Nintendo GameCube
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| Nintendo GameCube (DOL-001) | |
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Nintendo |
| Type | Home video game console |
| Released | 14 September 2001 (Japan) 18 November 2001 (North America) 3 May 2002 (Europe) |
| Discontinued | 2007 |
| CPU | IBM PowerPC "Gekko", 485 MHz in Nintendo's specification and 486 MHz in the console's own OS globals; 0.18 µm copper process |
| Memory | 24 MB 1T-SRAM main memory plus 16 MB of 81 MHz DRAM ("A-memory") |
| Storage | 8 cm optical disc, approximately 1.5 GB; saves on memory cards |
| Display | Analog AV out; digital AV out on DOL-001 only |
| Sound | Nintendo calls it a "Special 16bit DSP" at 81 MHz, 64 ADPCM channels at 48 kHz. No manufacturer or part number is published for it |
| Graphics | ArtX "Flipper", 162 MHz, NEC embedded-DRAM process, with roughly 2 MB embedded frame buffer and 1 MB texture cache |
| Power | External brick. Nintendo's specification says DC 12 V × 3.5 A; the DOL-002 adapter's own rating plate says 12 V 3.25 A |
| 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 in September 2001, in North America in November 2001 and in Europe in May 2002. It was developed under the codename Dolphin, with ArtX designing the system logic and graphics and IBM the PowerPC processor, and it was Nintendo's first home console to use optical discs rather than cartridges.
Nintendo never published a service manual for it. There is no manufacturer parts list, no diagnostic table and no official capacitor list. Everything on the repair pages below is either from Nintendo's own published specification sheet, from the community's reverse engineering of the hardware, or from capacitor lists compiled off physical boards — and each page says which.
For servicing see Nintendo GameCube Maintenance Guide, Nintendo GameCube Troubleshooting Guide and Nintendo GameCube Capacitor Replacement Guide.
Which console do you have
[edit | edit source]This is the first thing to establish, because the two consumer revisions differ in ways that matter for repair.[1]
| Model | Digital AV out | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| DOL-001 | Yes | The original. The digital AV port is the only way to get a component signal out of the machine without modification, and it is the reason a working DOL-001 is worth more than a working DOL-101. |
| DOL-101 | No | Later cost-reduced revision; the digital port and its supporting circuitry are deleted. Different mainboard, different power converter board, and a different laser potentiometer range. |
The internal board revisions are labelled HW1 and HW2 in the console's own hardware registers, which is how software tells them apart.[1] The Nintendo GameCube Capacitor Replacement Guide treats DOL-001 and DOL-101 boards separately because the capacitor complement is not the same — some DOL-101 mainboards use polymer capacitors where DOL-001 uses electrolytics.
Hardware
[edit | edit source]Nintendo's own published specification
[edit | edit source]Nintendo released a specification sheet after Spaceworld 2000. It is the only manufacturer-published set of figures for this machine, and it is the source for most of what follows:[2]
| Item | Nintendo's figure |
|---|---|
| Processor | IBM PowerPC "Gekko", 485 MHz, 0.18 µm copper process |
| CPU capacity | 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 | approx. 2 MB 1T-SRAM, 5 ns latency |
| Embedded texture cache | approx. 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 technology, approx. 1.5 GB |
| I/O | 4 controller ports, 2 memory card slots, 1 analog AV out, 1 digital AV out, 2 high-speed serial ports, 1 high-speed parallel port |
| Power supply | "AC Adapter DC12V × 3.5A" |
| Dimensions | 150 mm (W) × 110 mm (H) × 161 mm (D) |
Three figures on that sheet worth knowing about
[edit | edit source]"Average access time 128 ns" is impossible, and it is what Nintendo printed.[2] A mechanical optical drive cannot seek in 128 nanoseconds — that is a few clock cycles. The figure is presumably a units error for 128 ms, which is a plausible seek time for a drive of this class, but Nintendo never issued a correction and no other manufacturer figure exists. It is reproduced here as printed rather than silently fixed, because a reader checking this page against Nintendo's sheet should find them agreeing. Treat it as unusable data, not as a specification.
