Gaming Consoles.Pdf

G A M I N G C O N S O L E S

INTRODUCTION

Gaming consoles have proved themselves to be the best in digital entertainment. Gaming consoles were designed for the sole purpose of playing electronic games and nothing else. A gaming console is a highly specialised piece of hardware that has rapidly evolved since its inception incorporating all the latest advancements in processor technology, memory, graphics, and sound among others to give the gamer the ultimate gaming experience.

DEFINITION

A gaming console is a system that is exclusively dedicated for gaming. It has been optimized for game playing as that is its core function. One can play games on a PC or even a cellphone but these are not systems dedicated for gaming, so they cannot be termed gaming consoles.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF VIDEO GAME CONSOLES

Video games have been around since the early 1970s. The first commercial arcade video game, Computer Space by Nutting Associates, was introduced in 1971. In 1972, Atari introduced Pong to the arcades. An interesting item to note is that Atari was formed by Nolan Bushnell, the man who developed Computer Space. He left Nutting Associates to found Atari, which then produced Pong, the first truly successful commercial arcade video game.

T E T 2600

Alt g t Fairchil Channel F, released in 1976, was the first true removable game system, Atari once again had the first such system to be a commercial success. Introduced in 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (VCS), the 2600 used removable cartridges, allowing a multitude of games to be played using the same hardware.

The hardware in the 2600 was quite sophisticated at the time, although it seems incredibly simple now. It consisted of: MOS 6502 microprocessor Stella, a custom graphics chip that controlled the synchroni ation to the TV and all other video processing tasks 128 bytes of RAM 4-kilobyte ROM-based game cartridges

The chips were attached to a small printed circuit board (PCB) that also connected to the joystick ports, cartridge connector, power supply and video output. Games consisted of software encoded on ROM chips and housed in plastic cartridges. The ROM was wired on a PCB that had a series of metal contacts along one edge. These contacts seated into a plug on the console's main board when a cartridge was plugged into the system. When power was supplied to the system, it would sense the presence of the ROM and load the game software into memory.

BASIC COMPONENTS OF A VIDEO GAME CONSOLE

The core components that all video game consoles have in common are User control interface CPU RAM Software kernel Storage medium for games Video output Audio output Power supply

The user control interface allows the player to interact with the video game. Without it, a video game would be a passive medium, like cable TV. Early game systems used paddles or joysticks, but most systems today use sophisticated game controllers with a variety of buttons and special features.

The CPU is the heart of the video game console. It is a microprocessor that powers the game system. Microprocessors are required for the operation of any computational device. On a game console, the CPU coordinates the functions of the various hardware and software units.

Ever since the early days of the Atari 2600, video game systems have always relied on RAM to provide temporary storage of games as they are being played. Without RAM, even the fastest CPU could not provide the necessary speed for an interactive gaming experience.

The software kernel is the console's operating system. It provides the interface between the various pieces of hardware, allowing the video game programmers to write code using common software libraries and tools.

The two most common storage technologies used for video games today are CD and ROM-based cartridges. Current systems also offer some type of solid-state memory cards for storing saved games and personal information. Flash memory cards can be used to store personal information and game progress. Newer systems like the Microsoft XBox and the Sony PlayStation 2 have DVD drives.

All game consoles provide a video signal that is compatible with the television system. Depending on the country or region, this may be NTSC or PAL/SECAM. NTSC is commonly found throughout America while PAL/SECAM is the dominant TV system in Asia and Europe. Most consoles have a dedicated graphics processor that provides specialised

5 mapping, texturing and geometric functions, in addition to controlling video output.

Another dedicated chip typically handles the audio processing chores and outputs stereo sound or, in some cases, digital surround sound. Modern game consoles have sound processors that have TS functionality.

Power supply is required in some form or the other by virtually any device today.

A T Y P I C A L G A M E C O N S O L E

joystick

The basic idea of a joystick is to translate the movement of a plastic stick into electronic information a console can process. Joysticks are used in all kinds of machines, including F-15 fighter jets, heavy earth moving equipment, cranes, bulldozers, wheelchairs and industrial automation. The same principles applicable for game console joysticks also apply to other sorts of joysticks.

The various joystick technologies differ mainly in how much information they pass on. The simplest joystick design, used in many early game consoles, is just a specialised electrical switch. This basic design consists of a stick that is attached to a plastic base with a flexible rubber sheath. The base houses a circuit board that sits directly underneath the stick. The circuit board is made up of several µprinted wires¶, which connect to several contact terminals. Ordinary wires extend from these contact points to the computer.

