gamecube

At Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 1999, Nintendo announced the initial specifications for its next-generation console, code-named Dolphin. The first thing that Nintendo made clear was that the new system would not use a cartridge but use a . The nintendo had done ok with the format, but the games were expensive, and the format alienated some 3rd Party developers. More specifics were released about the new console as months past.



Nintendo would have several companies involved in the project. IBM designed and manufactured the console processor called the “Gekko”. The graphics processor called “Flipper” was designed by a small startup company called ArtX who was later bought out by ATI. The graphics chip was manufactured by NEC. Macronix and Factor 5 contributed the sound with MoSys providing the system memory. Lastly the console would use a proprietary 8cm optical disc game format capable of holding 1.5GB of data (twice the capacity of CD-ROMs). This disk was developed and manufactured by Matsushita (best known by its Panasonic brand name). It became clear that Nintendo was indeed developing something impressive