Difference between revisions of "Sega X Board"

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The '''Sega X Board''' is an arcade system board released by [[Sega]] in 1987 as a successor to [[Sega OutRun hardware]]. It debuted with ''[[After Burner]]'' and ''[[Thunder Blade]]''.
 
The '''Sega X Board''' is an arcade system board released by [[Sega]] in 1987 as a successor to [[Sega OutRun hardware]]. It debuted with ''[[After Burner]]'' and ''[[Thunder Blade]]''.
  
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The X Board specification is largely similar to that of the OutRun Hardware board, but allows for twice as many sprites/textures on screen at once, twice as many tile layers, and sprite rotation effects. The contents have also been condensed onto a single board, making it slightly easier to manufacture.
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The X Board specification is an expansion of the OutRun hardware, but with an additional CPU and improved GPU chipset allowing for twice as many sprites/textures on screen at once, twice as many tile layers, twice as many colors on screen, and sprite/background rotation effects. The contents have also been condensed onto a single board, making it slightly easier to manufacture.
  
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The X Board would be succeeded by the [[Y Board]] and [[Sega System 32|System 32]], before the [[Model 1]] made true 3D arcade games more financially affordable.
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The X Board would be succeeded by the [[Y Board]] and [[Sega System 32|System 32]], before the [[Model 1]] made polygonal 3D arcade games more viable and financially affordable.
  
 
==Hardware==
 
==Hardware==

Revision as of 02:40, 16 October 2015

Notavailable.svg
Sega X Board
Manufacturer: Sega
Release Date RRP Code

The Sega X Board is an arcade system board released by Sega in 1987 as a successor to Sega OutRun hardware. It debuted with After Burner and Thunder Blade.

The X Board specification is an expansion of the OutRun hardware, but with an additional CPU and improved GPU chipset allowing for twice as many sprites/textures on screen at once, twice as many tile layers, twice as many colors on screen, and sprite/background rotation effects. The contents have also been condensed onto a single board, making it slightly easier to manufacture.

The X Board would be succeeded by the Y Board and System 32, before the Model 1 made polygonal 3D arcade games more viable and financially affordable.

Hardware

As the third in Sega's Super Scaler series of arcade hardware (after the Sega Hang-On hardware and Sega OutRun hardware), it was noteworthy for its sprite/texture manipulation capabilities, which allowed it to create high quality three-dimensional visuals, such as the scaling and rotating environments in 1987's After Burner, and the ray casting like environments in 1988's Last Survivor. This trend would continue with the Y Board and the System 32, before the Model 1 made true polygonal 3D arcade games more financially affordable.

Technical Specifications

X Board Specifications

  • Board composition: Single board
  • CPU:
  • Sound chips:
    • FM synthesis chip: Yamaha YM2151 @ 4 MHz (8 FM channels)
    • PCM sampling chip: SegaPCM (315-5218) @ 4 MHz (stereo output, 16 PCM channels, 12-bit audio, 31.25 kHz sampling rate)
  • Graphics processing unit: Sega Super Scaler chipset @ 50 MHz
    • Main graphics chips: 315-5197 tilemap generator, 315-5211A sprite generator, 315-5242 color encoder, 315-5275 road generator, 315-5278 sprite ROM bank control
    • Math chips: 315-5248 hardware multiplier, 315-5249 hardware divider
  • RAM: 802 KB, including 710 KB high-speed SRAM (Static RAM)[1][2]
    • Main RAM: 148 KB (52 KB work/program SRAM, 32 KB work/mirror RAM, 32 KB IC31, 32 KB IC32)
    • Video RAM: 636 KB SRAM
      • CPU: 92 KB (64 KB background tiles, 12 KB roads, 4 KB sprites, 4 KB text, 16 KB colors)
      • 315-5211A: 520 KB (8 KB dual sprite banks, 512 KB dual sprite framebuffers)
      • Other: 16 KB (4 KB roads, 12 KB text)
    • Sound RAM: 18 KB SRAM (2 KB Z80 program, 16 KB SegaPCM chip)
  • Video resolution: 320×224 (display), 400×262[2][3] (overscan), progressive scan
    • Scanlines: 224 (display), 262 (overscan)
  • Refresh rate: 59.6368 to 60 Hz (V-sync)
    • Frame rate: 59.6368 to 60 frames per second
  • Color palette: 98,304
    • 16-bit color palette: 15-bit RGB high color depth (32,768 colors) and 1-bit shadow & highlight that triples up to 98,304 colors.
  • Colors on screen: 24,576
  • Graphical planes:
    • 4 tile layers
    • 1 text layer
    • 1 sprite layer with hardware sprite zooming
    • 1 road layer, can draw 2 roads at once
    • Translucent shadows
  • Sprite/texture capabilities: Dual sprite framebuffers, 512×256 framebuffer resolution, hardware sprite zooming, sprite rotation, ray casting[4]
    • Sprite/texture sizes: 8×8 to 512×256 pixels
    • Colors per sprite/texture: 16
    • Sprites/textures on screen: 256 on screen at one time per frame, 15,267 to 15,360 scaled per second
    • Video clock cycles: 50 MHz
    • Fillrate: 50 million pixels/texels per second
    • Sprite pixels/texels per frame: 833,333 (at 60 Hz) to 838,408 (at 59.6368 Hz)
    • Sprite pixels/texels per scanline: 3180 to 3200 sprite pixels/texels per scanline
    • Sprites/textures per scanline: 256

Super Monaco GP Specifications

Super Monaco GP (1989) added the following upgrades:

  • Additional boards: Link board, network board, sound board, motor board
  • Additional CPU: 2× Zilog Z80 @ 8 MHz (2.32 MIPS)
  • Additional sound CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 4 MHz (0.58 MIPS)
  • Additional sound chip: SegaPCM @ 4 MHz (additional 16 PCM channels, totalling 32 PCM channels)
  • Additional RAM: 40 KB, including 10 KB high-speed SRAM (Static RAM)[1]
    • Link board: 10 KB
    • Network board: 10 KB SRAM (8 KB SRAM, 2 KB dual-port SRAM)
    • Sound board: 8 KB
    • Motor board: 12 KB
  • Sound output: 4-channel surround sound

List of Games


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