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AN EARLY ATARI JOYSTICK

The printed wires form a simple electrical circuit made up of several smaller circuits. The circuits just carry electricity from one contact point to another. When the joystick is in the neutral position±when one is not pushing one way or another±all but one of the individual circuits are broken. The conductive material in each wire doesn't quite connect, so the circuit can't conduct electricity.

Each broken section is covered with a simple plastic button containing a tiny metal disc. When one moves the stick in any direction, it pushes down on one of these buttons, pressing the conductive metal disc against the circuit board. This closes the circuit±it completes the connection between the two wire sections. When the circuit is closed, electricity can flow down a wire from the game console, through the printed wire, and to another wire leading back to the console. When the game console picks up a charge on a particular wire, it knows that the joystick is in the right position to complete that particular circuit. Pushing the stick forward closes the forward switch, pushing it left closes the left switch, and so on. In some designs, the computer recognizes a diagonal position when the stick closes two switches (for example, closing the forward switch and the left switch simultaneously would mean a forward/leftward diagonal position). The firing buttons work exactly the same way±when you press down, it completes a circuit and the console recognizes a fire command.

NEW ADDITIONS

There are a couple of big problems with the conventional analog joystick system. First of all, the crude analog-to-digital conversion process isn't very accurate, since the system doesn't have a true analog-to-digital converter. This compromises the joystick's sensitivity somewhat. Secondly, the host console has to dedicate a lot of processing power to regularly poll the joystick system to determine the position of the stick. This takes a lot of power away from other operations.

Joystick manufacturers have addressed these problems in a couple of different ways. One solution is to add a sensitive analog-to-digital converter chip in a specialised game adapter card or in the joystick itself. In this system, the converter spits out digital information directly to the computer, which improves the accuracy of the stick and reduces the work load on the host processor. These new joystick models can usually connect to USB ports, which also improves speed and reliability.

Another solution is to skip the analog potentiometer technology all together. Many newer controllers use optical sensors to read stick movement digitally. The diagram below shows one common system.

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In this system, the two shafts are connected to two slotted wheels. Each wheel is positioned between two light-emitting diodes (LE s) and two photocells (the graphic only shows one photocell, LE pair for the sake of simplicity). When light from each LE shines through one of the slots, it causes the photocell on the other side of the wheel to generate a small amount of current. When the wheel rotates slightly, it blocks the light and the photocell doesn't generate current (or it generates less current).

When the shaft pivots, it spins the wheel, and the moving slots repeatedly break the light beam shining on the photocell. This causes the photocell to generate rapid pulses of current. Based on the number of pulses that the photocells have generated, the processor knows how far the stick has moved. By comparing the patterns coming from both photocells monitoring one wheel, the processor can figure out which way the stick is moving. This is the same basic system used in many computer mice.

THE SEGA DREAMCAST

The Sega reamcast hit the market in 1999 and was hailed as an innovative video game system.

With good reason, Popular Science magazine recognized the Sega reamcast as one of the most important and innovative products of 1999. Impressive technical specifications, great games and an imaginative advertising campaign heralded the arrival of the latest system from a company known for groundbreaking video game systems.

CONSOLE y Processor: 64-bit Hitachi SH-4 o Processor clock speed: 200 MHz o MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second): 360 o Bus speed: 800 MB per second o Cache: Instruction: 8 K Data: 16 K y Graphics: 128-bit 100 MHz NEC PowerVR 2DC o Resolution: 640x480 or 320x240 interlaced o Colors: 24-bit (16,777,216) maximum, as well as 16-bit (65,536) mode o Polygon rendering: 3,000,000 polygons per second o Geometry engine: 12

Alpha blending Perspective correction Gouraud shading Anistropic, bilinear and trilinear mip mapping Z-buffer o Memory: 8 MB video RAM y Audio: 45 MHz Yamaha Super Intelligent sound processor o Channels: 64 o Sample rate: 44.1 KHz o Special effects: reverb, delay and surround sound o Memory: 2 MB RAM y Memory: 16 MB y Operating system: Windows CE-based custom Sega OS y Game medium: Proprietary GD-ROM (Gigabyte Disc) o Transfer speed: 1800 kilobytes per second o Storage capacity: 1.2 gigabytes o Memory buffer: 128 K y Modem: 56 kilobits per second (Kbps)

