GameCube

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The GameCube (Japanese: ゲームキューブ Hepburn: Gēmukyūbu?, officially called the Nintendo GameCube, abbreviated NGC in Japan and GCN in Europe and North America) is a home video game console released by Nintendo on September 14, 2001, in Japan and on November 18, 2001, in North America. It was later released worldwide in 2002. The sixth-generation console is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and competed with Sony's PlayStation 2, and Microsoft's Xbox.

The GameCube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs for its primary storage medium. The discs are similar to the miniDVD format, and as a result of their smaller size, the system was not designed to play standard DVD's or audio CD's. Nintendo presents a variety of connectivity options for the GameCube. It supports online gaming for a small number of games via the broadband or modem adapter, sold separately; it also connects to the Game Boy Advance, allowing players to access exclusive in-game features using the handheld as a second screen and controller.

Contemporary reception of the GameCube was generally positive. Some praised the extensive software library and high-quality games, while others criticized the console's exterior design and lack of features. Nintendo sold 21.74 million GameCube units worldwide before being discontinued in 2007. Its successor, the Wii, was released in November 2006.

NINTENDO GAMECUBE Specifications

The peak figures listed are all for maximum instantaneous performance and cannot be achieved with the actual game.

However, following the conventions in the game industry they are listed for your reference.

Official Name

NINTENDO GAMECUBE

MPU ("Microprocessor Unit")*
IBM Power PC "Gekko"

Manufacturing Process
0.18 microns Copper Wire Technology

Clock Frequency
405 MHz

CPU Capacity
925 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)

Internal Data Precision
32bit Integer & 64bit Floating-point

External Bus Bandwidth
1.6GB/second (Peak) (32bit address, 64bit data bus 202.5MHz)

Internal Cache
L1: Instruction 32KB, Data 32KB (8 way) L2: 256KB (2 way)

System LSI
"Flipper"

Manufacturing Process
0.18 microns NEC Embedded DRAM Process

Clock Frequency
202.5MHz

Embedded Frame Buffer
Approx. 2MB

Embedded Frame Buffer
Approx. 2MB Sustainable Latency: 5ns (1T-SRAM)

Embedded Texture Cache
Approx. 1MB Sustainable Latency: 5ns (1T-SRAM)

Texture Read Bandwidth
12.8GB/second (Peak)

Main Memory Bandwidth
3.2GB/second (Peak)

Color, Z Buffer
Each is 24bits

Image Processing Function
Fog, Subpixel Anti-aliasing, HW Light x8, Alpha Blending, Virtual Texture Design, Multi-texture Mapping/Bump/Environment Mapping, MIPMAP, Bilinear Filtering, Real-time Texture Decompression (S3TC), etc.

Other

Real-time Decompression of Display List, Hardware Motion Compensation Capability

The Gekko MPU integrates the power PC CPU into a custom, game-centric chip.

(The following sound related functions are all incorporated into the System LSI)

Sound Processor
Special 16bit DSP

Instruction Memory
8KB RAM + 8KB ROM

Data Memory
8KB RAM + 4KB ROM

Clock Frequency
101.25 MHz

Maximum Number of Simultaneously Produced Sounds
ADPCM: 64ch

Sampling Frequency
48KHz

System Floating-point Arithmetic Capability
13.0GFLOPS (Peak) (MPU, Geometry Engine, Hardware Lighting & Transform Total)

Actual Display Capability
6 million to 12 million polygons/second

(Display capability assuming actual game with complexity model, texture, etc.)

System Main Memory
24MB Sustainable Latency: 10ns or lower (1T-SRAM)

A-Memory
16MB (100MHz DRAM)

Disc Drive
CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) System

Average Access Time Data Transfer Speed
16Mbps to 25Mbps 128ms

Media
8cm NINTENDO GAMECUBE Disc based on Matsushita's Optical Disc Technology, Approx. 1.5GB Capacity

Input/Output
Controller Port x4
Digicard Slot x2
Analog AV Output x1
Digital AV Output x1
High-Speed Serial Port x2
High-speed Parallel Port x1

Power Supply
AC Adapter DC12V x 3.5A

Main Unit Dimensions
150mm(W) x 110mm(H) x 161mm(D)
6.8in(W) x 5in(H) x 7.3in(D)

External Links

• GameCube Game ID List
• A Look Inside The GameCube
• TimeSplitters 2 Action Replay Codes