Nintendo GameCube

Nintendo GameCube

Nintendo GameCube in Indigo, with controller and memory card
Specifications
Manufacturer	Nintendo
Type	Home video game console
Released	14 September 2001 (Japan) 18 November 2001 (North America) 3 May 2002 (Europe)
Discontinued	February 2007
CPU	IBM PowerPC "Gekko", 485 MHz (Nintendo's figure; the console reports 486 MHz)
Memory	24 MB 1T-SRAM main memory; 16 MB 81 MHz DRAM ("A-memory")
Storage	8 cm optical disc, about 1.5 GB; memory cards
Display	Analogue AV out; digital AV out on DOL-001 only
Sound	16-bit DSP at 81 MHz, 64 ADPCM channels at 48 kHz
Graphics	ArtX "Flipper", 162 MHz, with about 2 MB embedded frame buffer and 1 MB texture cache
Power	External adapter, 12 V DC
Dimensions	150 mm (W) × 110 mm (H) × 161 mm (D)
OS / Firmware	Built-in system menu (IPL)
Predecessor	Nintendo 64
Successor	Wii
Codename	Dolphin
Model no.	DOL-001, DOL-101

The Nintendo GameCube is Nintendo's sixth-generation home console, released in Japan on 14 September 2001, in North America on 18 November 2001 and in Europe on 3 May 2002, at US$199 in North America. It was developed under the codename Dolphin. ArtX designed the system logic and the "Flipper" graphics chip, IBM the "Gekko" PowerPC processor, and Matsushita (Panasonic) the optical drive technology. It was Nintendo's first console to use optical discs. Nintendo sold 21.74 million units worldwide.

Nintendo did not support board-level repair of the GameCube in the field. Its June 2002 Authorized Service Center Manual limits service centres to warranty replacement, sale of accessories and exchange of the whole console for one of the same colour, after a functional test with the customer's game or Nintendo's demo disc. No Nintendo schematic or component parts list for the console is public. The repair pages here rely on Nintendo's published specification, the community reference Yet Another GameCube Documentation (YAGCD), Console5's capacitor lists and the GC-Forever wiki:

• Nintendo GameCube Maintenance Guide
• Nintendo GameCube Troubleshooting Guide
• Nintendo GameCube Capacitor Replacement Guide

Models and board revisions

GameCube retail models

Model	Mainboards	Ports
DOL-001	NTSC DOL-CPU-01 to DOL-CPU-30; PAL DOL-CPU(P)-01 and (P)-10	Digital AV out and Serial Port 2 on early units; later DOL-CPU-30 units have no Serial Port 2
DOL-101	NTSC DOL-CPU-50 and -60; PAL DOL-CPU(P)-20	No digital AV out and no Serial Port 2

The table follows GC-Forever's list of mainboard revisions, which also records that many boards exist in a "C/" variant (for example C/DOL-CPU-30), the prefix probably marking manufacture in China. YAGCD describes the same sequence as hardware revision HW2 in three editions: the first with all ports, a second edition without Serial Port 2 (the plastic cover remains, with a metal plate behind it), and a third without Serial Port 2 or the digital AV connector. HW1 was a first version that never went on sale. The DOL-101 appeared in May 2004.

The revision is printed on the mainboard silkscreen. It matters for repair because the later boards carry fewer electrolytic capacitors (a PAL DOL-CPU(P)-20 has one) and because the DOL-101 laser potentiometer was set to a lower factory value. See the Nintendo GameCube Capacitor Replacement Guide and laser potentiometer.

Hardware

Nintendo's specification

Nintendo released its specification after Spaceworld 2000:

Nintendo's published GameCube specification

Item	Nintendo's figure
Processor	IBM PowerPC "Gekko", 485 MHz, 0.18 µm copper process, 925 Dmips (Dhrystone 2.1)
Caches	L1 32 KB instruction + 32 KB data (8-way); L2 256 KB (2-way)
External bus	1.6 GB/s peak; 32-bit address, 64-bit data, 162 MHz
System LSI	ArtX "Flipper", 162 MHz, 0.18 µm NEC embedded DRAM
Embedded frame buffer	About 2 MB 1T-SRAM, 5 ns latency
Embedded texture cache	About 1 MB 1T-SRAM, 5 ns latency
Sound processor	"Special 16bit DSP", 81 MHz; 8 KB RAM + 8 KB ROM instruction memory, 8 KB RAM + 4 KB ROM data memory; 64 ADPCM channels at 48 kHz
Main memory	24 MB 1T-SRAM, 10 ns latency or lower
A-memory	16 MB, 81 MHz DRAM
Disc drive	CAV, "average access time 128ns", 16 to 25 Mbps
Media	8 cm disc based on Matsushita's optical disc technology, about 1.5 GB
Input/output	4 controller ports, 2 memory card slots, analogue AV out, digital AV out, 2 high-speed serial ports, 1 high-speed parallel port
Power supply	"AC Adapter DC12V x 3.5A"
Dimensions	150 mm (W) × 110 mm (H) × 161 mm (D)

Three of these figures need a note. The 128 ns access time is as printed and cannot be right for a mechanical drive, probably a slip for milliseconds; Nintendo published no other figure. The console's own operating system records the CPU clock as 486 MHz, three times the 162 MHz bus clock, against Nintendo's 485 MHz. The North American DOL-002 adapter is rated 12 V DC 3.25 A output (120 V, 46 W input), not the 3.5 A of the specification.

