 Development of the Saturn was supervised by Hideki Sato , Sega 's director and deputy general manager of research and development . According to Sega project manager Hideki Okamura , the Saturn project started over two years before the system was showcased at the Tokyo Toy Show in June 1994 . The name " Saturn " was initially the system 's codename during development in Japan , but was eventually chosen as the official product name . In 1993 , Sega and Japanese electronics company Hitachi formed a joint venture to develop a new CPU for the Saturn , which resulted in the creation of the " SuperH RISC Engine " ( or SH @-@ 2 ) later that year . The Saturn was ultimately designed around a dual @-@ SH2 configuration . According to Kazuhiro Hamada , Sega 's section chief for Saturn development during the system 's conception , " the SH @-@ 2 was chosen for reasons of cost and efficiency . The chip has a calculation system similar to a DSP [ digital signal processor ] , but we realized that a single CPU would not be enough to calculate a 3D world . " Although the Saturn 's design was largely finished before the end of 1993 , reports in early 1994 of the technical capabilities of Sony 's upcoming PlayStation console prompted Sega to include another video display processor ( VDP ) to improve the system 's 2D performance and texture @-@ mapping . CD @-@ ROM @-@ based and cartridge @-@ only versions of the Saturn hardware were considered for simultaneous release at one point during the system 's development , but this idea was discarded due to concerns over the lower quality and higher price of cartridge @-@ based games . 
