A week later, the atmosphere in the Hardware Developnt Departnt was somber.
Inside Departnt Manager Nakamura's office, Takuya Nakayama, Yuji Naka, and Nakamura himself sat around a conference table piled high with technical docunts.
"Managing Director, here's our assessnt report on 32-bit chip proposals from several major Japanese semiconductor manufacturers," Nakamura said, pushing up his glasses and placing a summary docunt at the center of the table. His expression was grim.
"What's the conclusion?" Takuya Nakayama asked bluntly.
"Unsatisfactory," Nakamura replied succinctly. "Hitachi, NC—they either have instruction sets too complex for ga developnt, or they're designed for specific industrial applications and lack versatility. Customizing them would entail prohibitively high developnt costs and complexity, directly contradicting your core requirent for ease of use."
Yuji Naka chid in from the side, "I reviewed those chips' developnt manuals—they're a nightmare. If we let third-party developers use this stuff for gas, just understanding the chips' quirks would take them half a year. By then, the market window would have long closed."
As a frontline programr, Takuya Nakayama was best qualified to speak on the matter.
Even during the ga Drive era, he had spent considerable ti grappling with the quirks of low-level hardware logic. He understood better than anyone what a simple and efficient developnt environnt ant to ga developers.
Takuya Nakayama nodded. This outco was exactly what he had anticipated.
Although Japan's semiconductor industry was formidable, it had indeed started late and taken a more conservative approach when it ca to RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) architecture.
"If dostic options won't suffice, we'll have to look abroad. Any alternatives?" He turned to Departnt Manager Nakamura.
"We have one," Nakamura replied, pulling out another docunt. "We've compared all the mainstream RISC chips on the market. After a comprehensive evaluation, the R3000 architecture, introduced by MIPS Technologies in 1988, is the most suitable choice."
He slid the docunt toward Takuya Nakayama and Yuji Naka.
"The technology is highly mature, having been tested by the market for years. It's extrely stable. Most importantly, its instruction set is remarkably simple, perfectly aligning with our requirents for ease of use. Customizing this foundation will minimize risks and make it easiest for developers to get up to speed."
Yuji Naka leaned over to review the technical specifications, his eyes lighting up. "That's it. This is the one."
Seeing that both technical experts had reached a consensus, Takuya Nakayama smiled.
Isn't this exactly the path Sony's PlayStation took in my previous life? He thought. Not only have I stolen their controller design, but I've also snatched their CPU plan right out from under them.
"Heroes think alike, don't they?" Takuya Nakayama picked up his teacup, gently blew on the tea, and said calmly, "Since we all agree it's the best choice, let's decide on this."
He set down the cup, lightly tapped his fingers on the table, and made the final decision.
"I rember MIPS Technologies was acquired by Silicon Graphics this year, right?"
"Yes, Managing Director," Departnt Manager Nakamura nodded in confirmation.
"That simplifies things," Takuya Nakayama said with a smirk. "Have the US branch contact Silicon Graphics imdiately. Tell them Sega wants to base our next-generation console's heart on the R3000."
He paused, a glint of amusent in his eyes.
"Oh, and remind them that this is a massive, exclusive order. Tell them to offer a serious price."
"Understood, Managing Director!" Departnt Manager Nakamura nodded solemnly.
With the matter settled, Takuya Nakayama stood up and stretched lazily.
He wondered how far Sony had progressed with their next-generation console project.
He hoped they hadn't yet set their sights on MIPS.
Otherwise, the look on their faces when they eagerly presented their proposal to Silicon Graphics only to discover that the company was already developing a CPU for Sega would be priceless.
Let them fret. He wanted to see where they'd conjure up a suitable CPU from now.
Just as Takuya Nakayama was about to leave, Departnt Manager Nakamura, who had been intently typing notes on his laptop, suddenly looked up.
"Managing Director, there's one more issue."
"Speak," Takuya Nakayama said, stopping.
Nakamura pushed up his glasses and pointed at the docunts on the table with a serious expression. "We've decided on the CPU direction, but there's a fundantal question we need to address. Since the next-generation console will use CD-ROM exclusively as the ga dium, how will we store players' ga save data?"
This question imdiately sobered even Yuji Naka, who had been excitedly discussing CPU architectures monts before. He turned to look at Takuya Nakayama.
This was indeed an unavoidable hurdle.
In the cartridge era, ga saves could be stored directly on the cartridge, a simple and convenient solution.
But CD-ROMs are read-only dia, incapable of writing data.
Though Sega had experience with the SEGA-CD's external mory card, that was still an accessory, and the user experience was far from perfect.
A USB flash drive flashed through Takuya Nakayama's mind.
He quickly dismissed the thought. That technology wouldn't be available for years; proposing it now would be like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
His gaze swept over the two technical experts. After a mont's contemplation, he offered what seed like a conservative solution:
"For mory storage, we'll stick with a similar approach to the SEGA-CD: flash mory chips paired with built-in battery-powered mory cards."
Departnt Manager Nakamura and Yuji Naka nodded. This was the most mature and reliable solution, just as they had anticipated.
But Takuya Nakayama wasn't finished.
"However, we need to optimize it." He tapped his finger lightly on the table. "We can't just focus on saving data; we must also consider how to store it securely and for the long term."
"First, add a counter to the mory card's chip to specifically track read/write cycles."
"A counter?" Departnt Manager Nakamura paused, taken aback by this entirely new concept.
"Exactly," Takuya Nakayama stated with unwavering authority. "Every read and write operation consus a significant amount of the internal battery's power. While we don't yet know the precise number of operations, there must be a finite limit. Manager Nakamura, your Hardware Departnt needs to imdiately conduct extre testing to determine a rough safe range for read/write operations. Based on that, we'll build in sufficient redundancy."
He turned to Yuji Naka. "anwhile, you need to consider implenting a clear notification in the system software for players managing their saves. For example, when a player enters the console's mory managent interface, if a card inserted into the console is nearing its read/write limit, a pop-up warning requiring manual confirmation should appear. It should inform the player that the mory card is nearing the end of its lifespan and urge them to back up their saves to a new card." He added, "And if the card exceeds the safe read/write limit, the warning should state that the card has reached its lifespan, instruct the player to back up their saves to a new card, and inform them that the card will no longer support ga mory writes. Then, lock the card's write function."
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