Editing Nintendo 64

| logo        = Nintendo_64_Logo.png

| successor    = [[Gamecube|GameCube]]

Codenamed "Project Reality", the Nintendo 64 design was mostly complete by mid-1995, but its launch was delayed until 1996, when [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] named it Machine of the Year. It was launched with three games: ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' and ''[[Pilotwings 64]]'' (worldwide) and ''[[Saikyō Habu Shōgi]]'' (exclusive to Japan). As part of the [[History of video game consoles (fifth generation)|fifth generation of gaming]], the system competed primarily with the [[PlayStation (console)|Sony PlayStation]] and the [[Sega Saturn]]. The [[suggested retail price]] at its United States launch was {{currency|199.99|USD}}, and 32.93 million units were sold worldwide. The console was released in a range of colors and designs over its lifetime. In 2015, [[IGN]] named it the 9th greatest video game console of all time.

** Performance: 125 MIPS ([[Instructions per second|million instructions per second]]), 93.75 [[MFLOPS]] (million floating-point operations per second).

* [[Graphics processing unit|GPU]]: 64-bit [[Reality Coprocessor]], running at 62.5 [[Megahertz|MHz]] and over 100 [[MFLOPS]]. It is a [[microcode]]-reprogrammable [[Transform, clipping, and lighting|T&L]] GPU, composed of two integrated processors: the Reality Signal Processor (RSP) and the Reality Display Processor (RDP).

** Hardware features: [[texture mapping]] with perspective correction, [[Spatial anti-aliasing|anti-aliasing]], [[Z-buffering]], [[bilinear filtering]], [[trilinear filtering]], [[Gouraud shading]], 8-bit [[alpha blending]], [[level of detail]] management.

*** 62.5 MP/s (texturing, perspective correction, bilinear filtering, translucency, Z-buffering).

***125–250 MP/s (fill mode, copy mode).

* Audio: 16-bit, stereo, [[CD quality]].

** Number of [[ADPCM]] voices: 16–24 channels with pitch-shifting [[PCM]], up to 100 PCM channels theoretically possible.

* 4 (4.5) MB 250 MHz (500 MHz effective) [[RDRAM]] (Rambus [[Dynamic random-access memory|DRAM]]) on a shared 9-bit bus with 562.5 [[MB/s]] peak bandwidth, upgradable to 8 (9) MB with [[Expansion Pak]]. Differing memory countings are due to the 9th bit being used only for tasks such as anti-aliasing or Z-buffering.

* [[List of color palettes|Color palette]]: 16,777,216 ([[True Color|24-bit]] [[color depth]]), 2,097,152 possible colors (21-bit color) on screen.

The Nintendo 64's [[central processing unit]] (CPU) is the [[NEC]] VR4300, a licensed variant of the [[64-bit computing|64-bit]] [[MIPS Technologies]] [[R4200#R4300i|R4300i]], itself a cost-reduced derivative of the MIPS R4200. Built by NEC on a 0.35 [[micrometre|µm]] [[Semiconductor device fabrication|process]], the VR4300 is a [[Reduced instruction set computing|RISC]] 5-stage [[Scalar processor|scalar]] [[Out-of-order execution#In-order processors|in-order execution]] processor, internal 24 [[Kilobyte|KB]] direct-mapped [[CPU cache|L1 cache]] (16 KB for instructions, 8 KB for data). Although a floating-point unit exists as a logical coprocessor, there is no dedicated physical FPU datapath on the VR4300; instead, the integer pipeline is shared for this purpose, meaning that floating-point instructions will stall the pipeline. The 4.6 million [[transistor]] CPU is cooled passively by an [[Aluminium|aluminum]] heatspreader that makes contact with a [[steel]] [[heat sink]] above.

With a [[clock rate]] of 93.75 MHz, the N64's VR4300 is generally considered to be the most powerful console CPU of the [[History of video game consoles (fifth generation)|fifth generation of video game consoles]]. Except for its narrower 32-bit system bus, the VR4300 retains the computational abilities of the 64-bit MIPS R4200, though few titles take advantage of 64-bit [[Significant figures|data precision]] operations. N64 game titles generally use faster and more compact 32-bit data-operations, as these are sufficient to generate 3D scene data for the console's RSP (Reality Signal Processor) unit. In addition, 32-bit code executes faster and requires less storage space, which came at a premium with contemporary technology. The CPU is constrained by a 250 MB/s bus to the system RAM, and in order to access the [[Random-access memory|RAM]], the CPU must go through the [[#Reality Coprocessor|Reality Coprocessor]] (RCP), and can not use [[Direct memory access|DMA]] to do so as the RCP can. This issue is further compounded by the [[RDRAM]]'s high access latency.

Programs [[video game console emulator|emulating]] the Nintendo 64 benefit from the scarcity of 64-bit operations in the game's executable code, especially when running with a 32-bit machine architecture as a host. Most of these emulators perform the majority of calculations at 32-bit precision and [[trap (computing)|trap]] the few subroutines that actually make use of 64-bit instructions.

