Panasonic M2
Encyclopedia
The Panasonic M2 was a video game console
design developed by 3DO
and then sold to Matsushita (known internationally as Panasonic
)http://nfg.2y.net/games/polystars/. Before it could be released, however, Matsushita cancelled the project in mid 1997, unwilling to compete against fellow Japanese electronics giant Sony
's PlayStation
due to the failure of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
console. The M2 was cancelled so close to release, marketing had already taken place in the form of flyers, and one of its prospected launch titles, WARP's D2, had several gameplay screens in circulation (this game was later redesigned from scratch to be released on the Dreamcast).
Development kits and prototypes of the machine are very valuable pieces among today's collectors. M2's technology lived on at Matsushita; integrated in the multimedia players FZ-21S and FZ-35S, both released in 1998. Both products were aimed at professionals working in medicine, architecture and sales, not home users.
Yet the M2 did see some use as a game machine - namely, a short-lived arcade board by Konami
. As games ran straight from the CD-ROM drive, it suffered from long load times and a high failure rate, so only five games were developed for it.
The M2 was reportedly several times (2-3) more powerful than the Nintendo 64 in terms of polygon graphics capabilities and slightly more powerful than the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics (Voodoo1) accelerator chipset for PC cards. Matsushita was apparently hyping the M2 to be more powerful than it really was, saying it was almost on par with Sega's (Lockheed Martin designed) MODEL 3 arcade board. The MODEL 3 was approximately 10 times more powerful than the Nintendo 64. In a 1998 interview by Next Generation magazine, WARP
's Kenji Eno
said that Sega's Dreamcast was about 3-4 times more powerful than M2. This backs up earlier reports that M2 had 2-3 times greater performance than N64, but no more than that. It was still a powerful machine for 1996-1997.
The M2 technology is still in use today. It is mostly used in automated teller machine
s, and in Japan
in coffee vending machine
s.
In the late 90's and from 2000 on, the system was also sold in the Interactive Kiosk market. In 2000, PlanetWeb, Inc. began offering software to allow the M2 to be used as an Internet appliance.
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
design developed by 3DO
The 3DO Company
The 3DO Company , also known as 3DO , was a video game company...
and then sold to Matsushita (known internationally as Panasonic
Panasonic
Panasonic is an international brand name for Japanese electric products manufacturer Panasonic Corporation, which was formerly known as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd...
)http://nfg.2y.net/games/polystars/. Before it could be released, however, Matsushita cancelled the project in mid 1997, unwilling to compete against fellow Japanese electronics giant Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
due to the failure of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer
3DO Interactive Multiplayer
The 3DO Interactive Multiplayer is a video game console originally produced by Panasonic in 1993. Further renditions of the hardware were released in 1994 by Sanyo and Goldstar. The consoles were manufactured according to specifications created by The 3DO Company, and were originally designed by...
console. The M2 was cancelled so close to release, marketing had already taken place in the form of flyers, and one of its prospected launch titles, WARP's D2, had several gameplay screens in circulation (this game was later redesigned from scratch to be released on the Dreamcast).
Development kits and prototypes of the machine are very valuable pieces among today's collectors. M2's technology lived on at Matsushita; integrated in the multimedia players FZ-21S and FZ-35S, both released in 1998. Both products were aimed at professionals working in medicine, architecture and sales, not home users.
Yet the M2 did see some use as a game machine - namely, a short-lived arcade board by Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
. As games ran straight from the CD-ROM drive, it suffered from long load times and a high failure rate, so only five games were developed for it.
The M2 was reportedly several times (2-3) more powerful than the Nintendo 64 in terms of polygon graphics capabilities and slightly more powerful than the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics (Voodoo1) accelerator chipset for PC cards. Matsushita was apparently hyping the M2 to be more powerful than it really was, saying it was almost on par with Sega's (Lockheed Martin designed) MODEL 3 arcade board. The MODEL 3 was approximately 10 times more powerful than the Nintendo 64. In a 1998 interview by Next Generation magazine, WARP
Superwarp
WARP is a now-defunct video game developer. Founded by Japanese musician, Kenji Eno, WARP was composed of five members and was dedicated to creating interactive cinema. Their most successful series of games, the D series, featured the same lead character, Laura, and were known for their musical...
