Console
Sega Master System
A Z80 console with a tile-and-sprite VDP descended from the TMS9918. It lost to Nintendo in Japan and North America, then outsold it in Brazil and parts of Europe for years afterward.
- Manufacturer
- Sega
- Released
- June 1986
- Region
- North America
- Record status
- provisional
A Sega Master System with the cartridge slot and card slot on its upper deck, shown with the control pad.
About this machine
Sega built the Master System on the processor and video lineage it already used in the arcades, which made conversions straightforward. Its long afterlife came from licensing: Tec Toy kept manufacturing and selling the console in Brazil long after Sega had moved on.
Configuration
NTSC retail console
| Component | Role | Count | Clock | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zilog Z80 | Main CPU | 1 | 3.58 MHz Nominal clock | — |
| Sega 315-5124 VDP | GPU | 1 | 3.579545 MHz Nominal clock | — |
| Sega Master System RAM | System memory | 1 | — | 8 KiB |
| Sega Master System video RAM Attached to the video display processor; the Z80 reaches it only through the VDP data port. | Video memory | 1 | — | 16 KiB |
Figures for the whole machine
provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clock frequency cpu provisional | 3.58 MHz | Rumored | Vendor-rated | Nominal clock From community documentation The verified service manual states no clock. Wikipedia gives 3.58 MHz for the Z80A, and the catalog carries it as rumored until a Sega document states it. | |
| Clock frequency gpu provisional | 3.579545 MHz | Reported | Vendor-rated | Nominal clock Stated by the vendor The service manual identifies the IC5 clock in its oscillator test procedure. |
4 documented absences
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory bandwidth memory provisional | unknown The reviewed manual gives no memory bandwidth or bus width. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor The service manual gives oscillator checks and parts lists, but no memory transfer rate or bus-width figure. | |
| Storage capacity storage provisional | not applicable Game cartridges are removable media and their ROM capacity varies by title; no cartridge capacity is part of the base console. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Design capacity Stated by the vendor | |
| Memory capacity whole-system provisional | unknown The console's work RAM and video RAM are both known only from tier C material. Adding them would rest a new number on that material, which this catalog does not do. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Design capacity Stated by the vendor Both terms of the total are rumored. The catalog displays a rumored figure but does not compute with one, so the total waits for a document that states a capacity outright. | |
| Rated power consumption whole-system provisional | unknown Sega does state an electrical rating for a Master System — DC9V/850mA — but for the Japanese MK-2000 of October 1987, and the same page sets out how the overseas machine released a year earlier differs in hardware: no FM sound, no 3-D glasses port, no rapid-fire circuit. This record is the 1986 machine, so the vendor figure exists and does not describe it. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Rated power Stated by the vendor Provisional and unknown, having been checked rather than merely left empty: a vendor rating was found and rejected because its model code belongs to a different console. |
Figures for its components
1 documented absence
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peak FP32 rate cpu provisional | not applicable This console CPU has no integrated floating-point execution unit. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor Provisional record for sega-master-system: the cited primary manual is registered, but its page-level transcription and independent review are still pending. |
1 documented absence
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peak FP32 rate gpu provisional | not applicable This is a tile, sprite or scanline graphics unit, not a floating-point processor; it executes no FP32 operations. | Not stated | Vendor-rated | Theoretical peak Stated by the vendor Provisional record for sega-master-system: the cited primary manual is registered, but its page-level transcription and independent review are still pending. |
provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory capacity memory provisional | 8 KiB | Rumored | Vendor-rated | Design capacity From community documentation Sega's verified manual states no RAM capacity. Wikipedia gives 8 KiB of work RAM, which is separate from the video RAM the console also carries and which the catalog records separately. |
provisional A figure marked provisional is recorded but not accepted: its evidence is unsettled. It may rely on one source, an unconfirmed announcement, or a digit read from a damaged scan. The reason appears under the figure. The catalog shows the figure but never uses it in a multiplier. How records are judged.
| Metric | Value | Evidence | Basis | Method | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory capacity memory provisional | 16 KiB | Rumored | Vendor-rated | Design capacity From community documentation Sega's verified service manual states no video-RAM capacity. Wikipedia's infobox and hardware paragraph both give 16 KiB, and the catalog carries it as rumored until a Sega document states it. |
Editorial notes
Removable cartridge ROM is storage, not whole-system working memory.