OUYA console

TECHNOLOGY

“ As the system has no physical media, all titles are installed on the console’s storage drive”

Inside the OUYA

The next-gen gamer

Take a look at the major components inside this cutting-edge gaming system Fan

A Sunon MagLev DC brushless fan is fi xed to the mainboard’s heatsink. This is rated for 12V at 0.8W and cools the minimal hardware in the case.

Meet the open-platform console which lets you play your videogames on a system that was designed to evolve

The OUYA is a videogame console that runs on a custom version of the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. Unlike many existing games consoles, however, the development of this machine was achieved through crowd- Casing sourced funding, with the maker – OUYA, Inc – The OUYA’s case is a 75 x 75 x 75mm (3 x 3 x 3in) plastic cube, raising a whopping $8.5 million (£5.6 million) in with tapered corners at the 2012. Breaking from the norm, the OUYA has been bottom. The console’s insides designed as an open platform, with the device are accessed via a screwed-in panel located on the top. capable of being modifi ed easily by owners.

As can be seen in greater detail in the teardown, the OUYA runs off an NVIDIA Tegra 3 system on a chip, which combines the console’s CPU, GPU and memory. This, in partnership with a selection of mainboard ports and connectivity chips – including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – allows the OUYA to be connected to a television or computer and run its own custom user interface (UI) off the Jelly Bean OS.

Key to the OUYA’s UI is the OUYA store, which is the main conduit to the console’s selection of games. Indeed, as the system has no physical media, all titles are installed on the console’s storage drive (eight gigabits internal; expandable via USB or digital download). The majority of games currently available or confi rmed are ports of titles already existing on the Android marketplace. Games are played via the OUYA’s own Bluetooth-linked control pad.

The gaming side of things is combined with a host of media-related applications, including the open-source XBMC media player, TwitchTV live videogame stream broadcaster and iHeartRadio internet radio platform. Along with a selection of Potentiometers videogame emulators this completes the OUYA’s The controller’s two stock package, but due to the system’s open analogue thumb sticks are hardware and software architecture, many other tracked by potentiometers, which measure the sticks’ applications and services are in the pipeline. degree of tilt in two axes.

Weights

Five small 11g (0.4oz) weights are screwed to the base of the case. These are for keeping the lightweight console upright when plugged in.

An old-school RPG with an Eighties cartoon look, Saturday Morning RPG is an episodic title that was community funded too.

DID YOU KNOW?

The OUYA’s development was funded by the public in just eight hours

A hectic 8-bit-style, side-scrolling shooter, Gunslugs is a pleasure to play and captures the Eighties arcade gaming scene with aplomb.

Ports

The OUYA has fi ve ports: a DC-in power, microUSB, HDMI, Ethernet and USB 2.0. These feed the system power or are used to connect to the web, TVs and computers as needed.

System-on-a-chip

The OUYA’s heart is an NVIDIA Tegra 3 system-on-a-chip (SOC). This primarily combines the CPU and GPU onto a single chipset, improving effi ciency and also saving on space.

Mainboard

The mainboard holds the SDRAM modules, USB 2.0 and Ethernet controller, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 module, NVIDIA Tegra 3 multicore CPU and Kingston 8GB fl ash memory.

Heatsink

The system-on-a-chip is covered with a small heatsink. Soldered to the processor, this grants greater stability and some damage resistance should the device be dropped.

Touchpad

A 22.9 x 38.1mm (0.9 x 1.5in) touchpad is powered by a MA32P03 controller – this provides 2D mouse tracking for the OUYA system.

Transceiver

A Broadcom Bluetooth 3.0 transceiver features an integrated ARM Cortex M3 processor. This receives all inputs from the controller and transmits them to the OUYA.

The statistics…

OUYA console

CPU: 1.7GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 RAM: 1GB

Storage:

8GB internal fl ash memory GPU: NVIDIA ULP GeForce Dimensions: 75mm (3in) a side OS: Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Cost: $99 (£99)