The is a

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...

arcade system board An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-opera ...

developed jointly by

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

and

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

. Released in 1994, the System 11 is based on a prototype of the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

, Sony's first

home video game console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. While initial consoles were dedicated units with only a few game ...

, using a 512 KB

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

and several custom processors. The is an upgraded version of the System 11 that was released in 1996, featuring faster processing power.

History

Namco's research managing director Shegeichi Nakamura met with

head

Ken Kutaragi is a Japanese engineering technologist and businessman, currently president and CEO of Cyber AI Entertainment. Formerly the chairman and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), the video game division of Sony, Kutaragi is known as "The Father ...

in 1993 to discuss the preliminary PlayStation specifications, with Namco subsequently developing the System 11 arcade board based on PlayStation hardware and ''

Tekken is a Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations. The main games in the series follow the events ...

'' as their answer to

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

's popular ''

Virtua Fighter is a series of fighting games created by Sega AM2 and designer Yu Suzuki. The original ''Virtua Fighter (video game), Virtua Fighter'' was released in December 1993 and has received four main sequels and several spin-offs. The highly influential ...

''. ''Tekken'' was initially planned for the

Namco System 22 The Namco System 22 is the successor to the Namco System 21 arcade system board. It debuted in 1992 in video gaming, 1992 with ''Ridge Racer (video game)#Development and release, Sim Drive'' Video gaming in Japan, in Japan, followed by a worldwi ...

, after Namco heard Sega was developing ''

Virtua Fighter 2 is a 1994 Fighting game, fighting video game developed and published by Sega for Arcade video game, arcades. It is the second game in the ''Virtua Fighter'' series and the sequel to ''Virtua Fighter (video game), Virtua Fighter'' (1993). Created ...

'' for their new

Sega Model 2 Sega is a video game developer, publisher, and hardware development company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with multiple offices around the world. The company's involvement in the arcade game industry began as a Japan-based distributor of coin- ...

board, before the development of ''Tekken'' was later moved to the System 11 after the meeting with Kutaragi. ''Tekken'' was the first game to use the System 11, and was initially released for arcades in September 1994, several months before the PlayStation's Japanese release in December 1994. Although the System 11 was technically inferior to the Sega Model 2 arcade board, its lower price made it an attractive prospect for smaller arcades. According to the June 1995 issue of ''

Edge Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

'': Namco System 12 was developed using the same basic configuration as System 11 but with the CPU operating frequency increased 1.5 times and higher memory capacity. This board was first publicly used for ''

Tekken 3 is a 1997 fighting game developed and published by Namco. It is the third installment in the ''Tekken'' series and the first game built on the Namco System 12 arcade game, arcade hardware. The game takes place twenty years after ''Tekken 2'' (1 ...

'' released in March 1997.

Technical specifications

*Main

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, log ...

: MIPS

R3000A The R3000 is a 32-bit RISC microprocessor chipset developed by MIPS Computer Systems that implemented the MIPS I instruction set architecture (ISA). Introduced in June 1988, it was the second MIPS implementation, succeeding the R2000 as the flags ...

RISC processor @ 33.8688 MHz (System 11) or @ 48 MHz (System 12), Operating performance - 30 MIPS, Instruction Cache - 4KB *BUS: 132 MB/s. *OS ROM: 512 KB *Sound CPU: Namco C76 (

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...

M37702) (System 11) or Hitachi H8/3002 (System 12) *Sound chip: Namco C352 *Main

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

: 2 MB *Video

VRAM Video random-access memory (VRAM) is dedicated computer memory used to store the pixels and other graphics data as a framebuffer to be rendered on a computer monitor. It often uses a different technology than other computer memory, in order to ...

: 2 MB *Sound

: 512 kB *Graphical Processor: 360,000

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

s/s, sprite/BG drawing, adjustable

framebuffer A framebuffer (frame buffer, or sometimes framestore) is a portion of random-access memory (RAM) containing a bitmap that drives a video display. It is a memory buffer containing data representing all the pixels in a complete video frame. Mode ...

, No line restriction, 4,000 8x8 pixel sprites with individual scaling and rotation, simultaneous backgrounds (

parallax scrolling Parallax scrolling is a technique in computer graphics where background images move past the camera more slowly than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D scene of distance. The technique grew out of the multiplane camera te ...

) *Sprite Effects: Rotation, Scaling up/down, Warping, Transparency, Fading, Priority, Vertical and Horizontal Line Scroll *Resolution: 256x224 - 640x480 *Colors: 16.7 million colors, Unlimited CLUTs (Color Look-Up Tables) *Other Features: custom geometry engine, custom polygon engine, MJPEG decoder

Games

Notes

References

{{PlayStation MIPS architecture Namco arcade system boards

History

Technical specifications

Games

See also

Notes

References