iFixit dismantles AppleTV, 8 GB NAND Flash found

By on Sep 29, 2010 at 7:01 PM
General September 29, 2010

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the new AppleTV, back on September 1, there was no mention of the internal storage capabilities of the device. Mr. Jobs did mention, several times actually, that the device’s focus was on streaming content, not storing it. Today, thanks to a take-apart by iFixit, we know that while content storage may not be the AppleTV’s focus, it still has the ability. In dismantling the small, black box, iFixit found a Samsung 8 GB NAND Flash storage chip hiding inside; the same chip featured in the iPad. Obviously, the device needs storage for its operating system and room to buffer content, but 8 GB seems like an awful lot. Perhaps an indication of an AppleTV application store, or new OS down the road? Who knows. The only reason that it is out-of-place is due to the fact that Apple neglected to mention it.

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26 Comments

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  • sirpaul

    The only thing you can do with 8GB is pretty much OS and application storage. A 720p movie runs you around 5GB so….that’s not it. I think it’s most likely temporary storage for videos currently being watched (in case you have slower internet and want to leave the vid load, or you like to skip forward and backwards a lot and don’t want to reload every time).

  • Mike

    My biggest question:

    I have an old hard drive based Apple TV from 2007. It just recently got the update with the new software — which is exactly the same as the new Apple TV recently announced.

    So how can they claim the new software is iOS based, when I have hacked my 2007 Apple TV and seen it boot Linux?

    I’m confused.

    • Carmen

      What’s the confusion? Couldn’t you run any OS that is compatible on ARM-microarchitecture? I’m pretty sure that there is a Windows version that is compatible with ARM too.

      • JHUK

        The old Apple TV has an Intel processor in it and runs a modified OS X.

        The difference between the new and old one apart from the processor and HMDI support is the old once isn’t based on iOS.

        You can put a full version of 10.5 on the old one, that’s why I like it.

  • Bri

    He’s trying to save face because he knows his decisions are slowly killing the company like not allowing flash on any Apple product. Face it Apple products are a slow dying breed and Droid is not and they’re doing all the right things for they’re products.

    • Mark

      I guess you ride the little school bus ?

    • DoeDoe

      their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their – it’s not that hard – even my 5th grader can do it.

  • Norm

    I hate Apple. Google TV FTW!

  • Android

    Apple will be lucky to sell a hundred of these. This will probably sell a fraction of the previous versions.

    • ted

      you mean millions… even before christmas. apple will have 70% of the set top box market in less than 3 months. the price is right, it’s a speed demon, has by far the best content, so it’s another blockbuster hit..

  • Chris

    Isn’t it obvious? the 8Gb is for caching … you need to have enough cache to stream media …. c’mon guys … if it was the early 90′s it’s understandable that no one knows this, but today? …. hate here, hate there … everything’s based on a unix core … it doesn’t matter if it’s apple or google ….

    • d-range

      You don’t need 8 GB to cache a 720p video, that’s ridiculous. You could stuff 6 full-length movies in 8GB storage. There has to be more to it than caching.

      • sirpaul

        A 720p movie is around 5gb. A 2.5 hour movie would be near 8.

      • Chris

        There is a difference between using this is storage and using it as cache. While yes you could stuff several 720p movies on this storage, it would depend on the kind of file format you are using even if you are using this as storage.

        When you use this as cache, the movie file is converted to the native file format that operating system can understand and this blows up the size…. That is why the 8Gb chip was used… If they use 1Gb or 2Gb chips to install less memory on the device, you should be looking at the cost too. Why not install enough or more than enough memory on the device if this would be easier on the board design at same cheaper?

        Please try to understand whole picture of developing, designing & manufacturing a device.

    • Mark

      That’s the smartest comment anyone has ever posted here.

      • Jake One

        I concur

  • DubYa

    Yes please.

  • Allen Walker

    Doesn’t Apple neglect to say a lot of things?

  • http://canadiantechblogger.com Brad

    So its pretty much the iPad? Not a huge surprise.

    • Ag

      There, just in case someone ask for the stupid comment.

  • bullyboyben

    Can someone tell me why a grown man would need this…….

    • Mark

      Porn ?

  • http://www.apple.com Steve jobs

    ha ha! got you!

  • chetstovepiper

    so there will be apps for this?

    • ted

      yes, but it will take developers awhile to update their graphics to support large tv displays, so once apple updates xcode, it is entirely possible… give it a year…

  • Marrakesh Red

    ARCHOS is so much better.

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