Teardown Shows Apple TV, iPad Share Similar DNA

Apple’s cheap, puny Apple TV set-top box shares many of the same internals as the iPad, according to a teardown of the device.

The nimble engineers at iFixit cracked open the Apple TV earlier this afternoon and found the same type of Samsung flash chip that’s also inside the iPad, holding 8 GB of capacity. iFixit speculates this storage will be used for caching while streaming TV shows and movies.

The teardown also revealed that the Apple TV features the same A4 processor and amount of RAM (256MB) as the iPad.

Of course, the Apple TV has connectivity features that the iPad doesn’t: Ethernet, HDMI output, an AC adapter and an optical audio-out port. But it’s pretty interesting how similar the two devices are otherwise. Perhaps this is a clue that the Apple TV and iPad will be very tightly integrated in the near future (going beyond the AirPlay streaming feature we’re already familiar with).

An 8-GB drive doesn’t sound like much, but it’s pretty good considering the Apple TV’s $100 price tag. And because the Apple TV’s focus is streaming media, 8GB should leave more than enough room for extra third-party apps, if Apple later decides to open an Apple TV app store, which some have speculated to be a possibility.

A full step-by-step teardown of the Apple TV can be found on iFixit’s website.

See Also:

• Why iOS Could Make Apple TV Succeed


• Apple TV Runs iOS, Opening Door to Apps, Jailbreaking


• AppleTV Runs iOS, Already Jailbroken

Photo: iFixit

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