America: The Godfather of Game Development

Chapter 314 ATHENA Architecture

"this----"

Nakayama Hayao was speechless for a moment.

He was naturally aware of this, but perhaps due to the inherent arrogance of being a "mainstream game company," he never brought it up.

Otherwise, there will always be a feeling of unease.

"So, PC-E and you are not even in the same league, and you are not dealing with FC."

Lin Lixin continued, "You're going to be dealing with Nintendo's next-generation game console, the SuperFamicom."

Super Nintendo, due to the influence of Gamenova, Nintendo in this timeline dares not be arrogant in the slightest.

From the very beginning, the development of 16-bit mainframes was put on the agenda.

"Masayuki Uemura————"

Hayao Nakayama frowned.

The father of the Famicom, a top-notch expert in R&D, and also the person in charge of Nintendo's next-generation console.

Including Gunpei Yokoi, who is also a key figure in Nintendo's hardware division, the entire hardware division of Nintendo is a formidable monster.

Not to mention the game development department, which has always been dominating Sega.

"Does that mean we really have absolutely no chance of winning?"

At this moment, Nakayama Hayao's indomitable spirit suddenly dissipated.

Regardless of what others say, Sega has repeatedly fought and lost to Nintendo, yet it has never given up.

For Hayao Nakayama, the idea of ​​giving up was never even a thought.

But even Lin Lixin, on whom he had placed high hopes, did not have any positive thoughts about this.

When the Godfather says no, it's a clear signal that he's being told to leave.

"Odds of winning—"

Lin Lixin clicked his tongue. "President Nakayama, you need to understand one thing."

"A console is not an arcade game. My willingness to collaborate with Sega on arcade projects does not mean I will also help you with consoles."

"To put it bluntly, we are still competitors."

"Logically speaking, I shouldn't be helping outsiders sell their machines."

The meaning behind those words is quite clear.

Hayao Nakayama frowned even more deeply.

Sega is not his company alone, and he can't make decisions about this kind of thing on his own.

Even if it's just a matter of sacrificing an arm to survive by handing over the hardware department to Lin Lixin, it's not something he can decide on the spot.

"But to satisfy your curiosity—"

Lin Lixin grinned, then changed the subject, "I can point you in two directions."

"President Lin—thank you so much."

Hayao Nakayama's expression turned serious, and he straightened his posture, adopting a serious listening posture. "I would like to hear more details."

"The rise and fall of the game market can be described as a grand and sweeping process, and everyone in the game industry is caught in the torrent."

"9

"I have two paths here, but neither of them is necessarily an easy choice for Sega, or for you, Mr. Hayao Nakayama."

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze falling on Hayao Nakayama.

This key figure at Sega, a tough guy who once declared, "I live to make Nintendo uncomfortable," played a brilliant game with the worst hand, but ultimately could only suffer defeat and regret in the tide of the times.

"First, take the technology and capital, run away to the mysterious forces next door, and directly set up production of 8-bit or even near-8-bit learning machines locally," focusing on FC compatibility and even notebook compatibility, completely abandoning the mid-range home console market and retaining only the arcade business.

Everything requires the right timing, location, and people. Before the market is truly mature and stable, Lin Lixin really doesn't want to get involved in the murky waters of the Far East around the turn of the millennium.

There are simply too many factors that make that place unsuitable for developing video games.

These are issues that he cannot resolve on his own.

It would be better to bring over these experienced guys to help him develop the market in advance, which would also allow Sega's home consoles to survive.

It's still a bit of a shame to let Sega's future slew out so many excellent game IPs.

"The second option is that I can come up with two hundred million US dollars. President Nakayama can find a way to get CSK and the other board members to give me back all the Sega shares they hold. You can continue to sit in your position as president."

"Then let's talk about how to do something groundbreaking for Japanese gamers."

Lin Lixin grinned, instantly dispelling his previous seriousness.

Although Hayao Nakayama was nominally the president of Sega, his control over the company was not as strong as it appeared.

The power struggles at Sega have always been a headache.

This company is a typical Japanese conglomerate, with numerous internal factions and serious disagreements among shareholders, departments, and management.

The major shareholder, CSK, and the person in charge, Okawa Isao, have always been the largest faction.

Within Sega, there were even egregious instances where individuals would bypass Hayao Nakayama and report directly to Isao Okawa.

The struggle between the Japanese headquarters and the US branch, the resource competition between the arcade division and the home console division —

It's fair to say that Sega wasn't as thriving as it appeared on the outside; internally, it was in complete disarray.

The chaotic management of the three major players caused Sega to always be a step behind in matters big and small, and to always struggle to deliver satisfactory results.

What surprised Lin Lixin the most was the conflict between the arcade department and the home console department.

In order to engage in internal power struggles, this group of extraordinary individuals can even pull off the bizarre practice of isolating and preventing the sharing of technology between two departments.

Hayao Nakayama fell into a long silence.

Lin Lixin was not in a hurry and quietly waited for his reply.