 

Nintendo 64's graphics and audio duties are performed by the 64-bit [[Silicon Graphics|SGI]] coprocessor, named the Reality Coprocessor, or RCP. The RCP is a 62.5 MHz chip split internally into two major components, the Reality Display Processor (RDP) and the Reality Signal Processor (RSP). Each area communicates with the other by way of a 128-bit internal [[Bus (computing)|data bus]] that provides 1.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The RSP is a MIPS R4000-based 128-bit integer vector processor. It is programmable through microcode, allowing the chip's functions to be significantly altered by each software title if necessary, to allow for different types of work, precision, and workloads. A number of microcodes were provided by Nintendo, while a few companies, such as Rare and Factor 5, would later develop their own microcodes. The RSP performs transform, clipping and lighting calculations, and triangle setup. The Reality Display Processor is primarily the Nintendo 64's pixel rasterizer, and also handles the console's Z-buffer compute.

Instead of a discrete sound processor, the RSP frequently performs audio functions, although the CPU can be tasked with this as well. It can play back most types of audio (dependent on software [[codec]]s) including uncompressed [[Pulse-code modulation|PCM]], [[MP3]], [[MIDI]], and [[Music tracker|tracker]] music. The RSP is theoretically capable of a maximum of 100 channels of PCM at a time, but only in a case where all system resources are devoted to audio. It has a maximum [[sampling rate]] of 48 kHz with 16-bit audio. In practice, however, storage limitations caused by the [[ROM cartridge]] format limit the audio size and thus quality. Some game titles are designed for higher quality audio when storage expansions are available, as with ''[[F-Zero X#Expansion Kit|F-Zero X Expansion Kit]]''.

Rambus technology was quite new at the time and offered Nintendo a way to provide a large amount of bandwidth at a relatively low cost. The narrow bus makes board design easier and cheaper than the higher width data buses required for high bandwidth out of slower-clocked RAM types (such as [[Dynamic random-access memory|VRAM]] or [[Dynamic random-access memory|EDO DRAM]]); this way, the N64 mainboard could be designed with only 2 layers. However, RDRAM, at the time, came with a very high access latency. The combination of high bandwidth and high latency meant that significant effort was required from developers to achieve optimal results. Early N64 revisions use two 18 Mbit RAM chips; in ca. 1998 these were replaced with a single 36 Mbit chip, same as was used on the Expansion Pak.

The [[Nintendo 64 Game Pak]] [[ROM cartridge]]s are so much faster than contemporary [[CD-ROM]] drives that data can be streamed in real-time from cartridges as if they are additional RAM, thus maximizing the efficiency of the system's RAM. This was a common practice for developers of many games, such as [[Nintendo EAD]]'s ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' or [[Factor 5]]'s ''[[Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine]]''.

The system allows for video output in two formats: [[composite video]] and [[S-Video]]. This is accomplished through the proprietary "MULTI OUT" connector on the rear of the system, which was carried over from the SNES and later reused on the GameCube. Although the [[digital-to-analog converter]] chip used in early models had the capability to produce [[RGB color model|RGB]] video, it was not connected by default for this purpose, and later revisions lacked the pin connections for this purpose entirely.  

The system came bundled with a [[RCA connector|composite cable]] (labeled Stereo A/V cable by Nintendo). Available separately (and included with the system in the UK) were a [[RF connector|RF]] [[RF modulator|modulator]] and switch set (for connection to older televisions) and an official S-Video cable, although the latter was only sold at retail stores in Japan. In the U.S., the official S-Video cable could only be ordered direct from Nintendo of America, while in PAL territories, no S-Video cable was officially sold altogether. Furthermore, Nintendo omitted several components from the S-Video signal path in PAL consoles, meaning that using an unmodified NTSC S-Video cable will result in an overbright, garish image, or no image at all.

The system supports [[standard-definition television|standard-definition]] resolutions up to [[480i]] ([[576i]] for PAL units). Few games make use of this mode, and most of those which do also require use of the [[Nintendo 64 accessories#Expansion Pak|Expansion Pak]] RAM upgrade. Most games instead use the system's [[Low-definition television|low-definition 240p]] (288p for PAL models) modes. A number of games also support widescreen display ratios using either [[anamorphic widescreen]] or [[Letterboxing (filming)|letterboxing]]. Games with support for this include ''[[Banjo-Tooie]]'', ''[[Donkey Kong 64]]'', ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|GoldenEye 007]]'', ''[[007: The World Is Not Enough (Nintendo 64)|007: The World Is Not Enough]]'', ''[[Jet Force Gemini]]'', ''[[Perfect Dark]]'', ''[[Starshot: Space Circus Fever]]'', ''[[Turok 2: Seeds of Evil]]'', ''[[Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion]]'', ''[[Mission: Impossible (1998 video game)|Mission Impossible]]'', ''[[Hybrid Heaven]]'', and ''[[South Park (video game)|South Park]]''.