Megadrive Cartridge Speed?

[Eso Rimmer]

Do anyone knows what were the read speeds of cartridges of this console (or SNES, NeoGeo...)? I've tried to google something but with no luck.

 

[nubie]

Do anyone knows what were the read speeds of cartridges of this console (or SNES, NeoGeo...)? I've tried to google something but with no luck.

Try a site with info on development/hardware for the console(s): http://www.google.com/search?q=sega+genesis+technical

If I recall correctly it is read just like RAM (although it is read only), so I would assume whatever the clock is for the Megadrive (you did search Sega Genesis right? As that is what it is called over here.)

All I had to do was type Sega Genesis Technical into Google.

http://www.emu-docs.org/?page=Genesis

If you want to look at a page that is currently offline go to archive.org and put the address into the "wayback machine"

http://web.archive.org/web/20061111025150/...ews.com/gen.php

It looks like it is an ~8mhz processor on a 16-bit or maybe 8-bit cartridge, so 8MB/s raw transfer assuming 8-bit 8mhz. In reality the processor should access it it as if it was native address space (RAM). Any emulator will load the game into RAM from the start and then begin emulating. The largest roms for Genesis or SNES aren't very big at all, 8MB would honestly surprise me (note that 8Mb is 1 Megabyte, 8MB is 8 Megabytes, so a 4Mb game is 512 Kilobytes).

NeoGeo is different, it can have very large roms, so for systems with not enough memory to load the whole ROM they pre-configure the roms into chunks that are loaded at the appropriate times into RAM.

Out of curiosity, why do you need to know?

 

[Eso Rimmer]

I don't need it, just missing the "zero" loading times of cartridge consoles so I was wondering what the speeds were like. Hopefully future games will be distributed on high speed durable media again.

 

[Orkie]

Under 150ns, probably 80-120.

 

[nubie]

I don't need it, just missing the "zero" loading times of cartridge consoles so I was wondering what the speeds were like. Hopefully future games will be distributed on high speed durable media again.

Hmm, like a hard drive from a high speed internet line?

Just kidding, I think you mean so you could let it fall out of your pocket and run over it a few times in the car durable.

I honestly don't mind loading times, as long as it isn't off of optical media, or a chattering disk drive with a squealing bearing. Anything is better than holding your PS2 at the precise 37.8° angle upside down to get the game loading.

Since I modded my PS2 and my Xbox to put all my (legally purchased) games on to hard disk I haven't had an issue with load times, the bar hits 20-25% and the level is loaded.

If we ever see a neato storage based on this stuff: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/scientists-prov.html I look forward to zero load times once again, and possibly for the first time since the 486 and windows 3.1 I will see a PC boot in a couple seconds (or I could grab an ASUS motherboard with that bios embedded firefox).