"CSK—they've wanted to cut their losses and cash out for a long time, but management won't agree to a proposal that would completely erode their independence—"

""

He pondered for a moment, then remained silent for a long while before continuing, "I understand, President Lin. This matter won't take too long."

This time, Hayao Nakayama was clearly determined, and all hesitation in his tone vanished.

He realized that if he continued to force Sega into the console market, even if he won this battle or even the next generation, it would be nothing more than slow suicide.

Sega is too fragile; even with boundless ambition, it has no way to unleash its full potential.

"Two hundred million US dollars to acquire Sega?"

Sam, who had just finished negotiations with Motorola, stood there dumbfounded, completely unaware of how much he had missed out on.

How come such a big deal was settled in just one morning?

"It's just acquiring CSK and the shares held by a few big players."

Lin Lixin waved his hand.

If we can acquire Sega, the benefits will be numerous.

The biggest advantage, of course, is that it gives you a real foothold in Japan.

While Ash and Game Freak can handle many problems, they can only be considered an office in the end.

There are many things he needs to do through a fully functional, reputable company with R&D and production capabilities.

Not to mention Sega's arcade technology.

Until around the turn of the millennium, arcade games will remain a hot commodity in the video game industry.

In the coming 90s, another powerful and formidable opponent will enter the fray.

"ha----"

Sam nodded, finally snapping out of his daze. "By the way, the Motorola guys mentioned 32-bit chips earlier. Do you have any ideas?"

"A 32-bit chip?"

Lin Lixin raised an eyebrow. "The m88000? I've heard them mention it; it's a new RISC 32-bit processor, right?"

"Oh, so you knew. Well, what do we say then? We'll have to build a 32-bit machine sooner or later, so why don't we settle this now?"

"32-bit — we will definitely need to use it sooner or later."

Lin Lixin nodded, but then shook his head. "However, we won't be using Motorola chips anymore."

88000, a product destined to fail.

Its performance can't beat Sun's SPARC, its energy efficiency can't beat MIPS, and its R&D is as slow as squeezing toothpaste.

While Motorola was undoubtedly the best partner in the 16-bit era, its R&D capabilities have fallen short in the next era.

Even in the CISC field, which they excel at, Intel's 86 has a complete and unparalleled monopoly.

Even the new PowerPC architecture developed in collaboration with Apple later failed to make any significant impact.

Although it's cruel, 16 bits was Motorola's last hurrah in this field.

It's like Zilog, which was left behind in the 8-bit era.

"So what should we do? Should we partner with Intel?"

Sam's willingness to cooperate with Intel, the largest semiconductor monopoly in Silicon Valley, is actually very low.

The alliance of IBM, Intel, and Microsoft is a devastating bulldozer in the PC industry.

Even Apple is now being beaten to a pulp by these three in the dual-use device market.

At this juncture, their illegal operations won't reap much benefit, and they're forced to be compatible with the three alliances.

This is not good news for GAMENOVA's existing allies.

"We will not use CISC; RISC is the inevitable trend. Low power consumption and small size will help our handheld console layout."

"Then—should we look for MIPS or ARM?"

Sam naturally excluded SPARC's product out of the competition.

If they actually used this thing, Dr. Jim from SGI would probably just drive straight to headquarters and fight them to the death.

"They are indeed good partners."

Lin Lixin nodded.

According to the original timeline, MIPS would have been acquired by SGI sooner or later.

MIPS is indeed excellent in the embedded field, while ARM is the mainstream for the future.

But Lin Lixin was still somewhat dissatisfied.

The past two projects have proven one thing.

The performance is never enough.

Too low a frequency, too much wasted performance, and a whole bunch of features they'll never use in their lifetime.

These things made it impossible for any manufacturer's processors to meet their needs.

"What I really want is a product that, apart from CISC and RISC, has no redundant instructions other than serving the game itself."

CISC, the approach taken by Intel's 86 architecture, has obvious advantages: strong general-purpose performance and unparalleled compatibility. Executing instruction set-compatible calculations only requires calling pre-packaged modules on the processor.

One instruction can be equivalent to several instructions in RISC.

The drawbacks are equally obvious: high energy consumption and large area, which would be a disaster for mobile devices.

RISC is exactly the opposite.

Just as each of them has its own shortcomings, so too do they.

Both RISC and CISC have their own areas of advantage.

"We need our own processor architecture."

Lin Lixin's tone suddenly became more enthusiastic, "ATHENA architecture."

Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, wields reason and strategy.

He went to the whiteboard, picked up a pen, and wrote down these letters.

【A—Accurate (Precise)】

【T—Thread (Multithreading)】

【H—Heterogeneous Computing】

【E—Efficient】

【N—Neus (connection)】

【A————】

Okay, the last A is just there to make up the number, so that the word will sound more sophisticated than just a simple string of letters.

Naming is an art, a little trick that everyone uses.

If this architecture can be successfully developed, future game consoles, and even manufacturers like Sega, Nintendo, and Sony, will inevitably choose their products.

A near-RISC high-efficiency processor with native multi-threading support and optimized for heterogeneous computing such as GPUs —

"Get the car ready, I'm going to find Vivian."