Apple drops PortalPlayer from future iPod plans?
PortalPlayer, which designs chips and software for several of Apple's digital music players, informed investors this week that it had not been selected for use by Apple Computer in its forthcoming flash-based iPod music players.
PortalPlayer said in a statement that the follow-on to its PP5021 System-on-Chip product, expected to be available in the second half of this year, had not been selected by Apple.
Apple's flash-memory-based iPods include the nano and shuffle.
PortalPlayer said in a statement that the follow-on to its PP5021 System-on-Chip product, expected to be available in the second half of this year, had not been selected by Apple.
Apple's flash-memory-based iPods include the nano and shuffle.
Comments
I doubt it was apple themselves.
Originally posted by Telomar
Probably SigmaTel. That is who does the shuffle anyway.
SigmaTel does the wheel. I don't remember them doing the chipset.
The market doesn't seem to believe that Apple won't select them. Portal's stock has gone up.
Originally posted by melgross
SigmaTel does the wheel.
No, that's Synaptics. (And even that isn't necessarily true any more; Synaptics is contracted to do some of the wheels for high demand, but most of them are done by Apple now.)
I don't remember them doing the chipset.
The shuffle's chipset is from SigmaTel. More info.
http://www.intel.com/design/pca/hof/index.htm
Originally posted by ghstmars
but isnt the Zen using a PXA255 running at 400mhz. how much different technically are the ipod and the zen?
The Zen is also significantly thicker and thus can afford to have separate dedicated chips. iPods can't.
Originally posted by Anders
AFAIK PortalPlayer isn´t used in anything but the iPod video player. So it might mean nothing else than they didn´t expand into other iPod players...
The iPod nano and the iPod 5G use the same PortalPlayer chip.
Originally posted by Chucker
The iPod nano and the iPod 5G use the same PortalPlayer chip.
PortalPlayer's statement was just the flash players wouldn't adopt their new chip. Not sure that's entirely surprising initially given support for wireless and such.
Otherwise maybe somebody else won it or maybe it is just a case of Apple has decided to start designing their own ARM chips for it.
I think it was last yr when the ipod video came out.Chucker what you think about that?
Originally posted by Chucker
No, that's Synaptics. (And even that isn't necessarily true any more; Synaptics is contracted to do some of the wheels for high demand, but most of them are done by Apple now.)
The shuffle's chipset is from SigmaTel. More info.
Yeah, you're right. I always get those two confused.
Originally posted by ghstmars
Didn't Broadcom been rumored to be working with apple on some SoC chips?
I think it was last yr when the ipod video came out.Chucker what you think about that?
There were rumors of Broadcom. If these pan out, then wifi is coming soon.
I don't know about you, but it would be cool to use the iPod as the remote to navigate, select, and scrub through content while it is played back on my stereo/TV wireless. Problem is security and network latency, anyone who uses AirTunes knows what I'm talking about.
Anyhow, I'm excited to see what direction the iPod takes next. I hope the next killer feature seriously makes me want to upgrade! I'll be sad because I won't want to spend more money on a new iPod, but it can't hurt iPod sales!