus width)[28]
    • SH4, PVR2 <‑> Main RAM — 800 MB/s (64‑bit, 100 MHz)[80]
    • CLX2 <‑> VRAM — 800 MB/s (64‑bit, 100 MHz, 7 ns, 2x 32-bit buses)[81][82]
    • AICA <‑> Sound RAM — 132 MB/s (16‑bit, 66 MHz)
    • SH4 <‑> GD‑ROM buffer — 13.3 MB/s (16‑bit)
  • System ROM Bandwidth: 20 MB/s (16‑bit, 10 MHz)
  • Transmission Bandwidth: 1.4 GB/s[41]
    • SH4 <‑> CLX2 — 800 MB/s (64‑bit, 100 MHz)
    • SH4IF <-> PVRIF — 400 MB/s (32‑bit, 100 MHz)
    • SH4 <-> Root Bus — 200 MB/s (32‑bit, 50 MHz)
  • Internal Processor Cache Bandwidth: 4.656 GB/s
    • SH4: 1.6 GB/s (64‑bit, 200 MHz)
    • CLX2: 2.8 GB/s (224‑bit, 100 MHz) (32-bit TA tile buffer,[31] 32-bit ISP registers, 32-bit TSP registers,[40] 64-bit TSP Texture Cache,[33] 32-bit TSP Tile Accumulation Buffer, 32-bit TSP Secondary Accumulation Buffer)[37]
    • AICA: 256 MB/s (32‑bit, 67 MHz)
  • GD‑ROM Drive: 1.8 MB/s transfer rate, 250 milliseconds access time

BIOS

BIOS Revisions
BIOS Version Machine Download
1.004 Sega Dreamcast (Commercial-Early) 1.004 (Japan) (info) ("Jp_dc_1.004.7z" does not exist)
1.01d Sega Dreamcast (Commercial) 1.01d (North America) (info) ("Us_dc_1.01d.zip" does not exist)
1.01d (Europe) (info) ("Eu_dc_1.01d.zip" does not exist)
1.01d (Japan) (info) ("Jp_dc_1.01d.zip" does not exist)
1.011 Sega Dreamcast (HKT-0120 Devbox) 1.011 (HKT-0120 Devbox) (info) ("Jp_dc_1.011(dev).7z" does not exist)

Other specifications

  • Operating Systems:
  • Inputs: Four ports that can support a digital and analog controller, steering wheel, joystick, keyboard, mouse, and more
  • Dimensions: 189mm x 195mm x 76mm (7 7/16" x 7 11/16" x 3")
  • Weight: 1.9kg (4.4lbs)
  • Modem: Removable; Original Asia/Japan model had a 33.6 Kbytes/s; models released after 9 September 1999 had a 56 Kbytes/s modem
  • Sega Dreamcast Broadband Adapter: these adapters are available separately and replace the removable modem
    • HIT-400: "Broadband Adapter", the more common model, this used a RealTek 8139 chip and supported 10/100mbit
  • HIT-300: "Lan Adapter", this version used a Fujitsu MB86967 chip and supported only 10mbit
  • Storage: "Visual Memory Unit" (VMU) 128 Kb removable storage device
  • Input devices: (4 custom controller ports)
  • Output devices:
  • Add-ons:

History

Main article: History of the Sega Dreamcast.

Games

List of games

Main article: List of Dreamcast games.

Launch titles

Japan

North America

Europe

[83]

Brazil

[5]

Magazine articles

Main article: Sega Dreamcast/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advertisements

Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Official Dreamcast Magazine (US) #1: "September 1999" (1999-08-24)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Official Dreamcast Magazine (US) #1: "September 1999" (1999-08-24)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Official Dreamcast Magazine (US) #1: "September 1999" (1999-08-24)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Official Dreamcast Magazine (US) #1: "September 1999" (1999-08-24)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Arcade (UK) #10: "September 1999" (1999-07-27)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in DC-UK (UK) #1: "September 1999" (1999-xx-xx)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK) #preview: "Taster" (1999-xx-xx)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Consoles Max (FR) #2: "Juillet/Août 1999" (1999-0x-xx)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Dreamcast: Das Offizielle Magazin (DE) #1: "Oktober 1999" (1999-10-14)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Dreamcast: Das Offizielle Magazin (DE) #1: "Oktober 1999" (1999-10-14)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in MAN!AC (DE) #1999-11: "11/99" (1999-10-06)
Logo-pdf.svg
Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in MAN!AC (DE) #1999-12: "12/99" (1999-11-03)
Logo-pdf.svg

