Sega Saturn

The Sega Saturn (セガサターン), is a video game console manufactured by Sega and was the true successor to the Sega Mega Drive (as opposed to add-ons such as the Sega 32X. Initially released in 1994, the Saturn was touted as a "32-bit" compact disc-based system, and was a key player in what is now widely known as the fifth generation of video game consoles. The Saturn was first released on November 22, 1994 in Japan, May 11, 1995 in North America, and July 8, 1995 in Europe. It was replaced by the Sega Dreamcast in late 1998.

Technical specifications

There is no hardware difference between the various versions. Just the BIOS version and the casing.

Processors

• Two Hitachi SuperH2 7604 32-Bit RISC processors at 28.6MHz (50-MIPS)
• SH1 32-bit RISC processor (controlling the CD-ROM)
• Two VDP 1 32-Bit Video Display Processors at 6.71 - 7.15MHz (each)
• VDP2 32-bit background and scroll plane video display processor
• Custom Saturn Control Unit (SCU) with DSP for geometry processing and DMA controller
• Motorola 68EC000 sound processor
• Yamaha FH1 DSP sound processor, "Saturn Custom Sound Processor" (SCSP)
• Hitachi 4-bit MCU, "System Manager & Peripheral Control" (SMPC)

Memory

• 1MB (8 Megabits) SDRAM
• 1MB (8 Megabits) DRAM
• 512K (4 Megabits) VDP1 video RAM
• 256Kx2 (2x2 Megabits) VDP1 framebuffer RAM
• 512K (4 Megabits) VDP2 video RAM
• 4K VDP2 on-chip color RAM
• 512KB (4 Megabits) audio RAM
• 512KB (4 Megabits) CD-ROM cache
• 32KB nonvolatile RAM (battery backup)
• 512KB (4 Megabits) BIOS ROM

Audio

• SCSP Digital Signal Processor (DSP) @ 22.6MHz
• Motorola 68EC000 sound processor @ 11.3MHz
• 32 PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) Channels
• 8 FM (Frequency Modulation) Channels
• 44.1 KHz Sampling Rate