. Let's take a look at how Dreamcast uses these maps in trilinear mip mapping: 1. The system calculates the distance from your viewpoint to an object in the game. 2. The system loads the texture maps for the object. Our three maps will be 64x64 (large), 32x32 (medium), and 8x8 (small). 3. The system determines the exact size that the image map needs to be. Let's say 16x16 for our example here. 4. Based on the size, it decides which two texture maps to use. For our example, it will choose the medium and small texture maps. 5. It will then interpolate (average) between the two texture maps, creating a custom texture map that is 16x16, which it then applies it to the object. When a game is put in the console, the following happens: y You turn the power on.

y The disc spins up to speed. y While the disc is spinning up, the console loads portions of the operating system from ROM into RAM. y The game initialization sequence is loaded into RAM. y You interact with the game via the controller. y As each specific part of the game is requested, the application code and hardware-render geometry are loaded into RAM, while the video and audio portions are usually streamed directly from the CD. y The PowerVR chip coordinates everything. In addition to processing graphics, it receives the input from the controller, pulls the data from RAM, sends it to the CPU and directs the use of the audio processor. y You are finally beaten by the game and turn it off.

The Dreamcast is the first console that has a built-in 56 Kbps modem. It was added to enable online play over a phone line, allowing users to play games against each other across long distances. In addition to the built-in modem, Sega is working on a cable or DSL external modem. Broadband networks are being developed that will take advantage of such a modem and enable fast online games for the Dreamcast.

CONTROLLER

As it is with other systems, the controller is the primary user interface for the Dreamcast. The standard Dreamcast controller has 11 buttons plus an analog joystick. The buttons include: ż four buttons arranged as a directional pad on the top left ż Start button in the top middle

ż four action buttons on the top right ż one analog trigger on the front left ż one analog trigger on the front right ż analog joystick on the top left

A Sega Dreamcast controller

THE SONY PLAYSTATION

HISTORY

In 1988, Sony entered into an agreement with Nintendo to develop a CD-ROM attachment, known as the Super Disc, for the soon-to-be released Super Nintendo. Due to many contractual and licensing problems, the Super Disc was never released. Instead, a modified version was introduced by Sony in 1991, in a system called the PlayStation.

The original PlayStation read these Super Discs, special interactive CDs based on technology developed by Sony and Phillips called CD- ROM/ A. This extension of the CD-ROM format allowed audio, video and computer data to be accessed simultaneously by the processor. The PlayStation also read audio CDs, and had a cartridge port for accepting Super Nintendo game cartridges. The PlayStation was envisioned as the core of a home multimedia center. Sony only manufactured about 200 of them before deciding to retool the design.

The new design, dubbed the PlayStation X, or PSX, dropped the Super Nintendo cartridge port and focused solely on CD-ROM based games. The component hardware inside the console was revamped as well, to ensure an immersing and responsive gaming experience. Launched in Japan in December of 1994, and in the United States and Europe in September of 1995, the PlayStation quickly became the most popular system available. The PlayStation became so popular that at one time Sony¶s estimates revealed that one out of every four households in the United States had a PlayStation.

CONSOLE

y Processor: 32-bit R3000A Processor clock speed: 33.8688 MHz MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second): 30 Bus speed: 132 MB per second Cache: y Data: 4 KB

y Instruction cache: 1 KB y Graphics: Resolution: 640x480 maximum (five interlaced and four non- interlaced modes supported) Colors: 24-bit (16,777,216) maximum; other modes supported are 4-bit (16), 8-bit (256) and 15-bit (32,768) Maximum sprite size: 256 pixels high x 256 pixels wide Polygon rendering: 360,000 polygons per second Geometry engine: Provides additional hardware rendering of polygons to include Gouraud shading, texture-mapping and lighting effects Memory: 1 MB RAM MPEG decoder y Audio: Channels: 24 Sample rate: 44.1 KHz Memory: 512K RAM Digital effects (envelope, looping, reverb) MIDI support y Memory: 2 MB RAM y Operating system: Proprietary 512K ROM y Game medium: CD-ROM Transfer speed: 150 KB per second normal, 300 KB per second double speed Audio CD support Memory buffer: 32K

The PlayStation reads games from a CD-ROM/XA disc with a laser. The games come on proprietary CD-ROM/XA discs that are read by laser, just like regular CDs. When a game is put in the console, the following happens:

y You turn the power on. y The disc spins up to speed. y While the disc is spinning up, the console loads portions of the operating system from ROM into RAM. y The game initialization sequence is loaded into RAM. y You interact with the game via the controller. y As each specific part of the game is requested, the application code and hardware-render geometry are loaded into RAM, while the video and audio portions are usually streamed directly from the CD. y The CPU coordinates everything. It receives the input from the controller, pulls the data from RAM and directs the graphics and audio processing. y You are finally beaten by the game and turn it off.

