CPU: 2 x Hitachi SH-2 32-bit RISC (28.6 MHz) each has 4 kB on-chip cache MEMORY: 1 MB SDRAM fast RAM for both SH-2 CPUs (faster), 1 MB DRAM slow RAM for both SH-2 CPUs (slower), 512Kb internal ROM GRAPHICS: dual custom VDP chips for graphics processing: Custom VDP 1 32-bit video display processor (running at 28.63 MHz) for sprites/polygons, 512Kb SDRAM, supports texture mapping and Gouraud shading, Custom VDP 2 32-bit video display processor (running at 28.63 MHz) for backgrounds/video out, 512Kb SDRAM. Resolutions: VGA: 320x480 or 640x480, non-interlaced (progressive scan), Hi-Vision: 352x480 or 704x480 (480i), non-interlaced (progressive scan) SOUND: Motorola 68EC000 sound controller (running at 11.3 MHz / 1.5 MIPS), Yamaha FH1 DSP sound processor, "Saturn Custom Sound Processor" (SCSP), running at 22.6 MHz, 44.1 kHz sampling rate MEDIA/STORAGE: CD-ROM (320 KB/s, and a 512 KB data cache), CD+G
The Saturn came out only a couple months apart from the Sony Playstation. Technically superior to the PSX, Sega Saturn's massive parallel processing power creates fast and explosive graphics. Three 32-bit RISC processors, a CD ROM drive and two powerful video processor ASICs deliver blazing video performance - including 16 million colors and stunning 3-D graphics. The PSX's lower price tag though attracted many buyers, while the difficulty of developing games on the Saturn helped to keep away 3rd-party developers (ardware was difficult to work with because of its more complex graphics hardware and lesser overall performance). The Saturn's initial library of games was limited, although it did eventually get lots of first-class arcade games ported to the system. In addition, many of the best games from Japan (including many shooters) were never imported. While Sony's system earned the title of best all-around game machine, the Saturn was almost completely ignored. Unlike the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 which used triangles as its basic geometric primitive, the Saturn rendered quadrilaterals. This proved to be a hindrance because most of the industry's standard design tools were based on triangles. One of the challenges brought forth by quadrilateral-based rendering was problems with making some shapes, notably triangular objects. The hardware also lacked light sourcing and hardware video decompression support, the latter being a major disadvantage during a time when full-motion video was quite popular. The last game for this system was released in 1999 (Final Fight Revenge). Currently, a couple of obscure games are planned, but none of them were officially backed up by SEGA.
The Sega Saturn (default) color palette
24bit RGB 16,7 million-color palette (all on screen)