Info to make an Nintendo Game Cube Emulator (For who wants to make one)

[neoak]

Well. Checking on IBM's Web, i found the Basic info about the CPU "Gekko". Also, i know a couple of things...

CPU: Look for the model Power PC 750 CX and CXe. The Gekko is based on this type of CPU.

ATI card: Don't waste time on the ATI Site looking for "Flipper". The only that i can say to you its that looks like a Cheap Radeon at 162 Mhz. Oh yeah! And it use OpenGL.

DVD Drive: Boy, this will burn your DVD Drive. The DVD will be reading all the time and never stops. Just like a DVD movie.

Sound Card: Still looking its librarys.

RAM: Only RDRAM at 400 Mhz or DDR at 366 Mhz can reach the Speed of the 1T-SRAM. Oh, and remember: To write the code, use all CPUs Instructions (like SSE, SSE2, 3DNow, and squeeze the FPU)

OS: Damn. First of all, the system was made up to read (Very, but VERY) High Level Code. (To give you an idea of the Level, in comparision, Think of C++ as you think of assembler, and think of the Level of the NGC as C++. It's nor the code, it's the IDE that use. It's far more easy to use that MacOS!!) Second, Its little (Helps) and Third, Don't now how to extract it.

The rest you can find it everywhere (even on Nintendo's site). But looks like we need a reverse engineering.

More as it Develops.

P.S: Hey! at least i told you how to start with the CPU.

 

[neoak]

Also found this:

Another difference between GameCube and Playstation 2 is that the graphics device has a direct link to main memory, not the CPU. The idea was to keep the graphics processor crunching as many bits as it could continuously. "Graphics is fundamentally a memory bandwidth problem. The CPU is the next largest consumer of memory," Buchner said.
To improve the internal data flow, IBM tried to eliminate "cache trashing," or wasting cache space on transient data. The 256-Kbit Level-2 cache can be locked down so that it retains only the data that needs to be reused. There's also an internal direct memory access that moves data from the cache while allowing the device to process a different set of data. This mechanism helps mitigate the incremental latency associated with compressing and decompressing the data.

 

[gokuss4]

sounds like an emu of ngc is gonna be close for in the making process

 

[neoak]

You think so?

 

[Teamz]

redundant and useless information!

 

[CpU MasteR]

redundant and useless information!

He is Right, No Useful info on How to Code the CPU or RAM Or How to Read the Game, How to make the Graphics Intigrate with Computer Video cards ETC. Your along way from making one man... Sorry.

 

[Zombie9246]

Actauly, GCN's Flipper chip has little to do with ATI techoligy. ATI aquired some other company (ArtX?) and they mainly produced the chip from scatch, ATI just added the idea of buffer memory incorporated into the chip itself(towards the flippers completion). I don't think any of ATI's radeon chips can apply 8 textures per pass or whatever that terminoligy means. Thats also why you probably can't find info on their site.

As for the 1T-SRAM, the bus MHz speed isin't what makes them so fast....its the latency of the memory iteself(estimated at 5ns) and how it refreshes data. I beleive all 1T-SRAM in the GCN runs at 162MHz in sync (and steped) with the cpu's 485MHz and flipper chip. The standurd 16 MB DRAM memory runs at 81MHz or so i beleive witch is also said to be the sound DSP's clock speed. Basicly all of it is just multiples to eliminate bottlenecks.

 

[Doomulation]

Well, this is intresting info. We're a little way closer to GC emulation!

 

[neoak]

Second time I write this... I hate this... i just selected "Submit Reply", it didn't found the server, and i lose all the text. In the first post this wasn't written!.

The Memory 1T runs at 162 Mhz and have 6 ns of Latency.
Flipper was created by ArtX.
The Sound Chip have 64 voices. I think that is a Yamaha...

And for the CPU. i bet that you haven't seen IBM's PDFs of the 750CX and CXe. Real coders use this info, they don't wait to see a complete FAQ of the chips, LIKE YOU DO. READ THE IBM's PDFs BEFORE SAYING A BAD THING!!!!!. I'll put them here.

 

[neoak]

OK!. I'll put the 4 PDFs of the 750 CX and CXe. Compressed with WinRar 2.9.

File 1/8

Check it for Virus if you Like. I checked them with Norton 2002 an the definitions of 3/3/02.

 

[neoak]

File 2/8

From now on. The rest of the files will be Rars inside Zips, because i cant upload the extensions .r00 to .r06.

File .r00

 

[neoak]

File 3/8

 

[neoak]

File 4/8

 

[neoak]

File 5/8

 

[neoak]

6/8

 

[neoak]

File 7/8

 

[neoak]

File 8/8

 

[neoak]

And... Found some info about the Flipper. Only that is in a place that maybe you didn't think about it. here's the address and the steps to find the info:

1. go to http://www.uspto.gov/
2. Go to Quick Search of Patents Numbers
3. Type 6,353,438
4. There you are. Follow the Link.

It's only info of how to Map Memory, but it's useful...

 

[Zombie9246]

Second time I write this... I hate this...
The Memory 1T runs at 162 Mhz and have 6 ns of Latency.
Flipper was created by ArtX.

I wasn't awhere you said this info a second time before. Your first post detailing with each component didn't list that. Although, im not to sure Yamaha did the DSP, i think it was a company not well known...im gonna look into it. As for the IBM CPU, i heard they took the chip and added SSE intructions as a customization for the GCN(IBM chips didn't already??).

 

[neoak]

NO. I didn't write all in the first post. I said that because when i selected "Submit Reply", it didn't found the server, and i lose all the text.

And Yamaha didn't create the DSP. Macronix did....

SSE? ??? Who know... Maybe yes, Maybe No. I'll check that :thumbsup:

And remember... You MUST download all 8 files to be able to descompress the 4 PDFs. Because every file is of about 249,768 bytes exactly (Except the las one of course). And with the Zip it grow to 250,000 bytes EXACTLY. (They are in Zips because i couldn't upload extensions .r00 to .r06. So Download them all!) ???