Retailers

Logo-pdf.svg
Print advert in Arcade (UK) #10: "September 1999" (1999-07-27)
Logo-pdf.svg

Television advertisements

Other advertisements

Artwork

Hardware diagrams

Logos

References

  1. File:CVG UK 216.pdf, page 52
  2. File:CVG UK 215.pdf, page 59
  3. File:ConsolesMicro FR 01.pdf, page 15
  4. File:NextLevel DE 1999-0910.pdf, page 6
  5. 5.0 5.1 http://www.tectoy.com.br/unshock/prop.htm (Wayback Machine: 2000-03-03 16:07)
  6. 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 Sega Dreamcast: Implementation (IEEE) (Wayback Machine: 2000-08-23 20:47)
  7. Automatic Performance Tuning of Sparse Matrix Kernels, Volume 1, page 14
  8. Cluster Computing, page 9
  9. 9.0 9.1 Benchmarking T&L in 3DMark 2000, Beyond3D
  10. 10.0 10.1 File:Edge UK 067.pdf, page 11
  11. AGP Peak Speeds
  12. [PC Magazine, December 1999, page 193 PC Magazine, December 1999, page 193]
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 Test Drive: Le Mans, Planet Dreamcast, IGN
  14. 20th anniversary Pentium specs leak – will this be the modern era’s Celeron 300A? (ExtremeTech)
  15. 15.0 15.1 '95-'99 PC Comparisons
  16. Recent Advances in Parallel Virtual Machine and Message Passing Interface, page 301
  17. 3DMARK 2001SE Benchmarks
  18. Actual HW T&L perfomance of NVIDIA GeForce/GeForce2 chips, IXBT Labs
  19. [PC Magazine, December 1999, page 203 PC Magazine, December 1999, page 203]
  20. Unreal Modeling Guide, Unreal Developer Network
  21. 21.0 21.1 DF Retro: Shenmue - A Game Ahead Of Its Time, Digital Foundry
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 Hideki Sato Sega Interview (Edge)
  23. 23.0 23.1 How Many Polygons Can the Dreamcast Render? (Dreamcast Technical Pages)
  24. Reaching for the Limits of PS2 Performance: How Far Have We Got?, SCEE, 2003 (Wayback Machine: 2003-12-10 07:46)
  25. File:SH-4 Software Manual.pdf
  26. File:SH-4 datasheet.pdf
  27. 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 27.5 27.6 27.7 27.8 27.9 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 28.5 File:Dreamcast Hardware Specification Outline.pdf
  29. 29.0 29.1 File:PowerVR2DCFeaturesUnderWindowsCE.pdf
  30. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 94
  31. 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 165
  32. 32.0 32.1 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 101
  33. 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 33.5 33.6 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 96
  34. 34.0 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 PC 3D Graphics Accelerators FAQ
  35. 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 35.4 35.5 35.6 File:PowerVR.pdf, page 3
  36. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 110
  37. 37.0 37.1 37.2 37.3 37.4 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 111
  38. 38.0 38.1 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 127
  39. 39.0 39.1 VideoLogic's 100 MHz PowerVR Series2, Dreamcast Technical Pages
  40. 40.0 40.1 40.2 PowerVR (Dreamcast Hardware)
  41. 41.0 41.1 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 42
  42. 42.0 42.1 42.2 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 98
  43. 43.0 43.1 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 144
  44. 44.0 44.1 44.2 44.3 File:PowerVR2DCFeaturesUnderWindowsCE.pdf, page 9
  45. 45.0 45.1 45.2 SEGA Dreamcast: Programming Hints
  46. File:PowerVR2DCFeaturesUnderWindowsCE.pdf, page 11
  47. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 120
  48. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 116
  49. 49.0 49.1 49.2 49.3 File:Dreamcast Hardware Specification Outline.pdf, page 22
  50. Optimizing Dreamcast Microsoft Direct3D Performance, Microsoft (1999-03-01)
  51. 51.0 51.1 File:PowerVR.pdf, page 4
  52. Tiling Accelerator Notes
  53. Zombie Revenge (21 January 2000)
  54. Dreamcast Comparison
  55. Quake III Arena vs Unreal Tournament (IGN)
  56. Dreamcast homebrew - winter terrain and light bloom (YouTube)
  57. Dreamcast homebrew engine: More dynamic shadows and lighting (YouTube)
  58. PowerVR: The Second Generation (February 21, 1998)
  59. 59.0 59.1 File:Dreamcast Hardware Specification Outline.pdf, page 23
  60. Neon 250 Specs & Features (Wayback Machine: 2007-08-11 10:20)
  61. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 13
  62. 62.0 62.1 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 93
  63. 63.0 63.1 File:Dreamcast Hardware Specification Outline.pdf, page 18
  64. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 102
  65. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 152
  66. 66.0 66.1 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 199
  67. Design of Digital Systems and Devices (page 95)
  68. [PC Magazine, December 1999, page 194 PC Magazine, December 1999, page 194]
  69. Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice (Page 868)
  70. Floating-Point Calculations
  71. 71.0 71.1 File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 95
  72. VideoLogic's 100 MHz PowerVR Series2 (Dreamcast Technical Pages)
  73. Vintage Game Consoles: An Inside Look at Apple, Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, and the Greatest Gaming Platforms of All Time (Page 277)
  74. Homebrew Test
  75. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 103
  76. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 138
  77. File:SH-4 Software Manual.pdf, page 25
  78. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 17
  79. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 37
  80. File:Dreamcast Hardware Specification Outline.pdf, page 14
  81. File:Dreamcast Hardware Specification Outline.pdf, page 6
  82. File:DreamcastDevBoxSystemArchitecture.pdf, page 49
  83. File:DreamcastMagazine UK 03.pdf, page 7
Sega Home Video Game Systems
83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11
SG-1000 SG-1000 II Mega Drive Mega Drive II
SC-3000 Mega-CD Mega-CD II Genesis 3
Sega Mark III 32X Dreamcast
Master System Master System II
AI Computer Game Gear
Saturn
Pico Beena


