Busting into an Apple TV (photos)

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AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
The first Apple TV dissection photos have hit the Web, clearly revealing some of the device's internal component suppliers and design wins.



The guys over at TechRestore where quick to the punch on this one, not hesitating to pry the cover from their Apple TV's chassis.



From their photos, both the 1.0GHz Intel Pentium M-based "Crofton" central processing unit and NVIDIA G72M graphics chip are visible. The Intel chip bears the model number "7645A966 0159," while the NVIDIA chip model number is not entirely clear.



Also visible from the photos is a Silicon Image IC and Broadcom chip affixed to Apple TV's 802.11n-enabled wireless card.



AppleInsider had exclusively reported that the new Apple device would employ a NVIDIA graphics chip, and subsequently that the software drivers for that chip were to blame for the delay that pushed Apple TV availability out until this week.



See more photos at TechRestore.



See more photos at TechRestore.



See more photos at TechRestore.
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  • Reply 1 of 66
    SpamSandwichspamsandwich Posts: 33,407member
    Whoa! Brutal!
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  • Reply 2 of 66
    migueldfmigueldf Posts: 11member
    IUHU games ahead...
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  • Reply 3 of 66
    bacillusbacillus Posts: 313member
    Hmmm.... using P-ATA, and not S-ATA on the Hard Drive. Some what of a shock, since small form factors like this would benefit and the overall movement away from P-ATA. Granted it would not benefit from S-ATA in speed, but it would make for a more common supply chain.
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  • Reply 4 of 66
    eaieai Posts: 417member
    I guess it could be cheaper not to use SATA?
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  • Reply 5 of 66
    davegeedavegee Posts: 2,765member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Migueldf View Post


    IUHU games ahead...







    Anyone?
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  • Reply 6 of 66
    chevaliermalfetchevaliermalfet Posts: 470member
    Is that a 1.8 inch drive? Looks like it. Do they make SATA 1.8 inch drives?
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  • Reply 7 of 66
    pip11pip11 Posts: 1member
    I find it bizarre that the Apple TV is using a Broadcom-sourced wi-fi card. Up until now, the Intel Macs have all used Atheros chipsets (both the original G and pre-N). The original PPC Airport Extreme cards were from Broadcom though.

    Especially for draft-spec equipment like this, the compatibility is best with the same chipset in every device. Does anyone know what the new pre-N AirPort Extreme base station has in it?
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  • Reply 8 of 66
    stompystompy Posts: 414member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by pip11 View Post


    I find it bizarre that the Apple TV is using a Broadcom-sourced wi-fi card. Up until now, the Intel Macs have all used Atheros chipsets (both the original G and pre-N). The original PPC Airport Extreme cards were from Broadcom though.



    The iMac Core Duo on my desk is Broadcom -- BCM43xx 1.0 (4.80.79.1)
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  • Reply 9 of 66
    joe_the_dragonjoe_the_dragon Posts: 931member
    They put a NVIDIA chip in this but they put the pos GMA 950 in the mini , macbook, and macbook black.
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  • Reply 10 of 66
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    When someone tries upgrading that easy to get at hard drive let me know if it works OK.
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  • Reply 11 of 66
    jeffdmjeffdm Posts: 12,954member
    That is a lot of technology there for the money. It's unfortunate that they won't make a computer out of that.
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  • Reply 12 of 66
    applebookapplebook Posts: 350member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JeffDM View Post


    That is a lot of technology there for the money. It's unfortunate that they won't make a computer out of that.



    This could be a hint of things to come for the Mini...



    Apple TV - Mac Mini stack, anyone?
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  • Reply 13 of 66
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Yes maybe, though I really thin the mini needs to enlarge its waste band a bit. The Mini could be a much more compelling machine if they could stuff a bit more into the box. Chip sets have come a long way but I still suspect that they need more room to make the Mini more attractive than it is.



    On a side note I wonder how long it will take the Linux folks to get Linux up and running on the machine. It ought to make a nice little server for domain names and the like. Maybe even a simple client node. Linux is the first thing I thought of when I saw the machine. It has everything one would need for a server connected client, it has networking, sound and a GPU. Not bad really.



