Sega System 32
From Sega Retro
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Sega System 32 | |||||
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Manufacturer: Sega | |||||
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Sega System 32 is the name of an arcade platform released by Sega that debuted in 1990. It was a successor to the Sega System 16, Sega System 24 and Sega Y Boards, and contains a 32-bit RISC processor at 16 MHz, hence its name.
It was the last board to be released under the "Sega System" naming scheme - the "Sega Model" series would begin in 1992 with the Sega Model 1. Whereas Model 1 hardware was designed specifically with 3D polygon games in mind, System 32 primarily catered for 2D games as well as 3D sprite-scaling games. Like the Sega X Board and Sega Y Board, it is capable of scaling and rotating many sprites in real-time, resulting in graphics that anticipate the look of early 3D texture-mapping.
A variant of this hardware, System Multi 32, was created for use with twin cabinets, specifically for games that where more than one player could play on separate screens.
Unlike other Sega arcade hardware from this period, few System 32 games have ever been ported to home consoles. A re-imagining of Air Rescue hit European Sega Master Systems in 1992 (which although shares the same name, is almost completely different in design to the arcade version), OutRunners saw a vastly reduced port to the Sega Mega Drive by Data East and Rad Mobile was heavily tweaked and turned into Gale Racer for the Sega Saturn. Everything else seems to have been deemed "too good" for the Mega Drive and "not good enough" for the Saturn.
Contents
Hardware
It succeeded the Y Board and System 24, combining features from both. It used a NEC V60 processor at 16.10795 MHz, supporting 32-bit fixed-point instructions as well as 32-bit and 64-bit floating-point instructions. It used a new custom Sega graphics chipset combining the Y Board's pseudo-3D Super Scaler capabilities with the System 24's sprite rendering system.
There was another version of the System 32 hardware, called System Multi 32 or System 32 Multi, released in 1992. This was similar to the original, but had a dual-monitor display, a new NEC V70 processor at 20 MHz, a new Sega MultiPCM sound chip, more RAM, and other improvements. This was the last of Sega's Super Scaler series of pseudo-3D arcade system boards.
Technical Specifications
System 32 Specifications
- Main CPU: NEC V60 @ 16.10795 MHz
- Fixed-point arithmetic: 32-bit RISC instructions @ 3.524 MIPS (million instructions per second)
- Floating-point unit: 32-bit and 64-bit operations
- Sound CPU: Zilog Z80 @ 8.053975 MHz (8-bit & 16-bit instructions @ 1.168 MIPS)
- Sound chips:
- GPU: Sega Super Scaler 317-5964 chipset (315-5242 video DAC/color encoder, 315-5385 system controller/timer, 315-5386/315-5386A tilemap generator, 315-5387 sprite generator, 315-5388 video mixer/color blender)[1][2][3]
- RAM: 1844.125 KB
- V60 main RAM: 584 KB (64 KB work, 8 KB shared, 512 KB random number generator)[3]
- V60 video RAM: 320.125 KB (128 KB video, 128 KB sprite attributes, 64 KB palette, 128 bytes mixer)[3]
- GPU video RAM: 864 KB
- 315-5385 controller/timer SRAM: 32 KB (4× 8 KB Fujitsu MB8464)[3][4]
- 315-5388 mixer/color SRAM: 64 KB (2× 32 KB Fujitsu MB84256)[3][4]
- 315-5386 tilemap DP VRAM: 128 KB (4× 32 KB NEC uPD42264)[3][5]
- 315-5387 sprite DP VRAM: 128 KB (4× 32 KB NEC uPD42264)[3][5]
- Framebuffer DP VRAM: 512 KB (16× 32 KB Hitachi HM53461ZP-12)[3][6]
- Z80 sound RAM: 12 KB (4 KB RF5c68, 8 KB shared)[3]
- RF5c68 sound PSRAM: 64 KB (2× 32 KB Hitachi HM65256)[3][7]
- Video resolution: 320×224 (display), 416×262[3] (overscan), progressive scan
- Frame rate: 60 frames per second, 60 Hz refresh rate[3]
- Graphical capabilities: Color rotations, different levels of luminosity, 7 levels of global RGB color brightness control, fading & lighting, shadow & highlight, 8 levels of alpha blending, tile flipping, line & row scrolling, palette indirection, dynamic priorities, per-color priority, per-component color control
- Color palette lookup table: 2,097,152 (4096 palette banks with 512 colors each) to 16,777,216 (with shadow & highlight and 7 levels of RGB brightness control)
- Colors on screen: 49,152 (16,384[2] with shadow & highlight[8]), to 71,680 (320×224) with luminosity and alpha blending
- Graphical planes:
- Sprite capabilities: Linked lists of sprites, double buffering, dual framebuffers, technically infinite sprites of arbitrary size, hardware sprite-scaling, sprite rotation, jumping & clipping capabilities, advanced hot-spot positioning, System 24 sprite rendering system[9]
System Multi 32 Specifications
Sega System Multi 32 included the following upgrades in 1992:
- Main CPU: NEC V70 @ 20 MHz
- Fixed-point arithmetic: 32-bit RISC instructions @ 6.6 MIPS
- Floating-point unit: 32-bit and 64-bit operations
- Sound CPU: 2× Zilog Z80 @ 8.053975 MHz (8-bit & 16-bit instructions @ 2.336 MIPS)
- Sound chips:
- FM synthesis chip: Yamaha YM3438 @ 8.053975 MHz (6 FM channels)
- PCM sampling chip: Sega MultiPCM[10] (28 PCM channels)
- GPU: 2× Sega Super Scaler 317-5964 chipset
- Video resolution: Dual monitor, 640×224 (display), 832×262 (overscan), progressive scan
- Color palette: 4,194,304 (2,097,152 per screen) to 16,777,216 (with shadow & highlight and RGB brightness control)
- Colors on screen: 98,304 (49,152 per screen) to 143,360 (71,680 per screen)
- Graphical planes: 4 sprite layers
- Sprite capabilities: Multiple buffering, 4 framebuffers
List of Games
System 32 Games
- Rad Mobile (1990)
- F1 Exhaust Note (1991)
- Rad Rally (1991)
- Spider-Man: The Video Game (1991)
- Air Rescue (1992)
- Arabian Fight (1992)
- Dark Edge (1992)
- F1 Super Lap (1992)
- Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder (1992)
- Holosseum (1992)
- SegaSonic the Hedgehog (1992)
- Alien 3: The Gun (1993)
- Burning Rival (1993)
- Dragon Ball Z V.R.V.S. (1994)
- Jurassic Park (1994)
- Super Visual Football / Super Visual Soccer / The J. League 1994 (1994)
- Slipstream (Capcom) (1995)
System Multi 32 Games
- OutRunners (1992)
- Stadium Cross (1992)
- Title Fight (1992)
- Hard Dunk (1994)
Hardware Images
System 32 Hardware
System Multi 32 Hardware
External links
- Sega System 32 Hardware information and game screen shots
- Sega System Multi 32 Hardware information and game screen shots
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Originating in arcades |
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