The processor clock is quoted two different ways. Nintendo's sheet says 485 MHz; the console's own operating-system globals report 486 MHz, and that is the figure the community documentation uses.[1][2] Both are correct in the sense that both are published; neither is a misprint of the other.
The power figure is quoted two different ways too. Nintendo's sheet says 12 V at 3.5 A; the DOL-002 adapter's own rating plate says 12 V at 3.25 A.[3][2] When substituting a supply, the rating plate is the one to match.
The audio DSP
[edit | edit source]Nintendo publishes no manufacturer and no part number for the sound processor. Its specification calls it a "Special 16bit DSP" running at 81 MHz with 64 ADPCM channels at 48 kHz, and that is the whole of the official description.[2] Attributions of this part to a specific semiconductor vendor circulate but are not supported by any manufacturer document this wiki has found; the DSP is integrated into the Flipper package rather than being a separate identifiable chip on the board.
Storage
[edit | edit source]The disc is 8 cm, Matsushita-derived, with a proprietary copy-protection scheme rather than the CSS used on standard DVDs. Nintendo quotes "approximately 1.5 GB"; the exact usable capacity documented by the community is 1,459,978,240 bytes.[1][2]
Saves go on memory cards in two slots. Nintendo sold three: Memory Card 59 (grey, 512 KB), Memory Card 251 (black, 2 MB) and Memory Card 1019 (white, 8 MB). The numbers are block counts, and the same cards are also advertised as 4, 16 and 64 Mb respectively, which is the same capacity expressed in megabits — a distinction worth keeping straight when buying replacements.
Controller ports
[edit | edit source]The controller port has seven pins, not six.[4] This is the single most common error in community documentation of the machine, and it matters if you are rebuilding a port or making a cable. Nintendo published no specification for the connector or its protocol; the pinout, the 3.43 V logic supply, the data pull-up and the bit encoding are all community reverse engineering, documented on the Nintendo GameCube Maintenance Guide.
Cooling
[edit | edit source]A single fan over a heatsink, with thermal pads between the heatsink and the chips. Nintendo published no thermal pad specification — the thicknesses sold for this machine are community-derived, so measure the standing gap on your own board before buying. See the maintenance guide.
Accessories that change the hardware
[edit | edit source]- Game Boy Player (DOL-017) — bolts to the underside and runs Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges. It has its own board and its own capacitors; the Nintendo GameCube Capacitor Replacement Guide covers it separately.
- Broadband Adapter and Modem Adapter — fit the high-speed serial ports on the underside. Very few games use them.
- WaveBird (DOL-004) — RF wireless controller with a receiver dongle, powered by two AA cells. It has no rumble motor, which is a deliberate omission rather than a fault.
- Game Boy Advance link cable — connects a GBA as a second screen and controller for the handful of games that support it.
Panasonic Q
[edit | edit source]The Panasonic Q (SL-GC10) is a Japan-only hybrid, built by Panasonic under the alliance that produced the GameCube's optical drive. It is a GameCube and a DVD player in a stainless steel case with a front-loading full-size tray and a backlit LCD, announced in October 2001 and discontinued in December 2003. The two halves barely interact — it plays GameCube discs and it plays DVDs, but it is not a GameCube with DVD playback added.
For repair purposes it is a different machine: different case, different drive mechanism, different power supply. None of the disassembly or capacitor work on this wiki's GameCube pages transfers to it.
Common faults
[edit | edit source]These are covered properly in the Nintendo GameCube Troubleshooting Guide; in outline:
- Disc read errors — by far the most common fault. Usually the laser, sometimes the drive's own board, occasionally just a dirty lens. The laser potentiometer ranges differ between DOL-001 and DOL-101, and turning one without understanding that is how a marginal drive becomes a dead one.
