Atari Jaguar II
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The Atari Jaguar II was the successor to the Atari Jaguar. The code name was "Cob Web". The console only reached the prototype stage; before a final design could even be completed, Atari merged with hard drive manufacturer JTS Corporation. Jag 2 is backward-compable with Atari Jaguar cartridge and Jaguar CD.
Image:Atarijaguar2mobo.jpg Image:Atarijaguar2mobo2.jpg Image:Atarijaguar2mobo3.jpg
Technicial Specs
| Size: | 10.5" × 12" × 3.5" |
| Controls: | Power on/off |
| Display: |
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| Ports: |
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| Controllers: |
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The Jaguar 2 has seven processors, which are contained in three chips. Two of the chips are proprietary designs, nicknamed "Tom" and "Jerry". The third chip is a standard Motorola 68EC020 used as a coprocessor. Tom and Jerry are built using a 0.3 micrometre silicon process. With proper programming, all seven processors can run in parallel.
- "Tom"
- 1,250,000 transistors, 292 pins
- Graphics Processing Unit (processor #1)
- 64-bit RISC architecture (64/128 register processor)
- 64 registers of 128 bits wide (shadow-buffering)
- Has access to all 2 × 64 bits of the system bus
- Can read 128 bits of data in one instruction
- Rated at 127.902 MIPS (million instructions per second)
- Runs at 63.951 MHz
- 2 × 32 K bytes of zero wait-state internal SRAM (matrix)
- Performs a wide range of high-speed graphic effects
- Programmable
- Object processor (processor #2)
- 64-bit RISC architecture
- Programmable processor that can act as a variety of different video architectures, such as a sprite engine, a pixel-mapped display, a character-mapped system, and others.
- Blitter (processor #3)
- 64 bits read and write at the same time! (multibuffering!)
- 8 K read buffer (fifo)
- 8 K write buffer (lifo)
- Performs high-speed logical operations
- Hardware support for Z-buffering and Gouraud shading
- Texture Mapping Engine (processor #4)
- 64-bit RISC
- 64 bits
- Programmable risc processor
- 256 K "texture-work-ram" of zero wait-state internal CACHE
- capable of doing about 900000 texture-mapped polyons, without textures there can do 2500000 polyons.
- realtime Gouraud and Phong shading
- J/MPEG "COMBI" Chip (processor #5)
- 64 bits
- not programmable!
- 8 K own data rom (with sinus) table
- 128 K CACHE (fifo)
- realtime J/MPEG decompression via CACHE (fifo)
- DRAM memory controller
- 4 x 64 bits
- Accesses the DRAM directly
- "Jerry"
- 900,000 transistors, 196 pins
- Digital Signal Processor (processor #6)
- 32 bits (32-bit registers)
- Rated at 53,3 MIPS (million instructions per second)
- Runs at 53.3 MHz
- Same RISC core as the Graphics Processing Unit
- Not limited to sound generation
- 96 K bytes of zero wait-state internal SRAM
- CD-quality sound (16-bit stereo 50 kHz)
- Number of sound channels limited by software (minimum 16!!)
- Two DACs (stereo) convert digital data to analog sound signals
- Full stereo capabilities
- Wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis, FM Sample synthesis, and AM synthesis
- A clock control block, incorporating timers, and a UART
- Motorola 68EC020 (processor #7)
- Runs at 26.590 MHz
- perfect 68000 emulation
- General purpose control processor
Communication is performed with a high speed 64-bit data bus, rated at 2400 megabits/second. The 68000 is only able to access 16 bits of this bus at a time.
The Jaguar 2 contains eight megabytes (64 megabits) of fast page-mode DRAM, in eight chips with 1024 K each.
See also