Just dreaming about possible Dreamcast 2 specifications ...


Magic Sam

Forever Homebrew
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Hi,

While playing Sturmwind on Dreamcast, I've been thinking about the console hardware specifications from 1999, and what it would look like if these specifications were updated today:

CD, 1.2 GB GD-ROM --> CD / DVD / Blu-Ray

200 MHz Hitachi SH4 RISC --> 600 MHz Renesas SH-4A 7786 Dual Core

VMU, Nexus Memory Card --> HDD or SSD

RAM 16 MB, GPU 8 MB --> ?

100 MHz PowerVR2 CLX2 --> 200 MHz PowerVR 5XT or 600 MHz Series 6 (rogue)

Dreamcast Broadband Adapter --> Ethernet + WiFi

Windows CE 2.0 ? --> Windows CE 2013 or anything Linux / BSD ?

Do you think such an updated console would work, and would it be backward compatible with the original Dreamcast  ?

Bye, Magic Sam
 
Strikes me that achitectures like the Gamecube/Wii and to a certain extent the 360 take their inspiration from the Dreamcast architecture - that is a straightforward RISC CPU and graphics fed with beefy interconnects, as opposed to complex system with the potential for hard to preduct bottlenecks (i.e. anything from Sony since the first Playstation).
 
Sadly, the newer PowerVR GPUs aren't totally compatible with the old Dreamcast. They took out at least one big feature, order independent translucency. I always wondered if they were going to bring it back because it'd be really useful.
 
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