Trionic TriCube

The Trionic TriCube is an upcoming home video game console developed by Trionic. Announced on November 15, 2020, it was Trionic's first foray into the video game console market. It was scheduled for release on July 12, 2021 in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North America, Singapore, and South Korea, and on September 15, 2021 for the rest of the world.

Unlike the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S, which they both use an x86-64 based processor, the TriCube will use a custom designed ARM-based SoC (similar to the Nintendo Switch). It would support a resolution of up to 1440p at 60fps, with optional support for 4K and high refresh rates of up to 120FPS, though no support for real-time ray tracing.

History
The TriCube was announced at a virtual event on November 15, 2020 by Charlie Henderson, the chief executive officer of Trionic. During the announcement, a hardware reveal video was shown, featuring the console's exterior and its specifications, as well as a tech demo, showing the power and capabilities of the console in real-time.

On December 5, 2020, Trionic announced that Charlie Henderson will be hosting a games showcase (in similar to Nintendo Direct) for the TriCube at CES 2021. On December 20, 2020, the pricing and regional availability for the console were leaked online.

Marketing
Under construction.

Design and form factor
The TriCube features a cube-shaped design that bears a design that's similar to the Xbox Series X and S consoles. The console has ventilation holes on the left, right, and on top of the console (similar to Corsair's Corsair One gaming PC). On the front, it has a power button, two USB Type-A ports and one USB Type-C port, while on the back of the back of the console, it features two USB Type-A ports, Ethernet jack, and a HDMI port. On the bottom of the console, there's a cover that can be opened to add another NVMe SSD.

System specifications
The TriCube is powered by a custom system on a chip designed by Trionic and Imagination Technologies. It features an 8-core ARM-based Cortex-A78C with an integrated IMG BXT-32-1024 MC4 GPU. The processor runs at a maximum clock speed of 3.3GHz (same clock speed as the ARM Cortex-A78 processors). The GPU's peak theoretical performance is up to 6TFLOPs. The GPU supports Vulkan 1.2 and OpenGL ES 3.x/2.0/1.1 (plus Extensions), though Trionic advised game developers to use Vulkan in order to prioritize on efficiency and performance when developing software for the TriCube, especially when it comes to porting heavy AAA titles to the console. The GPU doesn't support hardware rendered real-time ray tracing, a feature that's been popularized on the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S. However, Johnny Hendrix, the console's lead technical director, confirmed that a software-based ray tracing solution is being developed for this console and it would be slated for release near the end of 2021. The console features 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM with a peak bandwidth of 34.1 GB/s, and integrates Bluetooth 5.1, and 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6).

The TriCube features an internal 512GB PCIe Gen 3 NVMe SSD, which it can be expanded through a second NVMe slot. While it is slower than the SSD of the PlayStation 5 or the Xbox Series X and S, it has a sequential read speed of up to 2,540 MB/s, and sequential write speeds up 1,100 MB/s. The console also supports the Oodle Kraken compression engine and the zlib compression engine.

The TriCube supports Dolby Digital (max 5.1ch), Dolby Digital Plus (max 7.1ch), Dolby TrueHD (max 7.1ch), DTS (max 5.1ch), DTS-HD High Resolution Audio (max 7.1ch), DTS-HD Master Audio (max 7.1ch), AAC (max 5.1ch), and Linear PCM (max 7.1ch). Like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, which they both feature spatial 3D audio in games, the TriCube will also have support for spatial 3D audio in games and movies. Hendrix stated that they might not include the feature at launch, due to cost and technical considerations.

TriCube Controller
The TriCube Controller bears a strong design resemblance to the Stadia and Xbox Series X and S controllers. On the front of the controller, it features a D-pad, SHARE button, MENU button, MODE button (which it can be programmed by the developer), HOME button, action buttons (A, B, X, and Y buttons), and two analog sticks. The top of the controller features four shoulder buttons (L1, L2, R1, and R2) and a USB Type-C port for power. On the bottom of the controller, it features an extension port and a headphone jack. The controller features an internal rechargeable battery, which it can be charged via the USB Type-C port. The controller supports motion detection via a three-axis gyroscope and three-axis accelerometer and vibration.

Applications
Under construction.

Games
Under construction.

System software
The TriCube runs on a proprietary operating system named Trionium OS. The operating system was created from scratch in mind, with some components and drivers derived from Android, FreeBSD and Linux.

User interface
The TriCube home screen shows the username and the time at the top left corner of the screen. Below that is the grid showing all software that are downloaded and installed on the system, as well as access to the Trionium News, Trionium Browser, Trionic Store, Captures, and System Settings.

Trionium News
The Trionium News is a news portal dedicated to video game news. Similar to the News function on the Nintendo Switch, users can read news and updates from first party or third party video game developers.

Internet Browser
The Trionium Browser is an internet browser that is based on the WebKit browser engine. The browser natively supports HTML5 content out of the box, including DRM-protected content. The browser also supports WebGL as well.

Trionic Store
The Trionic Store is a digital distribution service made exclusively for the Trionic TriCube console. It allows users to purchase and download from the store, while also allowing users to update, uninstall or redownload applications that they own in their library.

Captures
The Captures function stores captured screenshots and videos. Pressing the "SHARE" button will save a screenshot to the main storage of the console, while holding down the button for 5-10 seconds would save the video after 5 minutes of recording. These screenshots or recordings can be shared on social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

System Settings
The System Settings option allows users to change the settings of the console, such as the date and time and managing applications.