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Renesas Announces "Dreamcast On A Chip"

3K views 25 replies 11 participants last post by  n_w95482 
#1 · (Edited)
At www.dcemulation.com I found this rather interesting article:

ExtremeTech reports that Renesas Technology has taken many of the technologies used in the Sega Dreamcast game console and combined them into a single core.

Officials from Japan's Renesas, which assumed control over the development of the SH processor from ST Microelectronics on Sept. 28, announced the SH3707 embedded processor at the Fall Processor Forum here today. The SH3707 combines both an advanced SuperH core and a PowerVR graphics core, the components found in the original Dreamcast.

Specifically, the Dreamcast console contained a 200-MHz Hitachi SH4 with the capability to perform 360 million instructions per second (MIPS) and 1.4 million megaflops, or floating-point operations per second. The Dreamcast also contained an NEC PowerVR2 graphics chip.

The new SH3707 uses a faster 540 MIPS/2.1 gigaflops engine, with a 64-bit interface to memory. The core also contains a PowerVR MBX chip, a core that Imagination Technologies has licensed to Intel and Texas Instruments, among others.

According to Miyazaki, the target specification for the platform is to achieve up to 1024 x 768 resolution, 10 million to 13 million vertices or 5 million to 6 million triangles per second, with up to 20 percent translucency per scene – in other words, anticipating a game where some of the polygons would be enhanced with transparency effects. That would place the SH3707 at somewhat over twice the performance of the Dreamcast, which could handle up to 3 million triangles per second. The SH3707 also has the capability of processing MPEG-1, -2, and -4 video and eight-channel PCM/ADCPM audio.

The SH3707 will ship in the first quarter of 2005, Miyazaki said.
I wonder if this will be able to be used IN a DC so that the whole system can run the DC games. That would certainly boost it's emulation qualities and it's abilities to show DivX files!!

Edit: Some background info on Renesas Technology
 
#3 ·
Well I don't exactly know what the chip will be able to do and if it might be able to do exactly the same as the DC CPU. But if it will be 100% DC compatible and it might even be possible to replace the normal CPU with this one, it might be possible to boost the emulation qualities of the DC. Since there are a lot of Emu's that run on the DC, like some SNES emu's, but the are rather slow ATM, perhaps this might be able to give them a boost.

I don't even know if this is technically possible and perhaps I'm talking BS here :p
But I do know that I'm interested in this technology :)
 
#5 ·
#7 ·
It's pretty interesting. It it really can handle most DC operations on a single chip, maybe a portable DC would be possible. Now that would be a great use for that chip ;) .

Yes, i like daydreaming :laugh:
 
#9 ·
No if i can't carry it in my pocket. Treamcast is not official, BTW. Id like a real handhled dreamcast, of course using different media than gd's :p . And with a single chip integrating most DC functions, i think it might be feasible. Another issue would be heat and power consumption, though.
 
#10 ·
A handheld dreamcast. OMG that would be sweet! Imagine playing some of those games on a handheld (skies of arcadia, soul calibur, etc.) I would definitely buy one of those!
 
#11 ·
I-Chan said:
No if i can't carry it in my pocket. Treamcast is not official, BTW. Id like a real handhled dreamcast, of course using different media than gd's :p . And with a single chip integrating most DC functions, i think it might be feasible. Another issue would be heat and power consumption, though.
Coolsvilleman said:
A handheld dreamcast. OMG that would be sweet! Imagine playing some of those games on a handheld (skies of arcadia, soul calibur, etc.) I would definitely buy one of those!
Well I think that will stay a dream, since:

1. A GD contains 1 GB of data, this should be compressed or they really need to cut out parts, or they should use one of the newest techniques (like Blue ray) in a compact way.
2. All the games need to be edited, since the texts will be too small to be displayed on a screen with the size of a GBA screen.

and like I-Chan already said, heat and power consumption.
 
#12 ·
This would be perfect for something like Pocket PC since this chip could handle graphic intensive software. Dreamcast compaitable handheld would be awesome but probably never do well only with Sega fans.
 
#13 ·
Cid Highwind said:
Well I think that will stay a dream, since:

1. A GD contains 1 GB of data, this should be compressed or they really need to cut out parts, or they should use one of the newest techniques (like Blue ray) in a compact way.
2. All the games need to be edited, since the texts will be too small to be displayed on a screen with the size of a GBA screen.

and like I-Chan already said, heat and power consumption.
In reply to your first point, they can easily get most games down too about 100 or less mbs by reducing texture size, and music quality since the screen will only be about 320*240 at most. And I doubt the sound system will be that of the dreamcast so the sound can be compressed or reduced somehow.