    Dave





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by applebook View Post


    This could be a hint of things to come for the Mini...



    Apple TV - Mac Mini stack, anyone?



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  • Reply 14 of 66
    chevaliermalfetchevaliermalfet Posts: 470member
    I did some looking about and it appears the g72M is functionally equivalent to a Go7400; which appears to be a 7800GTX with 4 pixel shaders rather than 24 and a lower clock speed (I didn't see a specific clock in my short look).



    So not bad, but certainly no barnstormer. Not quite on par the the x1600 in the iMacs and the MacBook Pros from what I gathered, which could use a refresh in and of itself.



    (Not that I really care as long as it does the job, just thought I'd get a feel for potential, and having found out share the info).
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  • Reply 15 of 66
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    When someone tries upgrading that easy to get at hard drive let me know if it works OK.



    I'm sure a swap would be no trouble, the problem would be getting the OS off the stock drive and onto your new one.
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  • Reply 16 of 66
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    I'm quite impressed with the stuff on the innards, except the 33GB hard drive. Call it 40GB all you wall but if you've more than 33GB in the right format on iTunes it wont all fit on the your Apple TV. Apple should do a microsoft on this thing and bring out an add-on hard drive for $100 or $150 that rests on top of the Apple TV with the same footprint and hooks into that USB port.



    On a side note; Blu-Ray movies are about 20GB each, so if you imagine that Apple TV 2.0 could handle 1080p and had a 500GB hard drive, that's not even enough storage for 20 movies, not to mention that you need to fit all your music, photos and podcasts on this thing. This whole Apple TV thing has a long way to go. iTunes res is not good enough, and iTunes TV shows and movies didn't hit outside the US yet, wowzer.
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  • Reply 17 of 66
    addaboxaddabox Posts: 12,665member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    I'm quite impressed with the stuff on the innards, except the 33GB hard drive. Call it 40GB all you wall but if you've more than 33GB in the right format on iTunes it wont all fit on the your Apple TV. Apple should do a microsoft on this thing and bring out an add-on hard drive for $100 or $150 that rests on top of the Apple TV with the same footprint and hooks into that USB port.



    On a side note; Blu-Ray movies are about 20GB each, so if you imagine that Apple TV 2.0 could handle 1080p and had a 500GB hard drive, that's not even enough storage for 20 movies, not to mention that you need to fit all your music, photos and podcast on this thing. This whole Apple TV thing has a long way to go.



    Why are you demanding that a device that is primarily designed to receive media files streamed from your computer have massive local storage?



    It makes much more sense to me to keep my media files on an external drive on my main computer, where I have access to all the nice organization and transcoding and ripping software and I can stick cheap drives in firewire enclosures to my heart's content. Big drives on desktop: media server. Atv: media client.
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  • Reply 18 of 66
    applebookapplebook Posts: 350member
    Who can afford to download 1080p movies/films anyway? Even with an ultra-fast connection, downloading a single movie will take a long time. There is also the bandwidth cost on Apple's side.
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  • Reply 19 of 66
    bacillusbacillus Posts: 313member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by applebook View Post


    Who can afford to download 1080p movies/films anyway? Even with an ultra-fast connection, downloading a single movie will take a long time. There is also the bandwidth cost on Apple's side.



    In H264, it might be 15 GB (rough guess), which w/ a 10 mbps connection would take about 3 - 4 hours off the top of my head. If you can also watch it as it dl's, then it would be only a 2 hour wait. Sound like something that can requested and then be done overnight.
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  • Reply 20 of 66
    wally007wally007 Posts: 121member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by applebook View Post


    Who can afford to download 1080p movies/films anyway? Even with an ultra-fast connection, downloading a single movie will take a long time. There is also the bandwidth cost on Apple's side.



    720p of american idol on torrent sites is about 350 - 400mb. from what i've seen they're using divx/xvid and bitrate is kind of low but with h.264 and "good" bitrate , you could deliver awesome quality in 720p with about 600mb per hour.



    I've never bought anything from iTunes in my life , even though i own 2 iPods and 2 Macs. Once they offer HD i will stop renting/buying DVDs and buy from them. Otherwise i dont see reason why downgrade to iTunes level....
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