- Console will not power on — check the brick before opening anything. The DOL-002 is an external supply and is the more likely failure.
- Controller port faults — wear and physical damage; the port carries a 3.43 V supply that a shorted controller can pull down.
- Fan noise — sleeve-bearing fans dry out. Replaceable.
- Mainboard capacitors — far less of a problem than on contemporaries; see the capacitor guide for what is actually worth doing.
History
[edit | edit source]1997–1999. ArtX was founded in 1997 by engineers from Silicon Graphics, led by Wei Yen, who had run SGI's Nintendo operations and Project Reality — the programme that became the Nintendo 64. In May 1998 ArtX contracted with Nintendo to design the system logic and graphics processor for its next console, and in May 1999 Nintendo announced the machine publicly under the codename Dolphin, naming IBM as the CPU partner and Panasonic as the optical drive partner.
2000–2001. ATI acquired ArtX in April 2000, by which point the Flipper design was largely finished. The console was named the GameCube at a press conference in Japan in August 2000, and launched at US$199 — a hundred dollars below both the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox.
2001–2007. Nintendo sold 21.74 million units worldwide, well below expectation, against a PlayStation 2 that dominated the generation. It ceased first-party support in February 2007, a few months after the Wii launched. The Wii retained GameCube controller ports, memory card slots and disc compatibility; the later "Family Edition" Wii and the Wii Mini dropped all of it, which is why a Wii is not always a substitute for a GameCube.
Attribution note. An earlier version of this page reproduced the English Wikipedia article on the GameCube almost in full, with its citations removed — the [citation needed] markers were still in the text. That material has been removed rather than attributed, because a repair wiki does not need a console's marketing history at that length, and because reusing CC BY-SA text without attribution is not something to leave standing. The short summary above was written from scratch; the figures in it are the ones this wiki can point at a source for.
Related pages
[edit | edit source]- Nintendo GameCube Maintenance Guide · Nintendo GameCube Troubleshooting Guide · Nintendo GameCube Capacitor Replacement Guide
- Yet Another GameCube Documentation (YAGCD) — the community hardware reference, hosted here
- Nintendo 64 — predecessor
- Capacitor Failure Symptoms · Recommended Tools
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 groepaz/hitmen, Yet Another GameCube Documentation (YAGCD), hosted on this wiki at Yet Another GameCube Documentation (YAGCD). Section 2.1 (enhanced PowerPC 750 specification, 486 MHz internal processor clock), 2.2 (HW1 and HW2 consumer unit revisions), 2.4.1.6 (power supply connector P1 pinout), 2.4.2 (semiconductor list), 2.5 (north, south and east bridge bus clocks), 4.2.1 (OS globals: bus clock 162 MHz, CPU clock 486 MHz), and the disc capacity of 1,459,978,240 bytes. Community reverse engineering, not a Nintendo document.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Nintendo's published GameCube specification, released after Spaceworld 2000 and reproduced in full by Nintendo World Report — GameCube FAQ: Specifications. The only manufacturer-published specification sheet for this machine. Source for the Gekko and Flipper figures, the cache sizes, the bus bandwidth, the "Special 16bit DSP" description, the memory sizes, the "average access time 128ns" disc figure, the I/O complement, "AC Adapter DC12V x 3.5A" and the cabinet dimensions.
- ↑ Nintendo DOL-002 AC adapter rating plate: output 12 V DC 3.25 A; input 120 V AC 50/60 Hz on the DOL-002 (USA). The same 12 V 3.25 A output appears on the DOL-002 (AUS) label. This is the figure printed on the part, and it does not match Nintendo's specification sheet.
- ↑ AllPinouts, Nintendo GameCube controller connector pinout — allpinouts.org. Community documentation; Nintendo published no specification for this connector or its protocol. Source for the seven-pin mapping, the 3.43 V logic supply and data pull-up, and the bit encoding.