iPod "system on a chip"

andersanders
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Since I don´t know a thing about hardware this might be far out, but...



The iPod production is at a steady high rate. Just take the latest 9mill/quarter production of the Nano.



What about letting it all go onto one chip? USB controller, decoder, whatever chip that controls the menu and ram? The iPods are updated about twice a year, wouldn´t an 18 mill run justify such a move?



The benefits would be conserving space (more space for battery) and energy (getting more play time per unit battery).

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    A lot of the iPod circuitry is already on one chip; look at PortalPlayer product descriptions in PDF format and you'll find that much of the decoding/encoding, USB, etc. is already consolidated. Two ARM cores, etc.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    So its basically only the ram that needs integration?
  • Reply 3 of 3
    chuckerchucker Posts: 5,089member
    I don't think integrating the RAM would lead the significant advantages; if it's even possible, seeing as it's not manufactured by the same companies.



    FireWire used to be on a separate chip but we all know it's gone now anyway (read the sentence again and you'll see part of the reason it's gone ).



    As you can see at http://ipodlinux.org/Generations#iPod_nano and http://ipodlinux.org/Generations#Fif...Pod_with_video , there's various chips that are separate, including the controllers for click wheel and LCD, and those could be consolidated.
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