“The first thing I wanted to know when Apple announced the iTV was, what’s under the hood? The answer to this question depends on how soon Apple expects to start selling HD content on iTunes. Right now, you don’t need a whole lot of horsepower to do the kind of DVD-quality playback that the device is alleged to support. So some kind of embedded solution would work for the kinds of media that the iTunes Store currently offers. However, if Apple intends to launch HD video downloads and to add HD support with an iTV software update, then they’ll need a processor that can handle the load,” Jon Stokes reports for Ars Technica.
Stokes reports, “I suppose the real question is, do you think that Apple will offer HD video content for download by Q207, which is when the iTV is supposed to launch, or even shortly thereafter? If you answer in the affirmative, then it becomes interesting to speculate about whether the iTV will have Intel inside.”
“If they can fit it into the form factor, an x86 processor makes sense for the new device, because Apple will want to adapt Front Row for the iTV without the headache of an ISA transition. A Merom part, and especially one of the LV or ULV parts, might seem ideal for the iTV’s form factor, but they’re way too expensive to go into a $299 unit. So in terms of its likely low price and low power consumption, it may be the case that something like the Celeron 400 series could be a good fit for the iTV. In fact, when I first reported on Conroe-L, I mentioned that I thought it might be ideal for the then-rumored Apple media center,” Stokes reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “raddoc” for the heads up.]
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