multiple cpu machines Re: rogues galleries

arcarliniiee.org wrote:
>>> How about the Sega MegaDrive/Genesis? That ran
a 68000 and Z80.

There have been many multi-cpu consoles; the Sega Saturn had
two Hitachi
RISC CPUs for core processing, plus a host of other stuff
for CDROM,
display, sound... The PlayStation 2 is also dual-CPU.  The
PlayStation 3
is a Cell monster, 7 cores you can play with, although I
think that's
been discussed here already by Mr. Brutman.

My favorite was the Atari Jaguar, which had no less than:

- a 32-bit RISC GPU
- a 64-bit RISC "object processor"
- a 64-bit RISC blitter
- a 64-bit general purpose DSP for audio and other functions
- a 68000 for general-purpose helper functions

And to shuffle memory around, a 64-bit DRAM controller.

The Atari Jaguar *should* have been the most kick-ass
console of its
generation (the blitter in particular was certainly the most
powerful of
all the 5th-generation consoles).  But it was so complex
that nobody
could figure out how to program it properly.  Coupled with
legendary
Atari marketing fumbles, it died a quick death before a
suitable "killer
app" could be developed for it.

Most coders unfamiliar with the system would treat the
Jaguar as a
68000-based machine with a giant framebuffer, like an Atari
ST on
steroids.  This was clearly not the best use of the machine.
 One of the
more depressing examples of the system is a 3-D racing game
with a
completely unplayable screen update rate of about 3 frames
per second.
Not a typo.  3 frames per second.
-- 
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