New Apple TV Has A5X Chip and Single WLAN + Bluetooth Antenna
AnandTech has found that new Apple TV will use the same WLAN+Bluetooth antenna/chip combo that the iPhone 5 uses as well as an A5X processor rather than the A5.
The unreleased Apple TV revision was first suggested by an iOS 6.1 firmware release for a previously unseen AppleTV3,2 model. Then, a new FCC application revealed that the new Apple TV would have slightly smaller dimensions than the currently shipping model.
AnandTech writes:
Instead of the A5R2 SoC (S5L8942) inside the Apple TV 3,1, this new device contains an A5X SoC (S5L8947) as shown in the screenshots I've taken of the Restore.plist file, though there are numerous others. It's entirely possible that Apple is again using different bins of the A5X, it's not possible to tell whether CPU or GPU cores are fused off at this point from my digging through the IPSW.
The A5X chip (with Quad-Core graphics) was originally introduced to power the new Retina Display screen of the iPad 3.
It was in the current Apple TV that Apple first used the 32-nm (die shrunk) A5 chip. It was believed at the time that Apple had used the Apple TV has a test platform to start ramping up that new 32-nm A5 processor before they started using it more broadly to power the still-for-sale iPad 2.
It seems likely that Apple will follow the same pattern with this new A5X -- first ramp up production in the Apple TV, and later extend its use to the new iPad mini. The next iPad mini is believed to include a Retina display. Apple will need to upgrade the iPad mini's CPU/GPU in order to be able to accommodate the extra pixels of such a display.
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Top Rated Comments
I'm in the same boat with Verizon, I'd spend more subscribing to Hulu Plus and Netflix and buying content from iTunes than I would save by dropping the TV from TV/Internet FiOS bundle!
Until Apple can come up with a viable alternative for data delivery than the incumbent cable companies 'cutting the cable' is something of a pipe dream!
Hopefully it's a die-shrink, cooler version otherwise that thing is going to melt through some TV cabinets.
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I use antenna for over the air HDTV. I use AppleTV for YouTube, Netflix, and other free stuff. My internet bill is $25-30/month. I don't have any other expenses. I don't think anyone can get this with a TV cable subscription. I use Ooma for VOIP phone and it is about $3.47/month.
I use Brighthouse Cable and AT&T alternating between the two whenever one of them hikes the rates. I have been doing this for about 3 years. I have room for a cable modem and a DSL modem in my structured wiring panel. All I have to do is move my ethernet cable from one device to another when I switch providers. Pretty seemless.
Some of us have oft-posted for the resurrection of some features & benefits from the 1st gen :apple:TV. The ability to fry an egg, space heat an apartment and/or jiffy pop without a stove was not one I've seen. But maybe Apple wanted it anyway? ;)