Tech Specs 
64 bit System Architecture
106.4 Megabyte per second bus bandwidth
16.8 million colours
Five processors: GPU, DSP, Object, Blitter 
and MC68000 16bit sound 

The Jaguar was originally developed with a 32bit console called Panther, but Atari decided early that their
best chance of succeeding in the competitive games market was to concentrate on the more powerful
machine, and so the Panther was dropped. 

Atari attempted to regain it's prominence in the videogame market by releasing the Jaguar.  The specs 
were very impressive, but the lack of good software killed the system. Good luck finding games for this 
system it is hard.  The CD add on is very cool.  It is definately a must have for any avid videogame collector..

http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/atari/FAQ_-_Jaguar

The section entitled "Was the Jaguar really a 64-bit system?" explains everything really well.
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The Jaguar was built around three chips housing a total of five processors (look up the FAQ). One 
chip, Tom, has a GPU (long before NVIDIA introduced their "first ever GPU"), an object processor, 
a blitter and some other stuff (again, look up the FAQ). This RISC chip was used for BOTH system 
processing AND graphics rendering.

Jerry was the DSP and represented its audio subsystem.

The problem is, programmers have a choice which processors to use. While they normally should 
use Tom, many were used to the MC68000 and therefore used that in stead, for it was easier to 
program and all, but unfortunately making the game look and behave like a 16-bit title.

The Jaguars bottlenecks were a) poor marketing (especially in Europe) and b) tough system to 
develop for.

Anyway, to get back to the n-bit issues, the memory bus was 64-bits (that is, memory got accessed 
with 64-bits at a time) (comparison: most PC's, including current Athlon-based machines, access 
DIMMs with 32-bits at a time). All processors could directly access this memory. The cartridge 
interface was not 64-bits but 32-bits wide, which for loading games and CD data should be sufficient.

The issue is not wether or not a system is technically n-bits or runs at n Megahertz but more how a 
systems components are programmed and orchestrated together to bring you all those games.

If you call the Jag a 16-bit system because it has a 68000 inside (whithout ever mentioning how or 
what it is used for in this particular system), then you should by the same standard call the Super 
Nintendo an 8-bit system because it has an archaic Zilog Z80 in it. That's just plain stupid. I wonder
how you would place the Atari Lynx. It has an old 8-bit 6502 CPU but the rest of the overall system 
is 16-bits.

The Jaguar, overall, can be considered truly 64-bits because all system components that have the 
capability to do so, CAN communicate at and address 64-bits. The 68000 is only meant for reading 
controller status and such, NOT as the main processor. "Tom" is the main system and graphics 
component and "Jerry" is the main audio component. The 68000 is used in an auxiliary fashion, and 
completely unlike its use in the Amiga and Atari 16-bit computers or the Sega MegaDrive/Genesis. 
I mean, some laser printers also have a 68000 next to a couple of RISC processors. Does that make
it a 16-bit laser printer? Usually the RISC processors in those more recent printers do the actual work 
of building the output (as opposed to older laser printers).

The fact is, Atari left it up to the programmers which chips to use and therefore, what kind of games 
to write: 16, 32, or 64-bit. The same holds true for Atari's Falcon which can be viewed as a parallel 
processing system. The Jag also has some parallel processing similarities that were used in Inmos 
T800 transputer systems (as used in Atari's Transputer Workstation and later on, in IBM's financial 
Parallel Transaction Servers). So stop bickering at n-bits. That is completely unimportant - just look 
at Donkey Kon Country for the SNES: with a couple of custom chips on the cartidge, suddenly the 
game looks like a 32-bit title. Who said cartridge based systems didnt have advantages....

BTW - The Virtual Light Machine feature of the Jaguars CD-ROM add-on is now available in NUON-
equipped DVD players. Just thought you should know. NUON is developed by VM Labs, founded by 
Richard Miller, who also worked on the Transputer Workstations and the Jaguar, and I've heard some 
rumours that the 128-bit NUON technology developed is actually sort of the heritage of the later Jaguar 
2 developments. But this is only a rumour ofcourse.
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