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.

Overview

The Nintendo GameCube was released on September 14, 2001 in Japan; November
18, 2001 in North America; and Spring 2002 across Europe. The Nintendo
GameCube, or GCN, was widely anticipated by many who were shocked by
Nintendo's decision to design another cartridge-based system after the Super
Nintendo Entertainment System. The Nintendo GameCube uses a unique storage
medium, a proprietary format based on Matsushita's optical disc technology;
the discs are approximately three inches in diameter (considerably smaller
than a standard CD or DVD), and the discs have a capacity of approximately
1.5 gigabytes.

The Nintendo GameCube software library contains such traditional Nintendo
series as Super Mario, Star Fox, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid. The
Nintendo GameCube does not have any DVD-movie support, but a Nintendo
GameCube hybrid product containing movie functionality has been released by
Panasonic in Japan, named "DVD/GAME Player Q." Some popular titles for
Nintendo GameCube include Super Smash Bros. Melee, Luigi's Mansion, Star
Wars Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader, Wave Race: Blue Storm, and Super Mario
Sunshine.

New Approach

One of the defining aspects of the Nintendo GameCube is the rejuvenated
relationship between Nintendo and its licencees. Unlike previous generations
in which Nintendo was seen by some to bully its third-party game developers,
Nintendo openly sought game-development aid on Nintendo GameCube. Sometimes,
Nintendo would merely request that a third-party developer produce a game
based on the third-party's own game franchises; other times, Nintendo would
request that the third-party developer produce a game based on Nintendo's
own game franchises. This effort from Nintendo resulted in many exclusive
third-party games for the Nintendo GameCube. For example:

   * Most of the Resident Evil series (from Capcom, based on Capcom's own
     game properties)
   * Tales of Symphonia (from Namco, based on Namco's own game properties)
   * Baten Kaitos (from Namco, based on Namco's own game properties)
   * Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (from Square Enix, based on Square
     Enix's own game properties)
   * F-Zero GX (from Sega, based on Nintendo's game properties)

Hardware Specs

Central Processing Unit

   * Name: "Gekko"
   * Producer: IBM
   * Core Base: Power PC 705CXe
   * Manufacturing Process: 0.18-micron IBM copper-wire technology
   * Clock Frequency: 485 MHz
   * CPU Capacity: 1125 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)
   * Internal Data Precision:
        o 32-bit Integer
        o 64-bit Floating-point
        o 128-bit SIMD
   * External Bus:
        o 1.3 gigabyte/second peak bandwidth
        o 32-bit address space
        o 64-bit data bus; 162 MHz clock
   * Internal Cache:
        o L1: instruction 32KB, data 32KB (8 way)
        o L2: 256KB (2 way)

System LSI

   * Name: "Flipper"
   * Producer: ATI
   * Manufacturing Process: 0.18-micron NEC embedded DRAM process
   * Clock Frequency: 162 MHz
   * Embedded Frame Buffer:
        o Approximately 2 megabytes in capacity
        o Sustainable latency of 6.2 nanoseconds
        o RAM type is 1T-SRAM
   * Embedded Texture Cache:
        o Approximately 1 megabyte in capacity
        o Sustainable latency of 6.2 nanoseconds
        o RAM type is 1T-SRAM
   * Texture Read Bandwidth: 10.4 gigabytes/second (at peak)
   * Main Memory Bandwidth: 2.6 gigabytes/second (at peak)
   * Pixel Depth:
        o 24-bit RGB / RGBA
        o 24-bit Z-buffer
   * Image Processing Functions:
        o Fog
        o Subpixel anti-aliasing
        o 8 hardware lights
        o Alpha blending
        o Virtual texture design
        o Multi-texturing, bump mapping
        o Environment mapping
        o MIP mapping
        o Bilinear filtering
        o Trilinear filtering
        o Anisotropic filtering
        o Real-time hardware texture decompression (S3TC)
        o Real-time decompression of display list
        o HW 3-line deflickering filter

Aural Functionality

   * Producer: Macronix
   * Clock Frequency: 81 MHz
   * Instruction Memory:
        o 8 kilobytes of RAM
        o 8 kilobytes of ROM
   * Data Memory:
        o 8 kilobytes of RAM
        o 4 kilobytes of ROM
   * Simultaneous Channels: 64 channels
   * Encoding: ADPCM
   * Sampling Frequency: 48 KHz

Other System Specifications

   * System Floating-point Arithmetic Capability: 10.5 GFLOPS (at peak)
     (MPU, Geometry Engine, HW Lighting Total)
   * Real-world Polygon Performance: 6 million to 12 million polygons/second
     (at peak) (assuming actual game conditions with complex models, fully
     textured, fully lit, etc.)
   * Main RAM:
        o Approximately 24 megabytes in capacity
        o Sustainable latency of 10 nanoseconds
        o RAM type is 1T-SRAM
   * Auxiliary RAM:
        o Approximately 16 megabytes in capacity
        o 81 MHz in speed
        o RAM type is DRAM
   * Disc Drive:
        o Drive type is Constant Angular Velocity (CAV)
        o Average access time is 128 milliseconds
        o Data transfer speed is between 2 megabytes per second and 3.125
          megabytes per second
   * Disc Media:
        o Based on DVD technology
        o Diameter is 3 inches in length
        o Producer is Matsushita
        o Approximately 1.5 gigabytes in capacity
   * Controller Ports: 4
   * Memory Card Slots: 2
   * Analog Audio/Video Outputs: 1
   * Digital Audio/Video Outputs: 1
   * High-speed Serial Ports: 2
   * High-speed Parallel Ports: 1
   * Power Supply: AC Adapter DC12 volts x 3.25 amperes
   * Physical Measurements of Entire System: 4.3"(H) x 5.9"(W) x 6.3"(D)

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