Since all information is flushed from RAM when the power is turned off, you will lose any personal game data. But one can save it by using one of the special Flash memory cards. The card is inserted into one of the two slots on the front of the PSX, above the port for the controller.

CONTROLLER

The controller is the primary user interface for the PlayStation. And just as the gamepad that came with the original Nintendo Entertainment System was a radical departure from previous controllers, the PSX controller changed the rules again. With its winged shape and abundance of well-positioned buttons, it is user-friendly and yet powerful.

The Sony PlayStation X was the first in the line of modern day gaming consoles with revolutionary features li e Force Feedback. It was so successful that Sony estimated that one in every five US households had a PlayStation.

The standard PSX controller has 14 buttons. They include: y four buttons arranged as a directional pad on the top left y Start and Select buttons in the top middle y four action buttons on the top right y two action buttons on the front left y two action buttons on the front right

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Here's what each pin does: 1. DATA±This pin carries the signal that the controller sends to the PSX each time a button is pressed. It is an 8-bit serial transmission. 2. COMMAND±This pin is used by the PSX to send information to the controller. Such information might trigger the motors in a Dual Shock controller at the proper moment. It also uses an 8-bit serial transmission. 3. Not used 4. GROUND 5. POWER - This pin supplies 5 volts to the controller from the PSX. 6. SELECT - This pin is used by the PSX to notify the controller of incoming data. 7. CLOC - This pin carries a synchronizing signal sent from the PSX to the controller. 8. Not used 9. AC NOWLEDGE - This pin sends a signal to the PSX from the controller after each command that is received on Pin 2.

THE SONY PLAYSTATION

The Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) was one of the most anticipated products of 2001. The technical features of the PS2 are very impressive.

HISTORY

The PlayStation reads Super Discs, special interactive CDs based on technology developed by Sony and Phillips called CD-ROM/XA. This extension of the CD-ROM format allowed audio, video and computer data to be accessed simultaneously by the processor. The PlayStation also read audio CDs and had a cartridge port for accepting Super Nintendo game cartridges. The original PlayStation was envisioned as the core of a home

22 multimedia center. Sony only manufactured about 200 of them before deciding to retool the design.

The new design, dubbed the PlayStation X, or PSX, dropped the Super Nintendo cartridge port and focused solely on CD-ROM-based games. The component hardware inside the console was revamped as well to ensure an immersing and responsive gaming experience. Launched in Japan in December of 1994, and in the United States and Europe in September of 1995, the PlayStation quickly became the most popular system available.

CONSOLE

View of the Emotion Engine and Graphic Synthesizer processors y Processor: 128-bit "Emotion Engine" Processor clock speed: 300 MHz Floating point unit (FPU) co-processor operating at 6.2 gigaflops Bus speed: 3.2 GB per second Original PlayStation CPU core as I/O processor y Graphics: "Graphics Synthesizer" 150 MHz Embedded cache 4 MB VRAM Resolution: 640x480 or 320x240 interlaced Colors: 24-bit (16,777,216) maximum, as well as 16-bit (65,536) mode

Geometry engine: o Alpha channel o Anti-aliasing o Bezier surfacing o Gouraud shading o Mip mapping o Perspective correction o Z-buffer Polygon rendering: 75 million polygons per second y Audio: SPU2 (+CPU) Channels: 48 Sample rate: 44.1 KHz or 48 KHz Memory: 2 MB RAM Optical digital output y Memory: 32 MB RDRAM y Operating system: Proprietary Sony y Game medium: Proprietary 4.7-GB DVD Supports original PlayStation CDs Video DVD support Audio CD support y Drive bay (for hard disk or network interface) y Other features: Two memory card slots Two USB ports FireWire port (called iLink by Sony)

CONTROLLER

The controller is the primary user interface for the PlayStation 2. With its winged shape, analog controls and abundance of well-positioned buttons, it is easy to use yet powerful.

