Sega’s Samurai Sword (PCGH Retro 07 September)

…1997: Sega announces its Dreamcast console under the codename of the development systems and operating system. Katana, the Japanese sword of the samurai, was the name initially chosen for the console, which was supposed to bring Sega back into business after the Sega Saturn had increasing difficulties in asserting itself against strong competition, in particular from Sony’s Playstation.

The Dreamcast uses a 200 MHz RISC processor from Hitachi, the media used are so-called GD-ROMs with a capacity of around 1.2 GB. The graphics chip comes from Power VRs Series 2. First, the console should be equipped with the second product from the still relatively unknown chip developer Nvidia, the NV2. After alleged problems with this chip – which was never for sale afterwards – Sega switched to 3dfx’s Voodoo Graphics, but nothing came of this deal either. So they decided on the Power VR Series 2. This is also used on PC graphics cards and is called Neon 250 there, the VR Series 3 will later become the Kyro/Kyro 2.