New iPod Touch Has an 802.11n Chip

eggboard writes "iFixIt has discovered a Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n chip in the just-announced iPod touch (32 GB and 64 GB) models that uses single-stream 802.11n. Single-stream doesn't get the full power of N, but it boosts speed enough that — along with space-time block encoding, a feature coming soon to Wi-Fi access points with two or more radios — the iPod touch could be an effective networked media server, for streaming and transfer, possibly through the new iTunes Home Sharing feature."

Re:Why didn't they tell us?

[Tubal-Cain]

Why didn't they tell us earlier?

iFixIt? Because they just found out.
Apple still hasn't told anybody.

iLinkIt

[the_other_chewey]

WTF is this link-less entry supposed to be?

Here's the story mentioned above:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPod-touch-3rd-Generation/1158/2 [ifixit.com]

Not how Home Sharing works

[Anonymous Coward]

Home sharing is just a way of automatically keeping multiple iTunes libraries up to date with new purchases when they are all tied to the same iTunes store account. It's not any kind of actual sharing service, just a synchronization service.

Re:Not how Home Sharing works

[radmarshallb]

Yes it is. Home Sharing has an option to allow you to automatically synchronize new purchases, but it does much more than that. You can copy any song from your iTunes library to any other machine on your Home Sharing network. For instance, I just copied a single album (ripped from my own CDs, not an iTMS purchase) from my main library upstairs onto my laptop. If an iPod were enabled for Home Sharing, it would make sense that you could do the same thing. That is, wirelessly sync whatever songs, albums, or playlists you choose to your iPod Touch.

802.11N hardware OTHER than the chip?

[anethema]

What I'm more curious about is any of the hardware there for it. Multiple antennas for MIMO? Any 5GHz hardware? The biggest advantage to wireless-N IMO is it moves the wireless out of the stupidly crowded 2.4GHz ISM band. The 5GHz band is (at least for now) far less crowded and this unlicensed band has quite a few more channels to spread the devices out a bit more spectrum wise.

The chip is one thing but without any other supporting hardware, it doesn't make much difference. The chip could have been chosen for better power characteristics or a few other reasons. Time will tell if apple enables any N style features but I am not holding my breath.

Re:Server?

[ZackSchil]

iPods output to televisions.

Re:All this means

[itsdapead]

just as they won't activate the bluetooth chip inside older Ipod Touches.

Er, they did...

If you pay Apple 10 bucks for the 3.0 OS upgrade, that unused bluetooth chip in the second-gen iPod Touch will spring into action... [tomsguide.com]

Re:All this means

[Yvan256]

Actually it's only 4.99$ for the 3.1 upgdade.

At least that's what it cost me to go from 2.x to 3.1.

Re:Server?

[MadnessASAP]

But then it's not a streaming network server is it, it's a portable device with a shitty composite output.

Re:Server?

[bemymonkey]

Weird, googling "iPod HDMI Out" didn't lead me to many adapter cables...

Re:Server?

[Winckle]

Try a better search term?

Here's a third party example http://www.bestofferbuy.com/AVout-TV-IDChip-Cable-for-iPod-Nano-3ClassicTouchiPhone-1-p-9946.html?currency=GBP&utm_source=gbase&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=gbase [bestofferbuy.com]

And apple's official KB article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1454 [apple.com]

Re:Server?

[RedK]

HDMI is only one way to connect to a TV. How bout you try to get informed before spouting nonsense : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1454 [apple.com].

Link to stories

[eggboard]

Sorry, I didn't properly include the link.

My analysis about how the 802.11n stuff works related to an iPod touch, such as explaining what single-stream 802.11n means as a media server is here at TidBITS. [tidbits.com] The iFixIt tear down is here [ifixit.com].

Re:Why didn't they tell us?

[icebike]

Maybe because this chip really does not support N?

Just because it is from that family of chips doesn't mean it has N.

Look at the designator on the end of the chipset full designation: BCM4329FKUBG That BG at the end may be telling.

I'm sure when Apple calls, Broadcom pays attention, and will burn custom chip sets, omitting any feature Apple does not want.

the full BCM4329FKUBG designation does not appear in Broadcom's catalog. Its a custom chip.

Besides, N requires special antennas. They were not found.

Re:Why didn't they tell us?

[Anonymous Coward]

Very wrong. N does NOT need special antennas.

N uses same frequencies as bg and a (2.4 and 5 GHz respectively), so the physical aspect of the antennas is the same

N can use " more" antennas for implementing spacial diversity (MIMO/SIMO depending on how many you got).

So you can have full N on the same antennas as bg, just you will get 3 antennas instead of 2, if your particular N chipset has 2x3 or 3x3 MIMO

So, this client chipset in the iPod can fully implement N capabilities with a single antenna (assuming that the chipset is capable, as it could be a custom), altough it will not be able to use high data rates MCS, as it would have a single spatial stream

Regards