Main chips

YAGCD lists the chips on the mainboard by position: Flipper (U1), Gekko (U2), two MoSys 12 MB 1T-SRAMs (U3, U4), a 16 MB NEC DRAM as audio RAM (U5), the A/V encoder (U6), an amplifier (U7), two Macronix clock generators (U8, U9) and a Macronix chip holding the real-time clock and the boot ROM (IPL) at U10. The 1T-SRAMs connect to Flipper over a 64-bit bus at about 324 MHz, Gekko over a 64-bit bus at 162 MHz, and the audio RAM over an 8-bit bus at 81 MHz.

The sound DSP has no separate package. Nintendo's specification names no maker for it, and YAGCD lists it, with a question mark, as a Macronix DSP core inside Flipper.

Storage

The disc is 8 cm, with a capacity YAGCD gives as 1,459,978,240 bytes. Nintendo sold three memory cards: Memory Card 59 (grey, 512 KB), 251 (black, 2 MB) and 1019 (white, 8 MB). The numbers are block counts; the same cards are also sold as 4, 16 and 64 Mb.

Clock battery

The real-time clock is backed by a tabbed CR2032 cell soldered to the controller port board. When it is flat, the clock and system settings reset each time the console is switched off. See the maintenance guide.

Controller ports

The controller port is a seven-pin connector carrying a 5 V supply for the rumble motor, a 3.43 V logic supply, a single bidirectional data line and three grounds. Nintendo published no specification for it; the pinout is community documentation, set out on the maintenance guide.

Accessories that change the hardware

• The Game Boy Player bolts to the underside and plays Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges. It has its own board and electrolytic capacitors, listed in the Nintendo GameCube Capacitor Replacement Guide.
• The Broadband Adapter and Modem Adapter fit Serial Port 1 on the underside.
• The WaveBird, introduced in 2002, is an RF wireless controller that talks to a receiver dongle. It runs on two AA cells and has no rumble motor.

Panasonic Q

The Panasonic Q (SL-GC10) is a GameCube combined with a DVD player, built by Panasonic and sold only in Japan. It has a stainless steel case, a front-loading full-size tray and a backlit LCD. Panasonic announced it on 19 October 2001, released it on 14 December 2001 and announced its discontinuation on 18 December 2003. YAGCD and GC-Forever record that its GameCube board is the same HW2 hardware as the retail console (DOL-CPU-10 or -11), with a different drive. Its case, drive and power supply are its own, and the disassembly and capacitor pages here do not cover it.

Common faults

The Nintendo GameCube Troubleshooting Guide covers these in detail.

• Disc read errors. GC-Forever traces them to a dirty or scratched disc, a dirty lens or a failing laser, in that order of checking, with adjustment of the laser potentiometer before replacing the laser.
• No power. Check the external adapter's 12 V output before opening the console.
• Clock and settings lost at every power-off: the CR2032 clock battery.
• Electrolytic capacitors on the internal DC-DC converter (Mitsumi and Sharp boards only), the drive board and the external adapter. See the capacitor guide.

History

ArtX was founded in 1997 by about twenty former Silicon Graphics engineers led by Wei Yen, who had headed SGI's Nintendo operations and Project Reality, the work that became the Nintendo 64. In May 1998 ArtX agreed with Nintendo to design the system logic and graphics processor of Nintendo's next console. ATI bought ArtX in April 2000, when the Flipper design was mostly complete. Nintendo published the specification after Spaceworld 2000.

Nintendo launched the Wii, which plays GameCube discs and has GameCube controller ports and memory card slots on most models, in November 2006, and announced the end of the GameCube in February 2007.

Documentation

• Nintendo Authorized Service Center Manual, Rev. June 2002: Nintendo of America's service-centre programme; chapter 9 covers the GameCube functional test and whole-unit exchange.
• Yet Another GameCube Documentation (YAGCD): community hardware reference by groepaz/Hitmen.

Related pages

• Nintendo GameCube Maintenance Guide
• Nintendo GameCube Troubleshooting Guide
• Nintendo GameCube Capacitor Replacement Guide
• Nintendo 64
• Capacitor Failure Symptoms
• Recommended Tools