Nintendo GameCube technical specifications

Nintendo originally offered a digital video output on early GameCube models. However, it was determined that less than one percent of users utilized the feature. The company eventually removed the option starting with model number DOL-101 of May 2004.[1] The console's technical specifications are as follows.[2][3][4]

IBM PowerPC "Gekko" processor
Nintendo GameCube optical storage disc
Details Source
CPU
  • 485 MHz IBM superscalar out of order "Gekko" PowerPC CPU based on 750CXe and 750FX
  • 0.18 microns Copper Wire Technology 180 nm manufacturing process with 4.9-watt dissipation
  • 162 MHz FSB (1.3 GB/s)
  • CPU Capacity: 1125 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)
  • External Bus Bandwidth: 1.3 GB/second peak bandwidth (32-bit address, 64-bit data bus at 162 MHz)
  • 64 KB L1 cache(Data+Instruction cache)
  • 256 KB L2 cache
  • Superscalar Out-of-order execution
  • 4 stages long Two integer ALUs(IU1 and IU2) - 32 bit
  • 7 stages long Floating Point Unit - 64-bit double precision FPU, usable as 2×32-bit SIMD for 1.9 single-precision GFLOPS performance, often found under the denomination "paired singles"
  • Branch Prediction Unit(BPU)
  • Load-Store Unit(LSU)
  • System Register Unit(SRU)
  • Memory Management Unit(MMU)
  • Branch Target Instruction Cache(BTIC)
  • SIMD Instructions - PowerPC750 + Roughly 50 new SIMD instructions, geared toward 3D graphics
  • Front-side Bus - 64-bit enhanced 60x bus to GPU/chipset at 162 MHz clock with 1.3 GB/s peak bandwidth
  • On-chip Cache - 64 kB 8-way associative L1 cache (32/32 kB instruction/data). 256 KB on-die, 2-way associative L2 cache
  • DMIPS - 1125 (dhrystone 2.1)
  • 180 nm IBM six layer, copper-wire process. 43 mm² die
  • 1.8 V for logic and I/O. 4.9 W dissipation
  • 27×27 mm PBGA package with 256 contacts
  • 6.35 million logic transistors and 18.6 million transistors total
 [5][6]
GPU
  • 162 MHz ATI "Flipper" GPU (9.4 GFLOPS)[2]
  • 3 MB of on-chip 1T-SRAM (2 MB Z-buffer + 1 MB texture cache)
  • 51 million transistors (approximately half dedicated to 1T-SRAM)
  • 180 nm manufacturing process
  • 1 vertex pipeline, 4 pixel pipelines with 1 texture mapping unit(TMU) each and 4 render output units(ROPs)
  • Embedded 2MB 24-bit Z-Buffer/Framebuffer, sustainable Latency: 6.2 ns
  • Embedded Texture Cache: Approx. 1 MB, Sustainable Latency: 6.2 ns
  • 24-bit RGB/32-bit RGBA color depth
  • System Floating-point Arithmetic Capability: 11 GFLOPS[2] (Peak) (MPU, Geometry Engine, Hardware Lighting Total)
  • Estimated raw display capability: 90 million polygons/second[7]
  • Actual Display Capability: 6 to 20 million polygons/second[8] (Assuming actual game conditions with complex models, fully *textured, fully lit, etc.)
  • Estimated Internal Bandwidth: 20-25 GB/s (peak)[7]
  • Simultaneous Textures Per Pass: 8[7][8]
