Hardware

Memory: 43 MiB total

• RAM: 24 MiB (2 x 12 MiB) 1T-SRAM¹ running at 324 MHz (CPU / 1.5) (Flipper * 2)
• VRAM: 3 MiB 1T-SRAM¹ memory embedded within Flipper, 2 MiB for framebuffers and 1 MiB for textures
• ARAM: 16 MiB DRAM connected to Flipper, used as Auxiliary RAM, usually for audio

DVD Reader

• Reads miniDVD sized Nintendo optical discs
• Discs are 1.46 GiB, read at constant angular velocity (in practice, this means data in the outer part of the disc is read faster than data in the inner part)

Motherboard

Here’s an overview of the GameCube’s motherboard, with the some important components labeled:

And here’s a diagram of the architecture:

A note on buses:

• Northbridge: Connects the CPU to the Flipper. It is 64-bit and runs on the Flipper clock.
• Southbridge: Connects both 12 MiB 1T-SRAM chips to the Flipper. It is 64-bit and runs at double the Flipper clock.
• Eastbridge: Connects ARAM to the Flipper. It is 8-bit and runs at half the Flipper clock.

1. A kind of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM). Internally it’s just DRAM, but it’s made to behave like SRAM from an outside point of view. ↩ ↩2