The Sony PlayStation controller

The standard PS2 controller has 15 buttons; all of them, except for Analog, Start and Select are analog. They include: four buttons arranged as a directional pad on the top left Analog, Start and Select buttons in the top middle four action buttons on the top right two action buttons on the front left two action buttons on the front right one analog joystick on the top left one analog joystick on the top right

Although each button can be configured to perform a specific and distinctive action, they all work on the same principle. Each button has a tiny curved disk attached to its bottom. This disk is very conductive. When the button is depressed, the disk is pushed against a thin conductive strip mounted on the controller's circuit board. If the button is pressed lightly, the bottom part of the curved disk is all that touches the strip, increasing the level of conductivity slightly. As the button is pressed harder, more of the disk comes into contact with the strip, gradually increasing the level of conductivity. This varying degree of conductivity makes the buttons pressure-sensitive.

PS2 controllers also have two analog joysticks. These joysticks work in a completely different way from the buttons described above. Two potentiometers, variable resistors, are positioned at right angles to each other below the joystick. Current flows constantly through each one, but the amount of current is determined by the amount of resistance. Resistance is increased or decreased based on the position of the joystick. By monitoring the output of each potentiometer, the PS2 can determine the exact angle at which the joystick is being held, and trigger the appropriate response. In games that support them, analog features such as these allow for amazing control over gameplay.

Another feature of the Dual Shock 2 controller, actually the reason for its name, is force feedback. This feature provides a tactile stimulation to certain actions in a game. For example, in a racing game, one might feel a jarring vibration as one¶s car slams into the wall. Force feedback is actually accomplished through the use of a very common device, a simple electric motor. In the Dual Shock 2 controller, two motors are used, one housed in each handgrip. The shaft of each motor holds an unbalanced weight. When

26 power is supplied to the motor, it spins the weight. Because the weight is unbalanced, the motor tries to wobble. But since the motor is securely mounted inside the controller, the wobble translates into a shuddering vibration of the controller itself. SOME RELATED FACTS

The Sega Dreamcast was the first console to implement online play over a phone line, calling the system Sega Net. The Microsoft XBox is the first video game system to completely support HDTV. Popular Science recognized the Sega Dreamcast as one of the most important and innovative products of 1999. The Magnavox Odyssey, released in 1972, contained 40 transistors and no microprocessor. The new Pentium 4 microprocessor contains 42 million transistors on the chip itself! The PlayStation 2 is the first system to have graphics capability better than that of the leading-edge personal computer at the time of its release. The Nintendo N64 marked the first time that computer graphics workstation manufacturer Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) developed game hardware technology. While the original Atari Football game was first created in 1973, it wasn't released until 1978. It was delayed because the game couldn't scroll the screen - players couldn't move beyond the area shown on the monitor. When the game was finally released, it became the first game to utilize scrolling, a key part of many games today. The Atari Pong video game console was the No. 1 selling item for the holiday season in 1975.

The first console to have games available in the form of add-on cartridges was the Fairchild Channel F console, introduced in August 1976.

THE FUTURE

MICROSOFT XBOX

Not much is known at this stage about the XBox 2. After much speculation that Microsoft has opted for ATi, there is now a new round of rumours that Microsoft may design the processors on its own ± it has licensed some SGI (Silicon Graphics Inc.) patents. Also, the CPU for the XBox 2 is rumoured to have the ability to decode and execute instructions in Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL), which is an integral part of .NET; while being downward compatible with the XBox at the same time.

SONY PLAYSTATION 3

The µCell¶ is the microprocessor that will power the PlayStation 3 when it comes out, sometime in 2005. Dubbed as a supercomputer on a chip, it is currently being developed jointly by Sony, Toshiba and IBM. It will be fabricated using 0.10 micron silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process technology. The PS3 will also make use of Grid computing, which is a variation of distributed computing and presumably involves networked game machines sharing software, processing power

CONCLUSION

On the whole, gaming consoles are the better option in the long run. After all, they are designed for gaming right from scratch. This has helped the industry understand the basic requirements of 3D and multimedia applications. Without a doubt, this will affect the designs of PCs in the future and make them more gamer friendly. ³Gaming is indeed heading in the direction of becoming a mainstream form of entertainment. Gaming experience drives technology requirements and in turn contributes to the growth of the IT industry. For gaming there is a need for better graphics and better storage to be able to handle heavy data. As games become increasingly complex, peripherals and technology can provide significant assistance to the gamer, enhancing the gaming experience.´

REFERENCES

http://www.nintendo.com http://www.gamecubenetwork.com http://www.sony.com http://www.sony.net http://www.playstation.com http://www.sega.com http://www.dreamcast.com http://www.xbox.com http://www.microsoft.com/xbox