Upstart game box connects

In the rough-and-tumble world of gaming, it's got to be tough to be the new kid on the block. Bringing a fresh brand to a market where names like Nintendo and Sony rule the roost, Tiger Telematics has rolled out the Gizmondo, a handheld game platform that takes the established genre in a new direction.

As its point of differentiation, Tiger emphasizes connectivity along with multimedia, driving up silicon content and, just as important, options for what the platform can really do.

The 187-gram handheld Gizmondo-where do they get these names?-borrows styling cues from a console-style game controller, placing a 2.8-inch-diagonal LCD in the middle and control buttons around the product surface.

Lurking below the plastic enclosure is the expected processor platform to run the show, but Tiger didn't stop there. To set the stage for both new gaming models and alternative-use scenarios, the company has also added a cellular GPRS data radio, Bluetooth connectivity, a VGA camera and a global-positioning-system receiver.

The box's 400-MHz Samsung S3C2440 CPU, based on an ARM920T processor core, supports the interface for the SD memory card used to load games and other content into the Gizmondo. A USB host and touchscreen interface are part of the CPU's on-board peripheral set, though the latter goes unused; evidently Tiger decided to do without a touchscreen overlay to the Toppoly-manufactured QVGA LCD.

The Gizmondo uses an Nvidia 3-D graphics processor, the GoForce E 4500, to supply rendered images to the display and to manipulate input from the mediocre-quality VGA-resolution camera, which is based on an Omnivision CMOS sensor.

The Samsung and Nvidia processors are supported by 64 Mbytes of NAND-based memory from M-Systems (the MD4832-d512) for code store. Another 64 Mbytes of Samsung SDRAM (the 2x K4S56163) are on board for working memory, all on a shared bus. A pair of Sunplus parts addresses LCD interface formatting and LCD bias voltage generation.

The rich peripheral set to the processor-memory complex takes up much of the second side of the only pc-board assembly found in the Gizmondo, where plenty of silicon implements the design's audio and RF spectrum capabilities.

Silicon Laboratories' three-chip Aero GSM radio chip set joins Texas Instruments' digital baseband and analog ASIC to implement a GPRS data radio, so that consoles can link for head-to-head gaming via the cellular network. The Gizmondo design elected not to implement voice communication, despite the ability to do so with only minimal additional components.

If players don't need a wide-area network, the console offers a CSR Bluetooth link for close-in peer-to-peer connectivity, implemented with a CMOS mixed-signal Bluetooth device. The BC313143 combines radio and baseband in a single chip.

Perhaps most interesting to the design is the GPS function. It allows location-based gaming to incorporate a user's whereabouts while it enables conventional GPS navigation-a feature soon slated for the Gizmondo by way of software add-ons. A two-chip set from SiRF, the STGRF2i/LP and GSP2e/LP-along with a Maxim low-noise-amplifier, the MAX2641; 512 kbytes of Spansion NOR flash memory, and a handful of discretes-let the handheld gain location-aware features.

Two devices from Micronas, the MAS3515G and DAC3560C, implement sound synthesis and the audio subsystem, along with TI's PCM1773, a digital-to-analog converter for final amplified stereo output. Along with MIDI sound synthesis, the MAS3515G provides for MP3 decode such that the Gizmondo can tack "music player" onto its list of many identities.

More than a dozen small-scale analog components provide localized power management and voltage conversion.

Whether Tiger can crash a party traditionally hosted by the big guys remains to be seen, but with connectivity the others lack, perhaps its initial emphasis on game play is merely the tip of a strategic iceberg.

Component Focus
While Tiger Telematics Gizmondo handheld game may have suffered an early death (among truly bizarre circumstances with the company behind the product), the passive components in the engineering design reflect the diverse multifunction aspect of the product. Multiple crystal oscillators from NDK and Epson provide clocks for the variety of processing cores throughout and both NDK and Rakon are behind the temperature-compensated crystal oscillators (TCXOs) that set reference frequencies for the GPRS radio and GPS receiver respectively.

Where there are radios, there are usually filters and here Murata of Japan dominates the supply of SAW devices. Kyocera is another radio parts supplier outside the integrated-circuit arena, here selected for the transmit/receive switch module needed for the time-division multiplexing of the GSM protocol. Because a dead battery means a loss of system data and real-time clock settings, the Gizmondo also uses a small backup battery from Elna to retain critical data even if the Li-ion battery of the handheld has run flat.

For the a more complete parts list, click here

David Carey, president of Portelligent (www.teardown.com). The Austin, Texas, company produces teardown reports and related industry research on wireless, mobile and personal electronics.