Forget "NES on a chip", here comes "DREAMCAST

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Dreamcast-On-A-Chip Technology Unveiled

Officials from Japanese semi-conductor manufacturer Renesas Technology have revealed plans to replicate the technologies used in Sega’s Dreamcast console onto a single core microchip. The proposed SH3707 chip will combine both an advanced SuperH core and a PowerVR graphics core – the core components of the original Dreamcast.

The new SH3707 will in fact use a 540 MIPS/2.1 gigaflops engine, with a 64-bit interface to memory, which is actually faster than the Dreamcast. Indeed, the target specification of the platform is a graphical ability roughly twice that of the Dreamcast.

The company claims that the chip was designed with game consoles in mind and the applications for a miniaturized version of the Dreamcast are obvious. "Our goal was to accomplish second-generation (console) performance and first-generation cost," said Mitsuhiro Miyazaki, the project deputy manager for Renesas.

Sega’s involvement in the project at the moment seem unlikely, though, and it appears that Renesas are only using the Dreamcast as a comparison-point in its attempts to interest possible video game manufacturers.

-David Jenkins

Imagine how tiny portable Dreamcasts can be now!

[Sparkfist]

Why the helll did they skip the Saturn?! They have a Genesis, they can make a SMS, and now their working on a Dreamcast. Why'd they skip it? Its not like it wosent popular in Japan.

Now I'm not knocking the Dreamcast-on-a-chip its just they skipped a whole generation of gaming console technology.

[scherzo]

I guess they wanted to make something that could compete in today's market. Saturn is in the same generation as the PSOne. I'm sure they'd like to use this new technology for handhelds, so they need it to be as good or better than the upcoming DS and PSP.

[kingbuzzo007]

This is still pretty far off from a dreamcast chip, it's only based on the dreamcast and has absolutely nothing to do with sega at all. If anything it will be used in some stupid gaming phone......*sigh

I'm not happy about it either.

[Sparkfist]

Thats odd, that they would us it for such a riduculous and wasteful application. More likely they would use it as a replacement for the multi-Dreamcast arcade games (system has mobos setup to paralle process), and dont forget the Dreamcast if far from dead in the eyes of many fans. I'm sure if there are people thats can get linux or NetBSD running on a Dreamcast console some of them can get a handheld system built (how ever crud it looks).

[kingbuzzo007]

your comparing two different things though. Wouldn't they need some kind of developers kit this since it's a completely different console?

I'm well aware of the dc community, in fact you'll find me posting on dcemu and dcs. I just have doubts that anyone would care to put in the effort for this if it's the huge near-impossible project I think it is.

It's very easy to make your own treamcast these days what with all those psone screens floating around so there really isn't that much of a demand for dcportables IMO. It would be pretty damn cool though...

[s3ptic]

A treamcast is a lot different than a true portable. To have a Dreamcast in your hand would be really cool, and judging by the excitement of the PSP(Basically a portable PS2) I think many people would care.

[kingbuzzo107]

then let time answer our questions...

tic toc.....I'm gonna go play some snatcher....Cya!!!

[wallydawg]

I wonder if it'll have a cart... er cd :p... slot.

[JackFrost22]

No it just has the processing power not the actual system and it would have a gd-rom drive

[Sparkfist]

I think that if they release it the biggest obstical for making the thing a portable Dreamcast is having the cd/gd/dvd-rom. I'd personally want to have the thing run a dvd-rom the size of the NGC, so you can play the larger Dreamcast games (even put two on a disc).

[JackFrost22]

Does anyone have an upadte on this I searched google but couldn't find anything.

[s3ptic]

I looked around for a little bit, but I didn't really find anything new. All I saw was a vague ship date of first quarter 2005, but I think that was given at the time the above article was written, so it may have changed. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[segasonicfan]

I finally logged in and read the article, but it doesn't look so promising...it says at the bottom of the article that they used the dreamcast name as a comparison of its power, but that the chip may be used elsewhere (and most likely especially since Sega won't touch it-they don't make consoles anymore). I think there's absolutely no reason to get you hopes up, the odds of this thing coming out as a new dreamcast are slim to none.

-Segasonicfan

[Sparkfist]

Well the fan base of the Dreamcast is large. I wouldnt put it past many of them trying to make a board that will work with it, and I dont think the Asian gaming market would pass up the oppertunity to do such a thing.