Questions about old consoles

[Neeyik]

Does anybody have any answers/links/private docs they wouldn't mind "lending" me for the following queries:

(1) Number of transistors in the RDP/RCP chip in the N64.
(2) Max. pixel fill rate or sprite fill rate of N64.
(3) Max. bit depth of z-buffer of N64
(4) Was the CPU and Geometry Transfer Engine/Sprite Engine all one chip on the original PlayStation? If so, what was the die size and number of transistors?
(5) Max. pixel fill rate or sprite fill rate of PSX.
(6) Did the original PSX have dedicated VRAM; were there SRAM chips totalling 3MB and the VRAM was just 1MB of that?

I have evidence and questionable answers for all of the above questions but I need more sources before committing any of it to a webpage.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Murakami]

4) Yes, for sure (GTE + MDEC are inside the R3000, plus a DMA controller: GPU is outside, is another chip): 125,000 transistors on a 72-square millimeter die
5) 33 Mpixel i think...
6)
* Main RAM: 2 Megabytes
* Video RAM: 1 Megabytes
* Sound RAM: 512 Kilobytes
* CD ROM buffer: 32 Kilobytes
* OS ROM: 512 Kilobytes

 

[Urian]

(1) Number of transistors in the RDP/RCP chip in the N64.

I Don´t know.

But RCP is the name of the graphical coprocessor, RDP is the name of the graphical part of the RCP and RSP is the name of the sound core in the RCP.

(2) Max. pixel fill rate or sprite fill rate of N64.

62.5 Mpixels/sec.

(3) Max. bit depth of z-buffer of N64

I remember that not more than 8 bits but I am not sure.

(4) Was the CPU and Geometry Transfer Engine/Sprite Engine all one chip on the original PlayStation? If so, what was the die size and number of transistors?

GTE is inside the R3000A and the GPU is in the board but outside the R3000A.

If my information is not wrong the R3000A is not more than a 64 bits FPU with a series of registers for doing 3D geometry transformation in real time.

(5) Max. pixel fill rate or sprite fill rate of PSX.

33 or 66Mpixels but I don´t know.

Some people have commented to me that the 66Mpixels figure is the max fillrate and the 33Mpixels is applying the few effects that PSone GPU supports.

This is important because some people says to me that the reason of the low framerate in N64 is that PSone has the twice of power in geometry and others says that this is a lie because the fault of fillrate reduces PSone geometry power to 180.000 pol/seg with all effects.

(6) Did the original PSX have dedicated VRAM; were there SRAM chips totalling 3MB and the VRAM was just 1MB of that?

2MB+1MB+512K.

This is PSone configuration.

 

[ERP]

Does anybody have any answers/links/private docs they wouldn't mind "lending" me for the following queries:

(1) Number of transistors in the RDP/RCP chip in the N64.
(2) Max. pixel fill rate or sprite fill rate of N64.
(3) Max. bit depth of z-buffer of N64
(4) Was the CPU and Geometry Transfer Engine/Sprite Engine all one chip on the original PlayStation? If so, what was the die size and number of transistors?
(5) Max. pixel fill rate or sprite fill rate of PSX.
(6) Did the original PSX have dedicated VRAM; were there SRAM chips totalling 3MB and the VRAM was just 1MB of that?

I have evidence and questionable answers for all of the above questions but I need more sources before committing any of it to a webpage.

Thanks in advance.

1 - No Idea
2 - 62.5 - but you were unlikely to get anywhere near this figure
3 - 16bit - at least it was the only mode I ever used

 

[Neeyik]

Thanks very much for the replies folks.

Yes, for sure (GTE + MDEC are inside the R3000, plus a DMA controller: GPU is outside, is another chip): 125,000 transistors on a 72-square millimeter die

I presume these figures are for the R3000+GTE+MDEC+DMAc chip? Any idea what the GPU is like?

With regards to peoples' comments about the memory config of the PSX, I'm aware that it's 2MB + 1MB + etc - what I just want to clarify is that the various labelled memory are all dedicated; in that there is 1MB of SRAM chips or chip that is solely used by the GPU. If so, does anybody know if it is of the same speed/rating as the main 2MB SRAM? A high res shot of the circuit board would be really handy but finding one is proving difficult.

With regards to fill rate figures, I'm after the "maximum possible, even under not-likely-conditions" in the same way that one posts up fill rates for graphics cards. Speaking of which can anyone confirm the polygon throughput for the PSX?

Thank you to ERP and Urian for the N64 data.

 

[Quaz51]

1> over 4 millions for total (CPU + RCP), 0.35um

4> first generation PS1 CPU has 1 millions transistors and 128mm², 0.6um

 

[Murakami]

Yes, memory chips are all dedicated (at least in old mobos), see the pic:

Speed bus is 133 mb/s.
Polygon rate is:
GTE
360,000 Flat-Shaded Polygons per second
180,000 texture mapped and light-sourced polygons per second
GPU [For a 50 Pixel Triangle (10 X 10)]

 

[Murakami]

first generation PS1 CPU has 1 millions transistors and 128mm², 0.6um

Probably, you're right: i suspect that 125.000 transistors is only for R3000A core, not including GTE, MDEC and DMA controller... :?

 

[Reznor007]

If I remember right, R3000a has no FPU at all, it would need an external R3010a for the FPU.

EDIT-
Some information from MAME:

/*
* Sony CXD8530AQ/CXD8530BQ/CXD8530CQ/CXD8661R
*
* PSX CPU emulator for the MAME project written by smf
* Thanks to Farfetch'd for information on the delay slot bug
*
* The PSX CPU is a custom r3000a with a built in
* geometry transform engine, no mmu & no data cache.
*
* There is a stall circuit for load delays, but
* it doesn't work if the load occurs in a branch
* delay slot.
*
*/

 

[Squeak]

(6) Did the original PSX have dedicated VRAM; were there SRAM chips totalling 3MB and the VRAM was just 1MB of that?

Did they really use SRAM for all of the memory? If so, then wow! That's pretty insane for a 1993 design!
I've once read that the VRAM was dualported, is that right?

 

[Murakami]

(6) Did the original PSX have dedicated VRAM; were there SRAM chips totalling 3MB and the VRAM was just 1MB of that?

Did they really use SRAM for all of the memory? If so, then wow! That's pretty insane for a 1993 design!
I've once read that the VRAM was dualported, is that right?

SRAM for all memory? No, it's DRAM.
Yes, 1 mb of VRAM is dual ported.

 

[Neeyik]

Doh. Sorry about that, I had SRAM on the brain after looking at various CPU and GC specs - I'll get it right eventually!

Edit: If anyone could be so kind to look through http://www.neeyik.info/consolespecs and offer any advice, I'd be very grateful.