Gizmondo Design

At its core, the Gizmondo is built for gaming. It looks a lot like a controller for a console game system, except for the view screen in the middle. The Gizmondo is roughly the same size as a controller, with four gaming buttons on the right, an eight-way game pad on the left, and two additional buttons at the left and right sides of the top of the unit. Five function buttons placed above the screen provide menu navigation and easy access to some of the Gizmondo's modes of operation. The Gizmondo is powered by a 400 Mhz ARM9 processor from Samsung.

Photo courtesy Gizmondo

The display is a 320 x 240 pixel TFT (thin-film transistor) screen capable of showing 60,000 colors. It's powered by an Nvidia GoForce 4500 3-D graphics accelerator, the development of which delayed Gizmondo's release in England by several months.

Gizmondo runs Windows CE (Microsoft's operating system for mobile devices), which allows access to various CE-compatible applications with a network service plan.

Next, we'll check out some of Gizmondo's features.

Problems The initial release of Gizmondo in Britain was delayed from late 2004 to March of 2005 so Gizmondo could incorporate Nvidia's newest portable video processor. The American release was originally slated for early 2005, but has been pushed back repeatedly, eventually falling to late September to allow the development of major software to be completed. The release is currently scheduled for October 2005. Release delays are not the only problems plaguing Gizmondo developer Tiger Telematics. The company recently settled out of court for $1.5 million with a Formula One racing team that had a sponsorship deal under Gizmondo's old name, GameTrac. Tiger Telematics is also behind on United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings, reportedly because they couldn't afford to pay accountants to make the necessary audits. Their losses approached $18 million as of the third quarter of 2004 [ref].