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GameCube/Hardware Documentation (view source)
Revision as of 06:13, 21 December 2024
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The GPU is fully custom; it was developed by [[ArtX]], a startup which spun off from the [[Silicon Graphics]] Nintendo 64 hardware development team. ArtX was bought out by ATI in 2000, just as the GPU design was being completed; as such, the GameCube has ATI branding, although its hardware has no relation to ATI products preceding it. After purchasing ArtX, ATI used their GPU technology in Radeon video cards starting with the acclaimed R300 series, making the GameCube's GPU an ancestor of modern PC GPUs.
The GPU is fully custom; it was developed by [[ArtX]], a startup which spun off from the [[Silicon Graphics]] Nintendo 64 hardware development team. ArtX was bought out by ATI in 2000, just as the GPU design was being completed; as such, the GameCube has ATI branding, although its hardware has no relation to ATI products preceding it. After purchasing ArtX, ATI used their GPU technology in Radeon video cards starting with the acclaimed R300 series, making the GameCube's GPU an ancestor of modern PC GPUs.
The GameCube's disc format, known internally as [[NROM]], uses a custom filesystem and a basic XOR encryption scheme tied to the disc's [[wikipedia:Burst_cutting_area|BCA]] to prevent unauthorized reading and copying. However, the discs are otherwise physically identical to [[wikipedia:MiniDVD|miniDVD]] discs, which in turn are reduced-size standard DVDs; therefore, if the GameCube's disc drive is hacked using an external device to disable the security mechanism, it can read standard miniDVD and DVD discs. Some PC DVD drives can also read GameCube discs, although software such as [https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/RawDump RawDump] is necessary to access their contents. Early in development, the GameCube used full-size discs equivalent to DVDs.
Uncited: ''The DSP is believed to be a custom 16-bit chip developed by Macronix. It is used as a coprocessor for audio, [[GameCube/Memory_Card#DRM|memory card DRM]], and [[GameCube/GBA_Link_Cable#DRM|GBA link cable DRM]]. It runs microcode written in assembly. It has a decoder for ADPCM, a custom Nintendo audio codec used up to the Wii U/3DS. It has 8KB of instruction RAM and 4KB of data RAM, with an internal Macronix bootrom which loads microcode provided by the game or [[GameCube/IPL|IPL]].''
Uncited: ''The DSP is believed to be a custom 16-bit chip developed by Macronix. It is used as a coprocessor for audio, [[GameCube/Memory_Card#DRM|memory card DRM]], and [[GameCube/GBA_Link_Cable#DRM|GBA link cable DRM]]. It runs microcode written in assembly. It has a decoder for ADPCM, a custom Nintendo audio codec used up to the Wii U/3DS. It has 8KB of instruction RAM and 4KB of data RAM, with an internal Macronix bootrom which loads microcode provided by the game or [[GameCube/IPL|IPL]].''