Apple TV Teardown Shows A4 CPU, 256MB of RAM

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Apple's second generation Apple TV is very small; in fact it's a quarter the size of the old one. How did they fit everything inside? More importantly, what the heck is in there?

As always, we have some burning questions when faced with a new gadget and, as always, the iFixit team is more than happy to step up to the plate and tear apart the latest piece of electronics in the name of science. Their latest victim was Apple's Apple TV settop box. Inside they found 256MB of RAM (just like the new iPod touch and the iPad), as well as Apple's A4 CPU and 8GB of NAND flash.

Check out the pictures of the disassembly session below and be sure to click on through to iFixit for the full step-by-step teardown and gallery.

Jane McEntegart
25 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Darkerson
    Pretty interesting how they crammed all that inside there like that. It looks like a decent amount of thought was put into how it was laid out. Granted, I probably wont buy it, but its still neat none-the-less. And Im sure theyll make a pretty little penny off it, considering it probably costs like $20-$25 to make.
    Reply
  • Ragnar-Kon
    Old news maybe? I feel like that Jobs said himself that the A4 chip was in the Apple TV during the press release.... maybe I'm crazy.

    And this new Apple TV is one of the better products released by the Apple camp as of late. Was playing around with one the other day and I was rather impressed. Still not sure if it is worth $100 though. Hooking up the 3rd output on my video card to my TV is working fine for me.
    Reply
  • imapc
    What happened to the "next gen Apple TV to use AMD Fusion chip" article?
    Reply
  • ben850
    i'm starting to call BS on this blue "tool" being used in EVERY disassemble photo set.
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    I'm still failing to understand the point of this thing.
    Reply
  • tu_illegalamigo
    Well desgined, but HDMI with no 1080p? Wrong.
    Reply
  • JMcEntegart
    ben850i'm starting to call BS on this blue "tool" being used in EVERY disassemble photo set.
    It's a separation tool. The pros use/sell those, the rest of us use credit cards/gift cards.
    Reply
  • miloo
    apple decided to go black now ~ interesting ~
    99 bucks ? nah, thanx for the offer ~
    Reply
  • theoutbound
    It's a well built machine, but until it's feature set improves I will stick to HTPCs.
    Reply
  • Simple11
    My pops bought an AppleTV a while ago. I think they are great and nifty, but with all the techy stuff out there, and using my HTPC as a media server works better for me.
    Reply