The pending revision of Apple's hobby project picks up a faster GPU.
The FCC diagram that outed the new Apple TV update.
Hot on the heels of the 128GB iPad, it looks like there's another low-key Apple product launch that's imminent. FCC documents (and one in particular [PDF]) have revealed what looks to be a slightly smaller revision of the Apple TV set-top box that measures about 3.69 inches squared, down from the current model's 3.9 inches. More sleuthing by AnandTech through the recent Apple TV software update also suggests that the box uses an upgraded Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip from Broadcom, as well as an upgraded Apple A5X SoC rather than the A5 in the current model.
The A5X was a revision of the A5 that retained its dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU but upgraded the GPU to a massive quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4 from Imagination Technologies. This GPU (and the accompanying memory interface upgrades) were necessary to support the third-generation iPad's then-new Retina Display. Its utility in a new Apple TV is less clear, but it could point the way to running more intensive 3D apps on the set-top box—running App Store apps on the Apple TV has long been on some users' wish lists.
Apple TV's current A5 isn't quite the same as the one used in the iPad 2, iPhone 4S, and iPad mini, but rather a harvested die with one of the CPU cores disabled; selling these harvested chips in some products is a common practice in the tech industry, since the alternative would be to throw out the entire SoC. Whether the A5X in the revised Apple TV has been similarly harvested (and, thus, whether we can expect different CPU and GPU performance relative to the iPad 3) isn't clear from the materials on hand.
Apple has yet to officially announce an updated Apple TV, but it could come at any time—the 128GB iPad took just a single day to go from rumor to fact, after all.
UPDATE: Apple has now claimed that the measurement differences shown in the FCC documents don't actually point to a substantially new product, but a slight component revision that merely required extra FCC paperwork for approval.
Can someone smarter than I explain what the point of a chip upgrade is for the Apple TV? I would imagine that the current model should be powerful enough for what it is tasked to do out of the box.
One possible reason for a chip upgrade is that you're making an assumption that what it is tasked to do out of the box is not changing. If Apple is expanding the scope of AppleTV, a chip upgrade becomes more logical.
For example, the earlier AppleTVs were only 720p. Only the recent models became 1080p, requiring a more powerful chip. There are certainly more functions that Apple could add, such as 3D, 4K, high frame rate, etc.
The other indicator that scope expansion may be imminent is the addition of support for Bluetooth keyboards the other day. I had been waiting for that one, I wish my Roku did that. (I hate entering search text with the remote.) If it's an indicator that future AppleTVs will be able to run iOS apps such as games and graphics apps, then a chip upgrade would naturally be in order there.