Conference 7.286::atarist

1385.0. "Could be interesting..." by STKHLM::ARENDI (Jaak A., Client Tp/IM TSC Sweden) Sat Nov 06 1993 09:05

This article makes no mention of the source for Atari's 64-bit microprocessor.
Does anyone know what the Jaguar uses?

/Ira
===============================================================================
From the San Jose Mercury News
Nov. 4, 1993

ATARI STALKING MARKET SHARE WITH JAGUAR 

By MIKE LANGBERG 
Mercury News Staff Writer

Atari Corp.'s new Jaguar video game system will leap out of its cage this 
afternoon at a New York City news conference -- aiming to rip a piece of 
the market from much bigger competitors, reverse the Sunnyvale company's 
steep financial decline and justify a huge run-up in Atari's stock price.

The $250 Jaguar game deck will arrive at stores in the Bay Area and New 
York by mid-November, followed by a nationwide roll-out next year.

Inside the Jaguar is a 64-bit processor with quadruple the computing power 
of the 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) and Sega Genesis 
that now dominate the $6-billion-a-year video game industry. This extra 
power opens the door to graphics and faster action.

But Jaguar could be a lonely cat. Atari is offering only four games, 
priced at $40 to $70, this year -- potentially a big problem if none of 
them is a hit. Nintendo and Sega, by contrast, have hundreds of games 
already available.

On the other hand, Atari is likely to be at least a year ahead of Sega and 
Nintendo with its 64-bit machines, which are being manufactured by 
International Business Machines Corp. at a plant in Charlotte, N.C.

``The Atari Jaguar is definitely cool new technology that is being 
introduced at a price point attractive to consumers,'' said Alan R. 
Miller, chairman of Accolade Inc. of San Jose, a developer of Sega and 
Nintendo video games. ``We think they have a real shot at establishing 
Jaguar as a successful system.''

Jaguar also will benefit from a $3 million marketing campaign and heavy 
publicity in video game magazines.

Still, competition is formidable. Nintendo is spending $50 million on 
holiday advertising. By the end of the year, an estimated 20 million SNES 
and Genesis game decks will be in U.S. homes; while Atari plans to sell 
50,000 units.

Last month, Atari President Sam Tramiel said Jaguar sales could reach 1 
million units by the end of next year.

Meanwhile, Atari also is skating perilously close to a financial meltdown. 
Sales have shriveled from $452 million in 1988 to $127 million last year 
and plummeted 76 percent in the first half of 1993 to $15.9 million, 
mostly because the company's primary business -- personal computer sales 
in Europe -- are evaporating in the face of pressure from other PC makers.

In August, Tramiel said the company ``has focused all of its efforts on 
the development and launch of . . . Jaguar'' -- meaning Atari won't have 
any cushion if Jaguar is a bust.

Investors apparently aren't worried about the high risks. Atari stock has 
exploded from a low of 75 cents a share in May, shortly before the Jaguar 
plans became public, to close at $11.63 on Wednesday in NASDAQ trading.


MERCURY CENTER ID: me41384a


Transmitted:  93-11-04 05:40:17 EST

    

    I think it's their own design.

    
     There is some information in issue 35 of "ST Applications" which may
    be of interest:
    
    	The Jaguar is based around a 64-bit RISC architecture designed by
    Atari and comes with 2Megabytes of Dynamic Ram. It has five dedicated
    processors, four of which have been combined into two chips along
    with other components; these multipurpose chips being known as Tom
    and Jerry.
    	Tom incorporates the DRAM memory controller, object processor,
    graphic processing unit and the blitter. Jerry has the DSP, a sound
    block, and a combined unit which includes timers, UART, joysticks and
    clock control.
    	THe fifth processor is a Motorola 68000 running at 13.3MHz which
    acts as a general controller. 
    
    Brian