Interview With Atari Jaguar creator John Mathieson

Bill Kendrick writes "The website Toxic Mag has an interview with John Mathieson, creator of the short-lived Atari Jaguar 64-bit game system - the system we can thank for such awesome games as the original Alien vs. Predtor, Iron Soldier, and the gorgeously psychadelic Tempest 2000. The beginng and end of the interview are in French, but the actual questions and answers are 'en anglais.'"

Comments

Question about the "64"

[briglass]

Now the Jaguar came out quite a while back, and if I remember correctly, quite a while before the N64. I remember there was some "catch" to the "64-bt" aspect. Was it really 64-bit?

Re:Question about the "64"

[Saige]

Depends on what part of the system you look at.

The graphics processor, "Tom", consisted of the GPU, which was 32-bit, but could read all 64 bits of data off of the system bus, and the Object Processor and Blitter, both of which were 64-bit chips. The Sound processor, "Jerry", had a 32-bit DSP, and a couple other minor features. The 68000, the third chip, was the standard ship.

Was it a 64-bit system? Well, it had a 64-bit system bus, and some chips that did 64-bit processing.

There were a lot of ridiculous claims by people that the system was "64-bit" only by adding the bit sizes of all the chips together, or some silly garbage like that.

clip from the faq for completeness:

- "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
- 64-bit wide registers
- 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-bit RISC architecture
- 64-bit wide registers
- 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
- Not limited to sound generation
- 8K bytes of zero wait-state internal SRAM
- CD-quality sound (16-bit stereo)
- Number of sound channels limited by software
- Two DACs (stereo) convert digital data to analog sound signals
- 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

Open Source Emulator

[sdjunky]

For those who might be interested you can find an Open Source emulator here

Re:Right!

[DevNova]

Blame it on the Tramiels! After the incredible success they had with the Commodore 64, they lived out the rest of their professional careers believing that anything they did would succeed via word of mouth. They saw no need for advertising or professional marketing. The Atari ST, Falcon 030, and Jaguar had incredible capabilities at the time and, given the right marketing would have been much more successful and Atari as it was might still be around today.

My kids are still playing Jaguar today! They love Rayman and Val de'Iser (sp?) Skiing and Snowboarding. When they get a little older I'll introduce them to Doom and AvP.