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Nintendo GameCube

The Nintendo GameCube is a video game console by Nintendo belonging to the same generation as the Sega Dreamcast, Sony's PlayStation 2, and Microsoft's XBox.

It was released on September 14, 2001 in Japan, November 5 in North America, and Spring 2002 in Europe. The Gamecube, or GCN, has been widely anticipated by many who were shocked by Nintendo's decision to design another cartridge based system after the SNES. The Gamecube uses a unique storage medium, a proprietary DVD format that holds 1.5 GB of data. The Gamecube contains such Nintendo series such as Super Mario, Star Fox, Zelda, and Metroid. The Gamecube doesn't have any DVD movie support, but a Gamecube/DVD hybrid is in production by Panasonic. Some titles include Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi's Mansion, Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader[?], Wave Race: Blue Storm[?], and Super Mario Sunshine.

Specs

MPU ("Micro Processing Unit"): Custom IBM Power PC "Gekko"
Manufacturing Process: 0.18 micron IBM Copper Wire Technology
Clock Frequency: 485 MHz
CPU Capacity: 1125 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)
Internal Data Precision: 32-bit Integer & 64-bit Floating-point
External Bus:
  • 1.3 GB/second peak bandwidth
  • 32-bit address space
  • 64-bit data bus
  • 162 MHz clock
Internal Cache:
L1:
  • Instruction 32KB
  • Data 32KB (8 way)
L2: 256KB (2 way)
System LSI: Custom ATI/Nintendo "Flipper"
Manufacturing Process: 0.18 micron NEC Embedded DRAM Process
Clock Frequency: 162 MHz
Embedded Frame Buffer: Approx. 2 MB
Sustainable Latency: 6.2ns (1T-SRAM)
Embedded Texture Cache: Approx. 1 MB
Sustainable Latency: 6.2 ns (1T-SRAM)
Texture Read Bandwidth: 10.4 GB/second (Peak)
Main Memory Bandwidth: 2.6 GB/second (Peak)
Pixel Depth: 24-bit Color, 24-bit Z Buffer
Image Processing Functions:
  • Fog
  • Subpixel Anti-aliasing
  • 8 Hardware Lights
  • Alpha Blending
  • Virtual Texture Design
  • Multi-texturing
  • Bump Mapping
  • Environment Mapping
  • MIP Mapping
  • Bilinear Filtering
  • Trilinear Filtering
  • Ansitropic Filtering
  • Real-time Hardware Texture Decompression (S3TC)
  • Real-time Decompression of Display List
  • HW 3-line Deflickering filter
Sound Processor: Custom Macronix 16-bit DSP (built in to Gecko package)
Instruction Memory: 8KB RAM + 8KB ROM
Data Memory: 8KB RAM + 4KB ROM
Clock Frequency: 81 MHz
Performance: 64 simultaneous channels, ADPCM & PCM encoding
Sampling Frequency: 48KHz
Performance
Floating-point Arithmetic Capability: 10.5 GFLOPS (Peak)
Real-world polygon: 6 to 12 million polygons/second (Peak)
System Memory "Splash": 40 MB
Main Memory: 24 MB MoSys 1T-SRAM (Approximately 10ns Sustainable Latency)
A-Memory: 16 MB 81 MHz DRAM
Disc Drive: CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System
Average Access Time: 128ms
Data Transfer Speed: 16Mbps to 25Mbps
Media: 3 inch Nintendo GameCube Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology
Capacity: Approx. 1.5GB
Input/Output:
  • 4 Controller Ports
  • 2 Memory Card Slots
  • Analog AV Output
  • Digital AV Output
  • 2 High-Speed Serial Ports
  • High-speed Parallel Port
Power Supply: AC Adapter DC12V x 3.5A
Dimensions: 4.3"(H) x 5.9"(W) x 6.3"(D)



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