GameCube technical specifications
Overview of the technical specifications of the GameCube
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
IBM PowerPC "Gekko" processor (180 nm) shaven down to show the silicon die
ATi "Flipper" processor
ATi "Flipper" (180 nm) shaven down to show the silicon die
One of the two 1T-SRAM RAM modules shaven down to expose the die
GameCube Game Disc
Details
Source(s)
CPU
32-bit 486 MHz IBM "Gekko " PowerPC CPU (based on the 750CXe and 750FX )[citation needed ]
180 nm IBM six-layer, copper-wire process, 43 mm2 die with 4.9 watts dissipation
1.8 V for logic and I/O
27×27 mm PBGA package with 256 contacts
18.6 million transistors; of which 6.35 million transistors are for logic
Superscalar 3 issue (2 plus branch folding)
Out-of-order execution
Two 4-stage integer units : IU1 and IU2, 32-bit
Front-side bus :
162 MHz 64-bit enhanced 60x bus northbridge to Flipper
1.3 GB/s peak bandwidth (32-bit address, 64-bit data bus)
On-chip caches:
64-bit Floating Point Unit (FPU) coprocessor :
Data Compression
2:1 and 4:1 compression for graphics data yields 5.2 GB/s peak effective bus bandwidth
Load Q instruction: converts 8-bit or 16-bit, signed or unsigned integers to SP floating point
Store Q instruction: converts SP floating point to 8-bit or 16-bit, signed or unsigned integer
Branch Prediction Unit (BPU)
Load-Store Unit (LSU)
System Register Unit (SRU)
Memory Management Unit (MMU)
Branch Target Instruction Cache (BTIC)
CPU performance: 1125 DMIPS (Dhrystone 2.1)
[ 5] [ 6]
GPU
162 MHz ArtX -designed ATI "Flipper" ASIC (9.4 GFLOPS )[ 2]
180 nm NEC eDRAM manufacturing process, 51 million transistors (approximately half dedicated to 1T-SRAM), 106 mm2 die
Contains GPU, audio DSP, I/O controller and northbridge
3 MB of on-chip 1T-SRAM (2 MB Z-buffer /framebuffer + 1 MB texture cache ) with ~18 GB/s total bandwidth
Embedded 24-bit Z-buffer/framebuffer RAM: 2 MB (4× 512 KB)
Bus width: 384-bit (4 buses, each 96-bit wide)
Bandwidth: 7.8 GB/s
Sustainable latency: Under 5 ns
Embedded texture cache : 1 MB (32× 256 Kb)
Bus width: 512-bit (32 buses, each 16-bit wide)
Bandwidth: 10.4 GB/s
Sustainable latency: Under 5 ns
24 MB (2× 12 MB) 1T-SRAM main memory @ 324 MHz, 64-bit bus, 2.6 GB/s bandwidth
1 vertex pipeline, 4 pixel pipelines with 1 texture mapping unit (TMU) each and 4 render output units (ROPs)
Simultaneous textures per pass: 4
Color depth : 24-bit RGB , 32-bit RGBA
System floating-point arithmetic capability: 11 GFLOPS[ 2] (peak) (MPU, Geometry Engine, Hardware Lighting Total)
Fillrate : 648 megapixels /sec, with Z-buffering , alpha blending , fogging , texture mapping , trilinear filtering , mipmapping and S3 Texture Compression [ 7]
Raw polygon performance: 66 million polygons/sec[ 8]
40 million polygons/sec, with fogging, Z-buffering, alpha blending and Gouraud shading [ 7]
33 million polygons/sec, with fogging, Z-buffering, alpha blending and texture mapping[ 7]
25 million polygons/sec, with fogging, Z-buffering, alpha blending, texture mapping and lighting[ 7]
6-12 million polygons/sec,[ 9] assuming actual game conditions, with complex models, fully textured, fully lit, etc.
