It was only a matter of time until someone decided to crack open the new Apple TV to see what’s inside. As usual, Apple isn’t exactly forthcoming on the innards of their devices, so it leaves the electronics nerds to do some investigating. Let’s see the highlights:
It looks like the RAM has gotten a significant boost from the previous model. Instead of a measly 256 MB of RAM, the new Apple TV has a beefy 512 MB of RAM to help with the increased size of the video output. To go along with that, the older A4 chip from the iPhone 4 generation has been updated to the A5 — better CPU and GPU. The built-in flash storage, however, remains unchanged at 8 GB.
The interesting part to us is the additional Wi-Fi antenna in this new model. While it isn’t immediately clear what it does, there is some speculation going on. For some 802.11N devices like the current iPod touch, this is what Apple’s tech specs page lists its wireless capabilities as: “802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only).” The new Apple TV’s description doesn’t mention the 2.4 GHz limitation at all: “Wi-Fi (802.11a, b, g, or n) wireless network.” It seems likely that the additional antenna is just 802.11N 5 GHz support.
What do you think? Are these upgrades enough to get you to drop $99 for the new model? Sound off in the comment section below this post. We want to know what you’re thinking about Apple’s favorite hobby.
Source: aicjofs at XBMC Forums
