Tuesday, September 15, 2009

11n Wi-Fi chip discovered in new iPod touch

The new Apple iPod touch uses a Wi-Fi chip that can support the just-approved high-throughput 802.11n standard, though Apple apparently has not switched on the cranked-up wireless link.

If it does, the iPod touch (which is almost identical to the iPhone but lacks the 3G cellular radio) could support a 50Mbps data rate, more than twice that of the current 802.11ag radios used by the product family.

Apple last week lowered the price for the original 8GB iPod Touch and introduced two new higher-priced models, with 32 and 64Gbytes of memory respectively.

The chip inside is the Broadcom BCM4329, announced last December, the first Broadcom 11n product designed for mobile devices. The single chip combines 802.11n with 802.11abg, Bluetooth, and FM radio. It runs in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Full details are in the company’s data sheet for the chip.

The chip was discovered during a step-by-step disassembly of a brand-new 32GB iPod touch byiFixit, a Web site founded in 2003 by a pair of Cal Poly tinkerers, to help other people tinker with their electronics.

They discovered the Broadcom chip at step 14. An enlarged image shows the Broadcom name and chip identification.

Read the full story at MacWorld.com.au

2 comments:

James Madison said...

Well now computer repair is very easy with any brand like Apple, Macbook , Ibook etc.

MacGecko said...

True but that can be said of almost any laptop. Working on desktops most of the time is very easy and laptops or small desktops (MacMini) are not as easy.