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Throughout console history there have been multiprocessor machines. Such setups could produce amazing effects, and yet the concept has never really been truly accepted till the Sony Playstation 2.

So what are the benefits of having a multiprocessor console? .

Imagine if you were the boss of your own company. In your day to day duties you must handle various tasks quickly and efficiently such as producing your product, insuring you have the resources to handle each product, calculate finances to purchase more resources, calculate the funds from each product sold, research what products are doing well, and researching what products would be worth making in the future. During this you must also insure the well being of the workers under you. You are like a console processor handling various tasks and instructions. Your workers are you graphics processor, Sound processor, and I / O interface.

Now imagine you’re the boss, but this time you have one or more assistants. While your generally running the normal tasks, your assistants are doing the financial calculations and research needed to market a better product. This gives you more breathing room to think up new products, and accomplish tasks even faster. You are like a multiprocessor console. .

Damn that sounds good DW! Why didn’t they do well in the videogame industry? .

A good console is only as good as the software developer behind it. This has always been a known fact. Games could make or break a system regardless of specs and power. Developers have always followed a simple formula:
“The main processor is the hub that controls graphics, sound, and other. “
A tried and true formula that has worked with both consoles and computers. Knowing the limitations of the processor, how to handle memory resources, putting the other elements to work, and making it all come together.

So in the 1990’s Sega produced the Saturn, a console containing 2 Hitachi SH2 32-bit RISC processors. Developers had a fit over the concept. Two different processors each doing their own thing? How do we follow the formula? This sucks! The Saturn was tagged as too difficult to develop for thus giving it’s rival the Sony Playstation additional credibility and support by developers. By the time developers started learning how to incorporate both processors, it was already the end of the Saturn’s lifetime.Software developers simply focused programming on a single processor. This limitation showed on many of the games developed. A good example of such programming was demonstrated on the Atari Jaguar.

The Jaguar was an extreme case of multiprocessor usage. With five processors spanning three chips, the Jaguar was a developer’s nightmare. In an effort to rush games to the market, developers utilized the one chipset they were the most familiar with (16-bit Motorola 68000). The results clearly did not demonstrate what a 64-bit system was capable of.

The most recent example of developing on a multiprocessor console is the Sony Playstation 2. Developers followed their usual formula, and utilized the main processor of the “Emotion Engine” chipset. The launch games paled in comparison to a less powerful early 128-bit Sega Dreamcast. The console also received the “to difficult to develop for” label. Sony however took steps to insure the console was fully utilized. Websites, documentation, developer assistance hotlines were quickly made available. In 2002 we truly began to see what the Playstation 2 was capable of. Developers are still learning new ways to utilize the consoles multiprocessor design. If only the other consoles of yore were given the same opportunity.

The true beauty of a multiprocessor console was realized with the PS2. Some PS2 games can currently stand toe to toe with 2nd generation 128-bit rivals. With it’s “vector unit” processors fully utilized, the PS2 can not only demonstrate the same graphic effects as it’s competitors, but it can also immerse a gamer in an environment with animated backgrounds, object interaction, real-time shadow and lighting, and more with little to no slowdown. Rumor has it that in 2003 only one of the vector units were being used. That left still another for even more possibilities.

DW, Get a clue! There were successful multiprocessor consoles!

Indeed there were other multiprocessor consoles that did not share the same developer sting as those mentioned above.
The Turbografix / PC-engine was equipped with two main HuC6280 processors. These processors however worked in tandem as if they were a single processor. Other consoles included the Sega CD, and the Neo Geo. Both consoles featured the 8-bit Zilog Z80 and the 16-bit Motorola 68000 chips. These chips were commonly found in both consoles and computers. Developers were quite familiar with these chips and how to get them working together. Initially games developed simply used one processor to handle backgrounds and effects such as “scaling and rotation”, while the other processor handled the usual “graphics, sound, and other” formula. In later years developers used these processors even more effectively on the Neo Geo console as shown in games of 2002, but keep in mind that this took 13 years of implementation (Neo Geo was released in 1989).

In 2005, the next generation of consoles began to surface. The Microsoft Xbox360 arrived with 3 processors. Sony topped the original multiprocessor design with an insane 16 core Cell processor. It seems multiprocessor console gaming is all the rage.