Sega System SP

From Sega Retro

SegaAurora PCB.jpg
Sega System SP
Manufacturer: Sega
Release Date RRP Code
Arcade
JP
¥? ?
Arcade
US
$? ?
Arcade
UK
£? ?





































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The Sega System SP, is an arcade board developed by Sega which first entered service in 2004. It can be seen as a cost-reduced NAOMI board (itself derived from the Sega Dreamcast), where the core components are presented as a system-on-a-chip, a bespoke version of Linux is used as an operating system, and software was distributed on CompactFlash cards instead of GD-ROMs or cartridges.

The System SP board was typically used for smaller, less technically demanding arcade games often aimed at small children, such as Love and Berry: Dress Up and Dance! and Dinosaur King. It would also see use in more "experimental" projects such as Brick People and Tetris Giant, and a handful of medal games. More demanding Sega arcade titles would be more likely to use variants of the more powerful Lindbergh board which would debut a year later.

For years this platform was erroneously called the (Sega) Aurora, likely due to a misunderstanding of "Aurora System", the name for the main chip created by SI Electronics (then a subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings). SI Electronics' work is known to have been presented to the CE Linux Forum in 2005, however arcade manuals from Sega refer to the board as a whole as "System SP"[1].

Unlike the NAOMI which requires a separate Jamma Video Standard (JVS) I/O board, all controls are wired directly into a System SP board, making it a simpler (and likely cheaper) system to install.

The nature of the games developed for the System SP meant that it rarely saw use outside of Japan. The last known game to use System SP hardware is 100 & Medal Gingaan!!, released in 2014.

Hardware

  • CPU: Hitachi SH-4 32-bit RISC CPU @ 300MHz
  • GPU: Imagination Technologies Power VR MBX+VGP @ 150MHz
  • SPU: ADPCM Sound system
  • I/O: USB and Ethernet connectors

List of games

References


Sega arcade boards
Originating in arcades









Console-based hardware








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PC-based hardware








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