News Article: 1993-02-09: PERSONAL COMPUTERS; Brave New 32-Bit World From The New York Times

February 9, 1993

PERSONAL COMPUTERS; Brave New 32-Bit World

IN the world of microprocessors, a 32-bit RISC chip is a powerhouse. Such chips are typically used in workstations, which are to personal computers what jets are to propeller planes. Scientists use these powerful machines to create three-dimensional models of molecules, and graphic artists use them to create stunning animations and special effects used in motion pictures.

Some people believe that 32-bit RISC chips, along with another specialized chip called a digital signal processor and a CD-ROM drive, will soon be at the heart of a $700 home entertainment center. Such a device, called a 3DO Multiplayer, was demonstrated last week at the Demo 93 conference in Indian Wells, Calif.

The 3DO Multiplayer, expected to appear later this year as a shoebox-size device, is basically a compact disk player attached to regular television and stereo set that plays both audio CD's and CD-based computer games. It also displays color photos stored on Kodak PhotoCD disks.

Final features have not been decided, but the system is said to be able to edit videos from a camcorder and to process instrument sounds through a so-called MIDI interface.

Games, both action and educational, will take on a new realism when displayed on a 32-bit system. The more advanced video game systems found in arcades typically use 32-bit software. (Some of the newer arcade games also use CD technology to display interactive video images, as the 3DO Multiplayer will do.)

The original Nintendo games were so-called eight-bit systems, meaning the processor handled data in chunks of eight bits each. When Sega Genesis and later Nintendo came out with 16-bit game systems a couple of years ago, the quality of games surged ahead with more colors, greater visual detail and more complex action. The 32-bit systems allow nearly photographic quality images, coupled with CD-quality sound.

Special graphics chips also make the images on the television screen even sharper than one might expect, creating something close to a three-dimensional effect.

At the same time, the digital signal processing (DSP) chip creates the audio equivalent of three-dimensional sound. A DSP chip is an extremely fast processor that, among other tasks, analyzes and modifies sounds. DSP chips are also starting to appear in high-end stereo equipment.

An example of the power of DSP chips occurred in the nights leading up to the Persian Gulf war, when Special Forces "dune buggies" raced through Iraqi military camps. DSP chips analyzed sounds coming from the dune buggy engines and instantly issued canceling sound waves, resulting in virtually silent operation.

Nothing quite that fancy was tried in the demonstration of a 3DO prototype last week, but it was shown doing a variety of tricks that are far beyond the ability of typical game machines.

In one example, a player started fires in the windows of a building, actually a scanned photograph of a building. Smoke curled up from the flames, and one could see the building through the smoke. In other words, the smoke was transparent, which is not a trivial trick for computer graphics. The player could change the wind direction, causing the smoke to change direction accordingly.

In another example, the 3DO system showed a rotating globe bouncing in a box, with satellite weather images projected onto the globe's surface as it bounced. The graphics chips manipulate images very quickly, so the globe compresses and expands, and its shadow and lighting are computed instantly.

Such tasks are beyond the power of most personal computers, and certainly beyond anything in the $700 price range. Still, $700 is not a trivial price for an entertainment device. The first buyers are expected to be gadget fanatics. However, just as CD players have fallen from more than $1,000 to just a few hundred dollars, the cost of the 3DO Multiplayer will certainly come down.

"Anything this small and light has to get cheaper," said Trip Hawkins, president and chief executive of the 3DO Company, waving a prototype of the 3DO Multiplayer. Mr. Hawkins, who earned a degree in strategy and applied game theory at Harvard, is also chairman of Electronic Arts, the world's largest maker of computer entertainment software.

Electronic Arts is one of three companies behind the 3DO Company, which will license rights to make the hardware or software. The others are Japan's giant Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Ltd., which makes Panasonic and other brands of electronics products, and Time Warner, the media conglomerate.

Mr. Hawkins, a former Apple Computer Inc. executive who built Electronic Arts into one of the world's biggest computer game companies, said several companies had signed on to produce 3DO Multiplayer decks and dozens more to make software.

As impressive as the 3DO prototype is, and despite the formidable alliance of Matsushita, Time Warner and Software Arts, the 3DO standard faces some tough competition. The Nintendo Corporation and the Sony Corporation of America are working on a competing system called the Play Station, and North American Phillips may also align with Nintendo. Nintendo's rival Sega of America Inc. already has a $300 CD-ROM attachment for its popular Genesis game systems, and Toshiba is rumored to have aligned with Apple Computer Inc. to produce a CD-ROM consumer device. The picture should be clearer, literally and figuratively, by the Christmas season.

More information is available from the 3DO Company, 1820 Gateway Drive, Suite 109, San Mateo, Calif., 94404, telephone (415) 574-6789.

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