Find out what's really inside the iPod; Reuse of components is a good design practice for similar applications, including mobile handsets
Gregory A. Quirk, Semiconductor Insights
Jan 30, 2006 (5:00 AM) -- commsdesign.com
With sexy styling, an ultra-thin design, and an easy-to-use interface, Apple's the iPod has energized the personal audio player market, making it the latest trendy product being purchased by people of all ages. Not surprisingly, Apple and its partners have introduced a wide array of peripherals that enable owners to personalize their iPods and extend their use. Accessibility has expanded into to the car, as well as to the home and office, with RF transmitters, docking stations, and a multitude of external speaker options.
In addition to giving users many ways to use and personalize their iPods, Apple's strategy includes rapidly bringing new products to market to address different price points, size niches, and with the recent latest iPod Video introduction, new capabilities to keep the competition in the distance.
For the semiconductor companies enabling the iPod family's functionality, they share in the huge sales and marketshare enjoyed by Apple. Apple has remained loyal to the same audio suppliers as with the first-generation iPod, but with different versions of their products. The only exception is the iPod Video, in which Apples has introduced a new supplier to support new functionality.
For the audio processing, PortalPlayer provides several variants of its PP50xx family, depending on the specific iPod model. All PortalPlayer's devices also support peripherals and control, such as memory, USB, and hard-disk interfaces (see the figure). For the audio codec, Wolfson Microelectronics provides multiple versions.
The new supplier enabled by the iPod Video is Broadcom. Its BCM2722 facilitates the video decoding and processing.
Related Semiconductor IP
- Post-Quantum Digital Signature IP Core
- Compact Embedded RISC-V Processor
- Power-OK Monitor
- RISC-V-Based, Open Source AI Accelerator for the Edge
- Securyzr™ neo Core Platform
Related White Papers
- An Outline of the Semiconductor Chip Design Flow
- The SoC design: What’s next for NoCs?
- Characterizing licensable core performance; Find out why comparing processor cores is tricky and learn what to look for.
- Paving the way for the next generation of audio codec for True Wireless Stereo (TWS) applications - PART 5 : Cutting time to market in a safe and timely manner
Latest White Papers
- DRsam: Detection of Fault-Based Microarchitectural Side-Channel Attacks in RISC-V Using Statistical Preprocessing and Association Rule Mining
- ShuffleV: A Microarchitectural Defense Strategy against Electromagnetic Side-Channel Attacks in Microprocessors
- Practical Considerations of LDPC Decoder Design in Communications Systems
- A Direct Memory Access Controller (DMAC) for Irregular Data Transfers on RISC-V Linux Systems
- A logically correct SoC design isn’t an optimized design