In reply to your second point, Of course the games would need to be edited but it is possible. (ex: Super Mario 64 DS)

And in reply to heat and power consumption, with a reworked texture, music and obviously 3D base the game system will not need to put out as much power and therfore not heat up as much. I think its feasible.
 
#16 ·
Well AFAIK Sega didn't plan a new console... You must be confused with there E3 'surprise' :p

Though a new console with backwards compatibility with the DC games will be nice :heh: I'll be the first one to buy!

But this chip isn't suitable for a new console nowadays, it's way too weak.
 
#18 ·
Cid Highwind said:
Well I think that will stay a dream, since:

1. A GD contains 1 GB of data, this should be compressed or they really need to cut out parts, or they should use one of the newest techniques (like Blue ray) in a compact way.
2. All the games need to be edited, since the texts will be too small to be displayed on a screen with the size of a GBA screen.

and like I-Chan already said, heat and power consumption.
1. A Sony HI-MD can handle 1'4GB of data on an 8cm mini-DVD, in a neat slim case, perfect for a portable device (such as their HI-MD walkmans ;) -or should it be walkmen :p -).

2. I've seen snes/sfamicon, md/genesis, gb and psx games emulated on a gp32 and on a pocket pc, and texts were readable, i don't see that as an issue. And, as coolsvilleman said, they can be rearranged.

Battery life is what might be really the problem. Sony designed the PSP hardware specifically to be portable, and it's having a hard time getting a decent battery life. And this chip, unless i'm missing the part where it's specified, haven't been designed with those issues in mind.

Anyway, i'm just stating opinions and hopes, only time will tell.
 
#19 ·
Yup, well thanx for clearing things up about the discs and readability :thumb:

Time will tell :D
 
#20 ·
Prior to the fall of Dreamcast, there was word of making a DC on a chip and making a package / card that can be installed in any PC. The concept is not new...3DO made their console onto a card, and so did NEC with their PCFX (Japan only console)...see our site for details...
Anyhoo..that may be it
 
#21 ·
I highly doubt they'd try to do something like sell a PC add in card for running Dreamcast games now that DC emulation is picking up steam. Besides, no one has figured out a universal solution to reading GDROMs on a PC yet, and since it would probobly require hacked firmware I don't think they could officially support it. They could make PC based GDROM drives for it (which would be incredibly cool to have), but it still doesn't make much sense unless they plan to start rereleasing games for it as well.

Now using this chip in a handheld device makes more sense, but don't get your hopes up for a handheld DC per say. It'll probobly be some kind of a Pocket PC, like INCA said, or maybe even something closer to the GP32. If this were the case, it may be possible to get dumped DC games to run on it with a bit of work, so I really hope it is. If it did that, I know I'd buy one ;).
 
#22 ·
Since the separate chips are now on a single chip, my guess is that the size of the transistors with the new chip is smaller than with the DC's chips (my guess is that the new chip is using 0.13 micron technology while the DC's chips use 0.18-0.3 micron). If that is what happened, then the new chip would use less power and put out less heat. The DC's cooling wasn't that great (at least mine doesn't have good cooling :p), all they should have to do is mount a small, low profile heatsink and it should run cool enough.
 
#23 ·
LOL, the DC's cooling is a 5 Volt cooler IIRC :p

The DC of a friend of mine looks like an oil platform: they added 4 legs to the DC and added a better cooler on the downside of the DC, because they toasted several :heh:


/me checks DW's site (again ;))

btw, it's a real nice site, I go there whenever I need some console info :)
 
#24 ·
I had mine overheat once back in June. I left it on for 5-6 hours and it started resetting itself every few seconds. I ended up having to leave it unplugged overnight before it started working properly again :p. I wish Sega put more effort into the cooling system, a big metal plate (steel?) with a tiny, underpowered fan (I can spin it backwards just by blowing on it) just doesn't cut it.
 
#25 ·
thats weird...me and my buddies had several sleep overs..u know, the ones that u dont actually get any sleep? we played my dreamcast for several days straight and it didnt have any problems. that said, i've always taken care of my dreamcast (as i do with most of my electronics) by putting it in the conditions that the manual says to keep it in : dust free and not on a carpet. mebe thats y u were having problems ?
 
#26 ·
I had it on top of a thin plastic pad (which might have caused it) but I took it apart and there barely was any dust inside of it. Last month my friends played on it for about the same amount of time (5-6 hours but it got a little break after the first couple of hours) and it worked perfectly.
 
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