Sega OutRun hardware

Sega OutRun hardware
Manufacturer: Sega
Release Date RRP Code

Sega's OutRun hardware was released in 1986 with the driving game OutRun. It is a successor to their Hang-On hardware, making it the second in Sega's Super Scaler series of three-dimensional arcade hardware. It was succeeded by the Sega X Board in 1987.

The OutRun hardware, like the Hang-On hardware, has specifications similar to those of the System 16, with the addition of a second 68000 processor and a separate video board which allowed for an extra graphics layer for the road as well as sprite/texture scaling capabilities. The OutRun hardware can do everything the Hang-On hardware can do, but its processors are clocked higher (allowing for quicker calculations), it has more memory, and the video board's capabilities have been expanded, capable of drawing two roads (the Hang-On hardware can only draw one) and rendering sprites/textures using a framebuffer system with a higher fillrate (the Hang-On hardware used a line-buffer system). At the time, the OutRun hardware was a very powerful but expensive arcade board, with arcade operators advised to charge twice as many credits than for regular arcade machines.

Three games made use of the hardware, all of which are driving games. However, only OutRun and Turbo OutRun are truly for this hardware, as Super Hang-On was also released for the Hang-On hardware in a mostly identical form.

Technical Specifications

• Board composition: CPU Board, Video Board
• Main CPU: 2× 68000 @ 12.5 MHz: 16/32‑bit instructions, 4.375 MIPS, 32‑bit (2× 16‑bit) bus width
• Memory Mapper FPGA: Sega 315‑5195 Memory Mapper @ 40 MHz: 16‑bit data bus, 24‑bit address bus

Sound

• Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 4 MHz (8/16‑bit instructions, 0.58 MIPS)
• Sound chips: 2 chips, 24 channels, 24‑bit bus width
  • FM synthesis chip: Yamaha YM2151 @ 4 MHz (8 FM channels, 8‑bit bus width)
  • PCM sampling chip: SegaPCM 315‑5218 Sound Controller @ 4/16 MHz (stereo output, 16 PCM channels, 12‑bit audio depth, 31.25 kHz sampling rate, 16‑bit bus width)
• Sound FPGA: Sega 315‑5223A (Signetics CK2605) @ 16 MHz: 8‑bit bus width
• Sound DAC: Yamaha YM3012 @ 4 MHz: 16‑bit floating‑point dynamic range

Graphics

• Video Board GPU: Sega 171‑5377 VIDEO Board graphics chipset @ 25.1748 MHz (5 processors, 88‑bit bus width)
  • 315‑5197 Sega Custom Tilemap Generator FPGA: 24‑bit
  • 315‑5211 Sega Custom Sprite Generator FPGA: 56‑bit (32‑bit, 24‑bit)
  • 315‑5227A Signetics CK2678 PAL: 8‑bit
  • 315‑5228 Signetics CK2605 FPGA: 8‑bit
  • 315‑5242 Sega Custom Color Encoder: 16‑bit
• Main Board GPU: Sega 171‑5376 CPU Board graphics chipset @ 39.99967 MHz (6 processors, 48‑bit bus width)
  • 2× 315‑5155 Sega Road Bit Extraction PAL: 16‑bit (2× 8‑bit), 2× 39.99967 MHz
  • 315‑5222 Signetics PLS153N Road Mixing FPGA: 8‑bit, 33.333333 MHz
  • 315‑5223A Signetics CK2605 FPGA: 8‑bit
  • 2× MMI PAL16R4 (315‑5225, 315‑5226) PAL: 16‑bit (2× 8‑bit)
• Video resolution: 320×224 (display), 400×262 (overscan), progressive scan
  • Scanlines: 224 (display), 262 (overscan)
  • Framebuffer resolution: 512×256 pixels
• Refresh rate: 60.0543 Hz (V‑sync)
  • Frame rate: 30–60 frames per second
• Color palette: 98,304
  • 16-bit color palette: 15‑bit RGB color depth (32,768 colors), 1‑bit shadow & highlight triples up to 98,304 colors
• Colors on screen: 12,288
• Graphical planes:
  • 2 tilemap layers: System 16B tilemap system, row & column scrolling, parallax scrolling
  • 1 text layer
  • 1 sprite layer: Hardware sprite-scaling/zooming
  • 1 road layer: Can draw 2 roads at once, 512×256 pixels each, tiled bitmaps
  • Translucent shadows
• Sprite/texture capabilities: Frame-buffered sprites/textures with zooming capabilities, 128 on‑screen sprites per frame, 7680 sprites/textures scaled per second, 16 colors per sprite/texture
  • Video clock cycles: 25.1748 MHz (60.0543 Hz refresh rate)
  • Sprite pixel/texel fillrate: 25.1748 million pixels/texels per second, 419,199 pixels/texels per frame/refresh, 1600 sprite pixels/texels per scanline, 128 sprites/textures per scanline

Memory

• Memory: Up to 3.7 MB (736 KB main, 2572 KB video, 454 KB sound)
• RAM: 754 KB, including 670 KB high-speed SRAM (Static RAM)
  • Main RAM: 64 KB (32 KB work, 32 KB shared)
  • Video RAM: 684 KB
    • CPU Board: 84 KB (4 KB sprites, 8 KB colors, 64 KB tiles, 4 KB text, 4 KB roads)
    • Video Board: 600 KB SRAM (512 KB dual sprite framebuffers)
  • Sound RAM: 6 KB SRAM (3× 2 KB)
  • SRAM performance: 22.222222 MHz (45 ns)
• ROM: Up to 3008 KB EPROM/MROM (672 KB main, 1888 KB video, 448 KB sound)

Gallery

• 

  CPU board (top)

• 

  CPU board (bottom)

• 

  Video board (top)

• 

  Video board (bottom)

List of Games

• Out Run (1986)
• Super Hang-On (1987)
• Turbo OutRun (1989)
• Limited Edition Hang-On (1991)

References

Sega arcade boards
Originating in arcades
77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 VIC Dual G80 Zaxxon VCO Object System 1 LaserDisc Appoooh Hang-On System 2 System 16 OutRun Gigas X Board Y Board System 24 System 18 System 32 Model 1 Model 2 H1 Board Model 3
Console-based hardware
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 12 13 14 SG-1000 System E System C Mega-Tech System Mega Play Sega Titan Video NAOMI Hikaru NAOMI 2 Atomiswave System SP Chihiro Triforce
PC-based hardware
05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Lindbergh Europa-R RingEdge RingWide RingEdge 2 Nu Nu 1.1 Nu 2 ALLS