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Apple TV (2012) gets torn down, confirmed to have 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage

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1–10 of 17 posts

Re: Apple TV (2012) gets torn down, confirmed to have 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage

#3
post #2

This device world be a pretty cool server if you could put your own OS on it -- kind of like a much faster Raspberry Pi with built in wif, flash storage and PSU

Kind of like, but at an almost 3x the price tag.

Better but higher priced.

Re: Apple TV (2012) gets torn down, confirmed to have 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage

#4
512 MB and USB port makes it a fantastic target for a low power server -- it'd really like to run a Linux on this. Compare it to Raspberry Pi, the first neither has a box and WiFi nor a power supply and remote control and most important, it has twice as less memory... It seems a very good hardware for 100 USD -- the major problem is probably the need to jailbreak it.

Re: Apple TV (2012) gets torn down, confirmed to have 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage

#5
post #3
post #2

This device world be a pretty cool server if you could put your own OS on it -- kind of like a much faster Raspberry Pi with built in wif, flash storage and PSU

Kind of like, but at an almost 3x the price tag. Better but higher priced.

If you factor in the case + better specs, you'll find that it's a good value. I played with this idea a bit. I disabled unnecessary services, etc. Got it pretty bare ... but it's very hard to get a proper toolchain going. In the end, you'll need to cross-compile everything and doing everything right can be a real grief. It's really not worth it unless you can shoehorn Linux in there ...

Re: Apple TV (2012) gets torn down, confirmed to have 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage

#6
post #5
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of like, but at an almost 3x the price tag. Better but higher priced.

If you factor in the case + better specs, you'll find that it's a good value. I played with this idea a bit. I disabled unnecessary services, etc. Got it pretty bare ... but it's very hard to get a proper toolchain going. In the end, you'll need to cross-compile everything and doing everything right can be a real grief. It's really not worth it unless you can shoehorn Linux in there ...

This is not new. SheevaPlug, TonidoPlug and all the other variants... an ARM ~GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, USB and ethernet in a 4" case. It runs Ubuntu and only draws 3 watts of power. I've had one running my nightly server backups for years. Cost less than $100.

Re: Apple TV (2012) gets torn down, confirmed to have 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage

#8
post #4

512 MB and USB port makes it a fantastic target for a low power server -- it'd really like to run a Linux on this. Compare it to Raspberry Pi, the first neither has a box and WiFi nor a power supply and remote control and most important, it has twice as less memory... It seems a very good hardware for 100 USD -- the major problem is probably the need to jailbreak it.

Or a great dedicated console emulator. It has enough ram I think to even play the larger neogeo games.

Re: Apple TV (2012) gets torn down, confirmed to have 512MB of RAM, 8GB of storage

#10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you factor in the case + better specs, you'll find that it's a good value. I played with this idea a bit. I disabled unnecessary services, etc. Got it pretty bare ... but it's very hard to get a proper toolchain going. In the end, you'll need to cross-compile everything and doing everything right can be a real grief. It's really not worth it unless you can shoehorn Linux in there ...

This is not new. SheevaPlug, TonidoPlug and all the other variants... an ARM ~GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, USB and ethernet in a 4" case. It runs Ubuntu and only draws 3 watts of power. I've had one running my nightly server backups for years. Cost less than $100.

Most of those don't have a decent graphics card that can run 1080p video and do H.264 decoding in hardware like the AppleTV. They make great Linux boxes, but are lacking in the media center department.
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