Nintendo Gamecube > The Console

Tech Specs:

MPU("Microprocessor 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: 1.3GB/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. 2MB Sustainable Latency : 6.2ns (1T-SRAM) 
Embedded Texture Cache: Approx. 1MB Sustainable Latency : 6.2ns (1T-SRAM) 
Texture Read Bandwidth: 10.4GB/second (Peak) 
Main Memory Bandwidth: 2.6GB/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, Anisotropic Filtering, Real-time Hardware Texture Decompression (S3TC), Real-time Decompression of Display List, HW 3-line Deflickering filter 

At first glance the system is bigger than everyone has hyped it up to be, it looks huge when you put it on a shelf. It's smaller in width and length than a Dreamcast but three times the size in height! It's the exact height of a can of coke and exactly half the size of a PS2 in length. This system was really designed to be moved which is why Nintendo conveniently added a handle, it seems to be made of hard plastic and is very strong, I've actually carried it with my little finger before now.

One of the cool things about the system is the eject button that obviously ejects the disks. It has a shiny sticker on it that says "push here" and I have found myself pushing it for the pure joy of ejecting disks, my friends in particular found it pretty cool. Which brings me to the disks themselves, they're the size of a Gameboy color cart and are very durable as they were intended to be used by small children without snapping in half and catching on fire.

It seems Nintendo have tried to make the system as much like their previous cart based systems as possible. Unlike the other CD systems out the Gamecube actually has a reset button that resets the game without turning the system off or replaying the boot movie. Believe it or not, it dosn't screw up the memory card either (hello Dreamcast).

Another cool feature the Gamecube has is the lid open protection feature. If you happen to open the Gamecube's lid by mistake the Gamecube will prompt you to shut the lid and will load the game back up where you left. This machine is child proof!

The AV output on the Gamecube is exactly the same as the N64's and the SNES's so it was pretty smart for Nintendo to only sell AV cables individually and not bundle them with the actual console. The USA Gamecube will have AV cables with the console so don't worry if for some reason you are reading this website and don't own any Nintendo systems.

The actual plug adaptor dosn't go inside the console like it did with the N64, this time around a big block is in the middle of the plug cable. Most people say it is huge but really they don't know how lucky they are as I have another block which is twice the size on the end of my cable (voltage transformer).

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