's Kenji Eno
Kenji Eno
is a musician and video game designer based in Japan. He is best-known for his cult survival horror series, the D games and his audio game series, Real Sound.-Childhood and early years:...
said that Sega's Dreamcast was about 3-4 times more powerful than M2. This backs up earlier reports that M2 had 2-3 times greater performance than N64, but no more than that. It was still a powerful machine for 1996-1997.
The M2 technology is still in use today. It is mostly used in automated teller machine
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
s, and in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in coffee vending machine
Vending machine
A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....
s.
In the late 90's and from 2000 on, the system was also sold in the Interactive Kiosk market. In 2000, PlanetWeb, Inc. began offering software to allow the M2 to be used as an Internet appliance.
Konami arcade games based on M2 hardware
- Polystars (1997)
- Total Vice (1997)
- Battle Tryst (1998)
- Evil Night / Hell Night (1998)
- Heat Of Eleven '98 (1998)
Technical specifications
- Central Processing UnitCentral processing unitThe central processing unit is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in...
- Dual 66 MHz PowerPC 602s- Implements the 32-bit32-bitThe range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
PowerPCPowerPCPowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
RISCReduced instruction set computerReduced instruction set computing, or RISC , is a CPU design strategy based on the insight that simplified instructions can provide higher performance if this simplicity enables much faster execution of each instruction. A computer based on this strategy is a reduced instruction set computer...
instruction set architecture - PowerPCPowerPCPowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
CPU designed for consumer electronicsConsumer electronicsConsumer electronics are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment, communications and office productivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver...
applications - 1.2 wattWattThe watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s power usage each - 32-bit general purpose registerProcessor registerIn computer architecture, a processor register is a small amount of storage available as part of a CPU or other digital processor. Such registers are addressed by mechanisms other than main memory and can be accessed more quickly...
s and ALUArithmetic logic unitIn computing, an arithmetic logic unit is a digital circuit that performs arithmetic and logical operations.The ALU is a fundamental building block of the central processing unit of a computer, and even the simplest microprocessors contain one for purposes such as maintaining timers... - 33 MHz 64-bit multiplexed address and data bus
- 4 KiB data and instruction cachesCPU cacheA CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations...
(Level 1). No Level 2 cache - 1 integer unit, 1 floating point unitFloating point unitA floating-point unit is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root...
, no branch processing unit, 1 load/store unit - SPECintSPECintSPECint is a computer benchmark specification for CPU's integer processing power. It is maintained by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation . SPECint is the integer performance testing component of the SPEC test suite. The first SPEC test suite, CPU92, was announced in 1992. It was...
92 rating of 40 each, approximately 70 MIPSInstructions per secondInstructions per second is a measure of a computer's processor speed. Many reported IPS values have represented "peak" execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic workloads typically lead to significantly lower IPS values...
each. - 1 million transistorTransistorA transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...
s manufactured on a 0.50 micrometreMicrometreA micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...
CMOSCMOSComplementary metal–oxide–semiconductor is a technology for constructing integrated circuits. CMOS technology is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, static RAM, and other digital logic circuits...
process
- Implements the 32-bit
- Custom ASICApplication-specific integrated circuitAn application-specific integrated circuit is an integrated circuit customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use. For example, a chip designed solely to run a cell phone is an ASIC...
s- BDA:
- Memory control, system control, and video/graphic control
- Full triangle renderer including setup engine, MPEG-1MPEG-1MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible.Today, MPEG-1 has become...
decoder hardware, DSP for audio and various kinds of DMADirect memory accessDirect memory access is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit ....
control and port access - Random access of frame bufferFramebufferA framebuffer is a video output device that drives a video display from a memory buffer containing a complete frame of data.The information in the memory buffer typically consists of color values for every pixel on the screen...
and z-bufferZ-bufferingIn computer graphics, z-buffering is the management of image depth coordinates in three-dimensional graphics, usually done in hardware, sometimes in software. It is one solution to the visibility problem, which is the problem of deciding which elements of a rendered scene are visible, and which...