16-stage TEV fixed-function texture combiner unit (4 inputs, 1 output)[1]
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 , real-time hardware texture decompression (S3TC) (6:1 ratio), 8 simultaneous texture layers, 256 levels of transparency, clipping , hidden surface removal /culling, Zfreeze, Zcomploc/early-Z reject, bounding box , destination alpha test, alpha test, depth test, render to texture, TEV compare, color combiners, alpha combiners, texture combiners, transparency effects, framebuffer effects, post-processing effects, Gouraud shading , cel shading , dithering , can emulate 1-bit stencil buffer through a Zfreeze function
Other: Real-time decompression of display list , hardware motion compensation capability, HW 3-line deflickering filter
[ 5] [ 6] [ 10]
System Memory
43 MB total non-unified RAM
Memory bus width: 64-bit main system RAM, 896-bit internal GPU memory, 8-bit ARAM
Memory bandwidth : 1.3 GB/s Gekko to Northbridge, 2.6 GB/s Flipper to main system RAM, 10.4 GB/s texture cache, 7.8 GB/s framebuffer/Z-buffer, 81 MB/s auxiliary RAM[ 5]
Latency : Under 10 ns main memory, 5 ns texture cache, 5 ns framebuffer memory
[ 6] [ 11] [ 10]
Audio
Audio processor integrated into Flipper: custom 81 MHz Macronix 16-bit DSP
Sampling frequency: 48 kHz
64 simultaneous channels, ADPCM encoding
Instruction memory: 8 KB RAM, 8 KB ROM
Data memory: 8 KB RAM, 4 KB ROM
External auxiliary RAM: 16 MB DRAM @ 81 MHz
Auxiliary RAM bus: 8-bit
Auxiliary RAM bus bandwidth: 81 MB/s[ 5]
CPU can read/write blocks from RAM to ARAM through DMA; ARAM can be used for miscellaneous low-bandwidth purposes[2]
Stereo output (may contain 5.1-channel surround via Dolby Pro Logic II )
[ 5] [ 11]
Video Modes
[ 5]
Connectivity
4 controller ports, 2 memory card slots
2 high-speed serial ports
1 high-speed parallel port up to 81 MB/s (reserved for the Game Boy Player )
Analog AV Out
Digital AV Out (DOL-001 model only)
Interlaced or progressive scan YCB CR synthesized to YPB PR using in-cable custom Macronix DAC [3]
Stereophonic I²S digital audio (not used by any cable)
[ 5] [better source needed ]
Storage
8 cm optical GameCube Game Disc
Approx. 1.5 GB capacity
16 Mbit/s–25 Mbit/s transfer rate operating in CAV mode
128 ms average access time
Memory card
Capacities: 512 KB (59 blocks), 2 MB (251 blocks), 8 MB (1,019 blocks, incompatible with some games[ 12] )
8 KB sectors
[ 5] [ 11] [ 13]
Other
Power supply
Dimensions: 4.3 in (110 mm) (H) × 5.9 in (150 mm) (W) × 6.3 in (160 mm) (D)
[ 11]
References
^ "Nintendo's GameCube Component FAQ page" . Nintendo . Retrieved March 27, 2008 .
^ a b c "DCTP - Nintendo's Gamecube Technical Overview" . Archived from the original on December 31, 2015. Retrieved November 22, 2015 .
^ "Console Specs" . Retrieved November 22, 2015 .
^ IGN Staff (November 4, 2000). "Gamecube Versus PlayStation 2" . IGN . Retrieved November 22, 2015 .
^ a b c d e f g h Shimpi, Anand Lal (December 7, 2001). "Hardware Behind the Consoles - Part II: Nintendo's GameCube" . AnandTech. Retrieved July 9, 2013 .
^ a b c "Game Consoles: A Look Ahead" . Ace's Hardware. December 14, 2003. Archived from the original on February 8, 2004. Retrieved March 27, 2008 .
^ a b c d Graphics Processor Specifications , IGN , 2001
^ IGN Staff (January 17, 2001). "GameCube 101: Graphics" . IGN . Retrieved November 22, 2015 .
^ "X-ing Things Out" . IGN . January 9, 2001. Archived from the original on January 23, 2001. Retrieved November 12, 2021 .
^ a b GameCube clears path for game developers , EE Times , 5/16/2001
^ a b c d "GCN Technical Specifications" . Nintendo. Archived from the original on May 2, 2008. Retrieved March 28, 2008 .
^ "| Nintendo - Customer Service - Memory Card 1019 |" .
^ "Nintendo GameCube Accessories" . Nintendo. Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Retrieved July 3, 2009 . (dead)
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