The VR4300 device also supported double-precision floating-point operation for high-performance graphics. The wide data paths were particularly important for operations such as bit-stream decoding and matrix manipulation, core features in video and graphics processing. The VR4300 main CPU was a 64-bit microprocessor that ran at 93.75 MHz with 64-bit registers, data paths, and buffers to insure high-speed data movement within the chip. The following diagram shows the overall arrangement. The organization of the system consisted of two major chips, the main CPU and the Reality Coprocessor (RCP) designed by SGI. MIPS and RPC processors were 0.35µ silicon manufactured by NEC for Nintendo.The system came with a multifunction 2D and 3D game controller, including digital and analog joysticks, many buttons.Texture mapping: tri-linear interpolated with MIP maps, environmental mapping, and perspective correction.32-bit RGBA frame buffer, with 21-bit color video output.Sound and graphics, and pixel drawing coprocessors, clock speed of 62.5 MHz.Rambus DRAM (4 Mbytes) with a maximum bandwidth of 4,500 Mbits/s.64-bit custom MIPS R4300 CPU, clock speed of 93.75 MHz.The little super-computer would be considered feature-rich today, and other than the clock speeds would be a competitive device. Nintendo 64 motherboard, CPU, and Reality Co-Processor, with RMEM below the processors. It was an amazing amount of technology crammed into a ridiculously small package, and at a crazy low price of $250 ($420 today). Later in May 1996, at the E3 conference in L.A., Nintendo showed the Nintendo 64 and announced it would be available in the U.S. Most consoles of the time were struggling to get from 8-bits to 32-bit 64-bits was considered science fiction.Įven so, they did it and on November 24, 1995, at Nintendo's 7th Annual Shoshinkai trade show, the company unveiled the Nintendo 64 console. And thus, was born the idea of the Nintendo 64.Įven the number, 64, was outrageous. Nonetheless, in 1992 and early 1993, Silicon Graphics (SGI) founder and CEO Jim Clark met with Nintendo CEO Hiroshi Yamauchi to discuss just that-squeezing an SGI graphics system into a console. Therefore, the idea of adapting such state of the art technology to a consumer product like a game console that sold for a few hundred dollars was considered bold, challenging, and crazy.
A high-end super high-performance workstation could cost over $100,000. In the ensuing years, it developed leading graphics technologies at the high end. Silicon Graphics had been a leader and highly respected workstation developer that rose to fame and fortune based on its introduction of a VLSI geometry processor in 1981.
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