(actually w-buffer) possible at the same time
- CDE:
- Power bus connected to BDA and the two CPUs
- "bio-bus" used as a low-speed bus for peripheral hardware
- BDA:
- Renderer capabilities:
- 1 million un-textured triangleTriangleA triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
s/s geometry rate - 100 million pixelPixelIn digital imaging, a pixel, or pel, is a single point in a raster image, or the smallest addressable screen element in a display device; it is the smallest unit of picture that can be represented or controlled....
s/s fill rate - reportedly 700,000 textured polygons/s *without* gouraud shading or additional effects
- reportedly 300,000 to 500,000 textured polygons/s *with* gouraud shading, lighting and effects
- shading: flat shading and gouraud shadingGouraud shadingGouraud shading, named after Henri Gouraud, is an interpolation method used in computer graphics to produce continuous shading of surfaces represented by polygon meshes...
- texture mappingTexture mappingTexture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture , or color to a computer-generated graphic or 3D model. Its application to 3D graphics was pioneered by Dr Edwin Catmull in his Ph.D. thesis of 1974.-Texture mapping:...
- decal, modulation blending, tiling (16K/128K texture buffer built-in)
- hardware z-bufferZ-bufferingIn computer graphics, z-buffering is the management of image depth coordinates in three-dimensional graphics, usually done in hardware, sometimes in software. It is one solution to the visibility problem, which is the problem of deciding which elements of a rendered scene are visible, and which...
(16-bit16-bit-16-bit architecture:The HP BPC, introduced in 1975, was the world's first 16-bit microprocessor. Prominent 16-bit processors include the PDP-11, Intel 8086, Intel 80286 and the WDC 65C816. The Intel 8088 was program-compatible with the Intel 8086, and was 16-bit in that its registers were 16...
) (actually a block floating point with multiple (4) range w-buffer) - object-based full-scene anti-aliasing
- alpha channel (4-bit4-bitThe Intel 4004, the world's first commercially available single-chip microprocessor, was a 4-bit CPU. The F-14 Tomcat's Central Air Data Computer was created a year before the 4004, but its existence was classified by the United States Navy until 1997...
or 7-bit) - 320x240 to 640x480 resolution at 24-bit color
- 1 million un-textured triangle
- Sound hardware - 16-bit 32-channel DSPDigital signal processorA digital signal processor is a specialized microprocessor with an architecture optimized for the fast operational needs of digital signal processing.-Typical characteristics:...
at 66 MHz (within BDA chip) - Media - Quad-speed CD-ROMCD-ROMA CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
drive (600 KBKilobyteThe kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
/s) - RAM - Unified memory subsystem with 8 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
/s- 64-bit64-bit64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...
bus resulting in peak 533 MB/s bandwidth - Average access 400 MB/s
- 64-bit
- Full Motion VideoFull motion videoFull motion video based games are video games that rely upon pre-recorded TV-quality movie or animation rather than sprites, vectors, or 3D models to display action in the game. In the early 1990s a diverse set of games utilized this format...
- MPEG-1MPEG-1MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible.Today, MPEG-1 has become... - Writable Storage - Memory cardMemory cardA memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. They are commonly used in many electronic devices, including digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, MP3 players, and video game consoles...
s from 128 KiB to 32 MiB - Expansion Capabilities - 1 PCMCIAPC cardIn computing, PC Card is the form factor of a peripheral interface designed for laptop computers. The PC Card standard was defined and developed by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association which itself was created by a number of computer industry companies in the United States...
port (potentially used for ModemModemA modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
s, Ethernet NICEthernetEthernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
s, etc.)
Further reading
- Konami Arcade based on M2 System 16 page on the Konami arcade board based on M2 technology
- "M2: Hit or Myth?". Next Generation magazine, June 1997, p. 63.
- Noonburg, Derek. PowerPC FAQ, February 27, 1997.
- Past to Present Online Feature with Exclusive Pictures, June 23, 2006
- Konami m2 Hardware at PtoPOnline, February 18, 2008
External links
- Games That Weren't 3DO/M2 - A website about unreleased 3DO M2 games