  • Image Processing Functions: Volumetric Fog, Heat Haze, Motion Blur, Bloom, Subpixel Anti-aliasing, per-vertex lighting, 8 Hardware Lights, Alpha Blending, Hardware Transform and Lighting(T&L), Virtual Texture Design, Multi-texturing, Emboss Bump Mapping, Dot3 Bump Mapping(Normal Mapping), Lightmapping, Shadow Mapping, Shadow Volumes, Planar Projection Shadows, Environment Mapping, Mipmapping, LOD, Depth of Field, Perspective-Correct Texture Mapping, Bilinear Filtering, Trilinear Filtering, Anisotropic Filtering, and Real-time Hardware Texture Decompression (S3TC)(6:1 ratio), 8 simultaneous texture layers, 256 levels of transparency, Alpha Blending, Clipping, hidden surface removal/Culling, Zfreeze, Zcomploc/Early-Z Reject, Bounding Box, Destination Alpha Test, Alpha Test , Depth Test, Render to Texture, 15-stage Texture Environment/TEV(Similar to Nvidia GeForce NV2A Register Combiners), TEV Compare, color combiners, alpha combiners, texture combiners, transparency effects, framebuffer effects, post-processing effects, Gouraud Shading, Cel Shading, Dithering, can emulate 1bit Stencil Buffer through a zfreeze function.
  • Other: Real-time Decompression of Display List, Hardware Motion Compensation Capability, and HW 3-line Deflickering filter.
[5][6]
System Memory
  • 43 MB total non-unified RAM
    • 24 MB MoSys 1T-SRAM (codenamed "Splash") as main system RAM
    • 3 MB embedded 1T-SRAM within "Flipper"
    • 16 MB DRAM used as I/O buffer for audio and DVD drive
  • Memory bandwidth: 3.2 GB/s main memory bandwidth, 12.8 GB/s texture memory read bandwidth[7]
  • Latency: Under 10 ns main memory, 6.2 ns framebuffer, 6.2 ns texture cache[2]
 [6][9]
Audio
  • Output: Stereo (may contain 5.1-channel surround via Dolby Pro Logic II)
  • Integrated audio processor: Custom 81 MHz Macronix 16-bit DSP
  • Instruction memory: 8 KB RAM, 8 KB ROM
  • Data memory: 8 KB RAM, 4 KB ROM
  • Sampling Frequency: 48 kHz
  • 64 simultaneous channels, ADPCM encoding
 [5][9]
Video Modes
  • 640×480 interlaced (480i) @ 60 Hz
  • 640×480 progressive scan (480p) @ 60 Hz (NTSC versions only)
  • 768×576 interlaced (576i) @ 50 Hz (PAL versions only)
 [5]
Connectivity [5]
Storage
  • 8 cm miniDVD optical disc
    • 1.5 GB capacity
    • 16 Mbit/s–25 Mbit/s transfer rate operating in CAV mode
    • 128 ms average access time
  • Memory card
    • Capacities starting at 512 KB (59 save blocks)
    • 8 KB sectors
 [5][9][10]
Other
  • Power supply
    • DC 12 volts
    • 3.25 A
  • Dimensions: 4.3 in (110 mm) (H) × 5.9 in (150 mm) (W) × 6.3 in (160 mm) (D)
 [9]

References

  1. ↑ "Nintendo's GameCube Component FAQ page". Nintendo. Retrieved March 27, 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "DCTP - Nintendo's Gamecube Technical Overview". Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Console Specs". Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  4. ↑ IGN Staff (November 4, 2000). "Gamecube Versus PlayStation 2". IGN. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shimpi, Anand Lal (December 7, 2001). "Hardware Behind the Consoles - Part II: Nintendo's GameCube". AnandTech. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 "Game Consoles: A Look Ahead". Ace's Hardware. December 14, 2003. Archived from the original on February 8, 2004. Retrieved March 27, 2008.
  7. 1 2 3 4 IGN Staff (January 17, 2001). "GameCube 101: Graphics". IGN. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  8. 1 2 "cube.ign.com: X-ing Things Out". Archived from the original on January 23, 2001. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "GCN Technical Specifications". Nintendo. Archived from the original on May 2, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2008.
  10. ↑ "Nintendo GameCube Accessories". Nintendo. Retrieved July 3, 2009. (dead)
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