Gekko is a
32-bitThe range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295 or −2,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647 using two's complement encoding...
PowerPCPowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors...
microprocessorA microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit . The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using binary-coded decimal arithmetic on 4-bit words...
custom made by
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM, is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating...
in 2000 for
Nintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel...
to use as the
CPUThe Central Processing Unit or processor is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, and is the primary element carrying out the computer's functions. This term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s...
in their
sixth generation game consoleThe sixth-generation era refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at the turn of the 21st century. Platforms of the sixth generation include Sega's Dreamcast, Sony's PlayStation 2, the Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft's Xbox...
, the
Nintendo GameCubeThe is Nintendo's fourth home video game console with Wii being fifth, and is part of the sixth generation console era. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and predecessor to Nintendo's Wii....
.
Gekko's role in the game system was to facilitate game scripting, artificial intelligence, physics and collision detection, custom graphics lighting effects and geometry such as smooth transformations, and moving graphics data through the system.
The project was announced in 1999 when IBM and Nintendo agreed to a one billon dollar contract for a CPU running at approximately 400 MHz.
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Gekko is a
32-bitThe range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295 or −2,147,483,648 through 2,147,483,647 using two's complement encoding...
PowerPCPowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM. Originally intended for personal computers, PowerPC CPUs have since become popular embedded and high-performance processors...
microprocessorA microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a central processing unit on a single integrated circuit . The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using binary-coded decimal arithmetic on 4-bit words...
custom made by
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM, is a multinational computer technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, Town of North Castle, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating...
in 2000 for
Nintendois a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel...
to use as the
CPUThe Central Processing Unit or processor is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, and is the primary element carrying out the computer's functions. This term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s...
in their
sixth generation game consoleThe sixth-generation era refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at the turn of the 21st century. Platforms of the sixth generation include Sega's Dreamcast, Sony's PlayStation 2, the Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft's Xbox...
, the
Nintendo GameCubeThe is Nintendo's fourth home video game console with Wii being fifth, and is part of the sixth generation console era. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and predecessor to Nintendo's Wii....
.
Development
Gekko's role in the game system was to facilitate game scripting, artificial intelligence, physics and collision detection, custom graphics lighting effects and geometry such as smooth transformations, and moving graphics data through the system.
The project was announced in 1999 when IBM and Nintendo agreed to a one billon dollar contract for a CPU running at approximately 400 MHz. IBM chose to modify their existing PowerPC 750CXe processor to suit Nintendo's needs, such as tight and balanced operation alongside the "Flipper" graphics processor. The customization was to the bus architecture,
DMADirect memory access is a feature of modern computers and microprocessors that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory for reading and/or writing independently of the central processing unit. Many hardware systems use DMA including disk drive controllers,...
, compression and floating point unit which support a special set of SIMD instructions. The CPU made ground work for custom lighting and geometry effects and could burst compressed data directly to the GPU.
IBM's customization led to performance that exceeded Nintendo's specifications. The Gekko is considered to be the direct ancestor to the
BroadwayBroadway is the codename of the Central Processing Unit used in Nintendo's Wii video game console. It was designed by IBM, and is currently being produced using a 90 nm SOI process....
processor, also designed and manufactured by IBM, that powers the
WiiThe is a home video game console released by Nintendo. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of both...
console.
Features
- Customized PowerPC 750CXe core
- 486 MHz
The hertz is a unit of frequency. It is defined as the number of complete cycles per second. It is the basic unit of frequency in the International System of Units , and is used worldwide in both general-purpose and scientific contexts...
- 32-bit Integer unit
In computing, an arithmetic logic unit is a digital circuit that performs arithmetic and logical operations. The ALU is a fundamental building block of the central processing unit of a computer, and even the simplest microprocessors contain one for purposes such as maintaining timers...
- 64-bit double precision FPU
A floating-point unit is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root...
, usable as 2×32-bit SIMDIn computing, SIMD is a technique employed to achieve data level parallelism.- History :...
for 1.9 single-precision Gflops performance
- Roughly 50 new SIMD
In computing, SIMD is a technique employed to achieve data level parallelism.- History :...
instructions, geared towards 3D graphics
- 64-bit enhanced 60x bus to GPU
A graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized processor that offloads 3D graphics rendering from the microprocessor. It is used in embedded systems, mobile phones, personal computers, workstations, and game consoles...
/chipsetA chipset or chip set refers to a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product.- Computers :...
at 162 MHz clock with 1.3 GB/s peak bandwidth
- 64 kB
The kilobyte is a unit of digital information storage equal to either 1,000 bytes or 1,024 bytes , depending on context....
8-way associative L1 cacheA CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations...
(32/32 kB instruction/data). 256 KB on-die, 2-way associative L2 cache
- 1125 DMIPS (dhrystone 2.1)
- 180 nm IBM six layer, copper-wire process. 43 mm² die
A die in the context of integrated circuits is a small block of semiconducting material, on which a given functional circuit is fabricated.Typically, integrated circuits are produced in large batches on a single wafer of electronic-grade silicon through processes such as photolithography. The...
- 1.8 V
The volt is the SI derived unit of electromotive force, commonly called "voltage". It is also the unit for the related but slightly different quantity electric potential difference...
for logic and I/OI/O may refer to:* Input/output, a system of communication for information processing systems* The input-output model, an economic model of flow prediction between sectors...
. 4.9 WThe watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units . It measures rate of energy conversion. One watt is equivalent to 1 joule of energy per second....
dissipation
- 27×27 mm PBGA
A ball grid array is a type of surface-mount packaging used for integrated circuits.- Description :The BGA is descended from the pin grid array , which is a package with one face covered with pins in a grid pattern...
package with 256 contacts
See also
- Nintendo GameCube
The is Nintendo's fourth home video game console with Wii being fifth, and is part of the sixth generation console era. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and predecessor to Nintendo's Wii....
- PowerPC G3
The PowerPC 7xx is a family of third generation 32-bit PowerPC microprocessors designed and manufactured by IBM and Motorola . This family is called the PowerPC G3 by its well-known customer Apple Computer...
- Power Architecture
Power Architecture is a broad term to describe similar RISC instruction sets for microprocessors developed and manufactured by such companies as IBM, Freescale, AMCC, Tundra and P.A. Semi...
- Broadway (microprocessor)
Broadway is the codename of the Central Processing Unit used in Nintendo's Wii video game console. It was designed by IBM, and is currently being produced using a 90 nm SOI process....