Atari Jaguar

Hardware Specifications

Physical dimensions:

• Size: 9.5" x 10" x 2.5"

Controls:

• Power on/off

Display:

• Resolution up to 800 x 576 pixels (1300+ with additional hardware)
• 24-bit "True Color" display with 16,777,216 colors simultaneously
• Multiple-resolution, multiple-color depth objects (monochrome, 2-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit) can be used simultaneously

Ports:

• Cartridge slot/expansion port (32 bits)
• RF video output
• Video edge connector (video/audio output; supports NTSC and PAL; provides S-Video, Composite, RGB outputs, accessible by optional add-on connector)
• Two controller ports
• Digital Signal Processor port (includes high-speed synchronous serial input/output)

Controllers:

• Size 6.25" x 5" x 1.6", cord 7 feet
• Eight-directional joypad
• Three fire buttons (A, B, C)
• Pause and Option buttons
• 12-key keypad (accepts game-specific overlays)

The Jaguar has five processors, which are contained in three chips. Two of the chips are proprietary designs, nicknamed "Tom" and "Jerry". The third chip is a standard Motorola 68000 used as a coprocessor. Tom and Jerry are built using an 0.5 micron silicon process.

"Tom"

• 750,000 transistors, 208 pins
• Graphics Processing Unit (processor #1)
  • 32-bit RISC architecture (32/64 processor)
    • 64 registers of 32 bits wide
    • Has access to all 64 bits of the system bus
    • Can read 64 bits of data in one instruction
  • Rated at 26.591 MIPS (million instructions per second)
  • Runs at 26.591 MHz
  • 4K bytes of zero wait-state internal SRAM
  • Performs a wide range of high-speed graphic effects
  • Programmable

• Object processor (processor #2)
  • 64-bit RISC architecture
  • Programmable processor that can act as a variety of different video architectures, such as a sprite engine, a pixel-mapped display, a character-mapped system, and others.

• Blitter (processor #3)
  • 64 bits
  • Performs high-speed logical operations
  • Hardware support for Z-buffering and Gouraud shading

• DRAM memory controller
  • 64 bits
  • Accesses the DRAM directly

"Jerry"

• 600,000 transistors, 144 pins
• Digital Signal Processor (processor #4)
  • 32 bits (32-bit registers)
  • Rated at 26.6 MIPS (million instructions per second)
  • Runs at 26.6 MHz
  • Same RISC core as the Graphics Processing Unit
  • 8K bytes of zero wait-state internal SRAM
  • CD-quality sound (16-bit stereo)
  • Number of sound channels limited by software
  • Full stereo capabilities
  • Wavetable synthesis, FM synthesis, FM Sample synthesis, and AM synthesis

• A clock control block, incorporating timers, and a UART
• Joystick control

Motorola 68000 (processor #5)

• Runs at 13.295MHz
• General purpose control processor
• Communication is performed with a high speed 64-bit data bus, rated at 106.364 megabytes/second. The 68000 is only able to access 16 bits of this bus at a time.

The Jaguar contains two megabytes (16 megabits) of fast page-mode DRAM, in four chips with 512 K each. Game cartridges can support up to six megabytes (48 megabits) of information. The Jaguar uses 24-bit addressing, and is reportedly capable of accessing data as follows:

• Six megabytes cartridge ROM
• Eight megabytes DRAM
• Two megabytes miscellaneous/expansion

Compressed cartridge data can be uncompressed in real-time, and ratios of up to 14:1 have been cited. In theory, a Jaguar cartridge can store up to 84 megabytes (672 megabits) of data, though actual results will vary widely. Compression is performed with JagPEG, an enhanced JPEG image decompression mechanism.

Other Jaguar features:

• Support for ComLynx I/O for communications with the Atari Lynx hand-held game system and networked multiconsole games (on DSP port, accessible by optional add-on connector). Networking of up to 32 Jaguar units available.
• The two controller ports can be expanded to support "dozens" of controllers
• Digital and analog interfaces
• Keyboards, mice, and light guns are possible
• Expansion port allows connection to cable TV and other networks
• Digital Signal Processor port allows connection to modems and digital audio peripherals (such as DAT players)
• One megabyte per second serial interface
• 9600 baud, RS-232 serial port (accessible with optional interface)
• General-purpose I/O bits via the cartridge port
• Can accomodate future expansions of different processor types, I/O types, video types, and memory types and/or quantities.

Source: Jaguar FAQ by Robert Jung