Dreamcast

This is the heart of Sega's masterpiece. It contains the 128-bit technology that makes the Dreamcast run. The Hitachi processor will run at 200Mhz, but as it is has been developed especially for the Dreamcast and optimized for its operations, it performs four times faster than a PII 266. Arcade graphics at home is a reality with the Dreamcast. The dedicated graphics processor can comfortably handle 3 million polygons a second. The audio chip itself is more powerful than some entire consoles!                                                                                                                    

The Dreamcast will come with a 33.6k modem. Sega Rally will be the first game gamers can play on-line. The internet will be free to access but you will still be charged at the local call rate.

The Dreamcast controller is the home to the the VMS when it is in use with the Dreamcast. The VMS slides into the back of the controller and its LCD screen is visible whilst you play. It has four standard movement buttons plus an analogue stick, giving the best of both worlds. A Vibration Unit also plugs into it making the controller rumble or judder in time with the game action.                                                                                                                                                  

The Visual Memory System (VMS) is the Next Generation memory card for the Next Generation console. With a built-in LCD screen and its own 8-bit CPU it plugs into the control pad. This will allow players to carry round their own VMS, with their own characters to play anywhere. You will even be able to use the VMS on Sega arcade machines. It is also a great strategic aid. You can store special plays or moves and implement them at the press of a button.

The Dreamcast keyboard is essential to the console's Internet capabilities. Whilst on-line gaming is a large part of the Dreamcast's appeal, you will also be able to surf the Internet proper and send and receive e-mails.

The Jump Pack slots into the Dreamcast controller and light gun and causes vibrations in time with the action on screen. The Jump Pack will emulate the recoil of weapons, crashes when driving and other in-game events.

Hitachi SH-4 CPU                                                          

200MHz clock rate

360 MIPS (millions of instructions per second)

1.4 billion floating-point operations per second

3D calculations

800+ MBytes/second bus bandwidth