Apple TV (2012) raids iPad 2 parts bin, packs 32nm A5 silicon

Cupertino's latest Apple TV has already been torn asunder and had its guts revealed to all the online world. And, we've already told you of the many ways that it differs from its predecessor. Despite that in-depth examination of Apple's media streamer, turns out it had another secret that was recently unlocked by the folks at Chipworks, who discovered it's packing a new, smaller A5 chip that's masquerading as a single-core unit. Turns out, that's the same 32nm dual-core SoC found in new iPad 2s -- elder iPad 2 units pack 45nm chips -- but the 3rd-gen Apple TV only uses one of those cores to give you your 1080p fix. We don't know if the second core's simply sitting idle or if Apple's using up some defective A5s it had laying around, but we do know that you can see some more close up shots of the silicon in question at the source below.

Via Engadget.com