Sega Dreamcast
Topics Technical specifications (Hardware comparison) | History (Development | Release | Decline and legacy | Internet) | List of games | Magazine articles | Promotional material | Merchandise
Hardware Japan (Special) | Western Europe | Eastern Europe | North America | Asia | South America | Australasia | Africa
Add-ons Dreamcast Karaoke | Dreameye
Controllers Controller | Arcade Stick | Fishing Controller | Gun (Dream Blaster) | Race Controller | Maracas Controller (Third-party) | Twin Stick | Keyboard | Mouse | Third-party
Controller Add-ons Jump Pack (Third-party) | Microphone | VMU (4x Memory Card | Third-party)
Development Hardware Dev.Box | Controller Box | Controller Function Checker | Sound Box | GD-Writer | C1/C2 Checker | Dev.Cas | GD-ROM Duplicator
Online Services/Add-ons Dreamarena | SegaNet | WebTV for Dreamcast | Modem | Modular Cable | Modular Extension Cable | Broadband Adapter | Dreamphone
Connector Cables Onsei Setsuzoku Cable | RF Adapter | Scart Cable | S Tanshi Cable | Stereo AV Cable | VGA Box

Dreamcast MIDI Interface Cable | Neo Geo Pocket/Dreamcast Setsuzoku Cable | Taisen Cable

Misc. Hardware Action Replay CDX | Code Breaker | Kiosk | MP3 DC | MP3 DC Audio Player | Official Case | Treamcast
Third-party accessories Controllers | Controller converters | Miscellaneous
Unreleased Accessories DVD Player | Zip Drive | Swatch Access for Dreamcast | VMU MP3 Player
Arcade Variants NAOMI | Atomiswave | Sega Aurora