bitness and marketing

[jhu]

the sega genesis used a motorola 68000 processor. why was it marketed as a 16-bit system when clearly the processor itself is a 16/32-bit hybrid akin to the 386sx? they definitely could have upped the "bitness" to 32-bit and still be techinically correct.

 

[tinyabs]

It doesn't matter. People at that time don't care about bitness.

 

[nowayout99]

Being 16-bit was one of Sega's main marketing points over the NES at the time, until the SNES came out. I think they did care, whether it was legitimate or not.

 

[Vee]

'Bitness' in case of game consoles, seem to me to be just about data path width. So "16-bit" was relevant and appropriate, in terms of how things were marketed. They were just too honest. Doubt it would happen again today.

 

[TuxDave]

That reminds me... wasn't there some system called the Jaguar that tried to push the bitness/merketing words? I can't remember if they bragged about having the first 64-bit system or first 32-bit system....

 

[jhu]

Originally posted by: TuxDave
That reminds me... wasn't there some system called the Jaguar that tried to push the bitness/merketing words? I can't remember if they bragged about having the first 64-bit system or first 32-bit system....

yes, they were claiming to be 64-bit. it's at least 32-bit though. this thing gets a bit murky:

"Tom" chip (contains 3 video-related processors), 25.59 MHz

* Graphics processing unit (GPU) - 32-bit RISC architecture, 4K internal cache, provides wide array of graphic effects
* 64 bit object processor - programmable; can behave as a variety of graphic architectures
* 64 bit blitter - high speed logic operations, Z-buffering & Gourad shading
* 64 bit DRAM controller (not a processor)

"Jerry" (the audio processor) - 32 bit DSP at 26.6Mhz

Motorola 68000 at 13.295Mhz

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I wanted one because it had Alien vs Predator fps on it (totally different from computer games). It was uber expensive though and I was like 10.

 

[blahblah99]

Just because the processor itself is a 32-bit processor doesn't mean everything in the system runs at 32-bit.

You can have a 32-bit processor, but only use a addr/data bus of only 16-bits, or a 32/16, or a 8/16, or any combination of those.

The designs I work on uses a 32-bit processor but I only use a 24-bit address bus and a 16-bit data bus, mainly because there are a lot of peripherals and routing 32-data lines all over the pcb isn't exactly efficient.

 

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: tinyabs
It doesn't matter. People at that time don't care about bitness.

I disagree, as nowayout stated, bitness was a very big marketing term. They might not have a clue what it means, but to them, more bits means better graphics and that was enough to sell consoles. Just like a couple years ago with the MHz wars. I bet the average person doesn't even know what clock speed is, but they had a notion that more MHz means faster.

 

[icarus4586]

I've had people ask me, even recently, "The N64 was 64 bit, what's the Gamecube (or PS2 or Xbox)? At which point I have to launch into a biggish oversimplification to get them to understand...

 

[tinyabs]

Originally posted by: nowayout99
Being 16-bit was one of Sega's main marketing points over the NES at the time, until the SNES came out. I think they did care, whether it was legitimate or not.

Maybe it is due to 8-bit SMS. Label MegaDrive as 16-bit tells people it is better than SMS. People with SMS would buy the 16-bit SMD. Some games from SMS are ported to MegaDrive too. So I suppose it's a marketing gimmick.

I haven't had the chance to play SMS when younger.

 

[jhu]

Originally posted by: icarus4586
I've had people ask me, even recently, "The N64 was 64 bit, what's the Gamecube (or PS2 or Xbox)? At which point I have to launch into a biggish oversimplification to get them to understand...

n64 actually did use a 64-bit processor.

 

[ReiAyanami]

the genesis had a module you could buy and stick on top to make it fully 32-bit or something but it was expensive and not that many titles

 

[AbsolutDealage]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
I wanted one because it had Alien vs Predator fps on it (totally different from computer games). It was uber expensive though and I was like 10.

I actually still have that thing in my pile o' consoles at home. I bust out AvP from time to time.

 

[jhu]

Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
the genesis had a module you could buy and stick on top to make it fully 32-bit or something but it was expensive and not that many titles

you might be talking about the sega cd, which is a device with a separate faster 68k processor that sits below the genesis.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

He's talking about the 32x. It pluged into the cartridge slot and then you plugged a game into it.