Apple Inc announced new iPods in September 2008. Following the teardown of the new iPod nano, Nikkei Electronics had an engineer of a Japanese electronic component manufacturer explain the internal design of the iPod touch.
Q: What was your impression about the iPod touch?
A: I got the impression that there are only minor changes in the touch. The SoC for power supply control and the downsized substrates seemed to be the same efforts as seen in the new iPod nano. However, one particular part strongly attracted my attention. It's the method that realized the wireless network capability of the iPod touch.
The new iPod touch incorporates wireless network capability that supports Nike + iPod in addition to wireless LAN (WLAN). With this capability, the iPod touch can record and display the distance the user has traveled and the amount of energy he or she has consumed while running, wirelessly connecting to the sensor embedded in Nike shoes.
To use this function, the previous models of the iPod touch require an external wireless adapter. But the new iPod touch does not need this adapter anymore because of the incorporated wireless network capability.
The Nike + iPod wireless adapters and sensors use a low power IC manufactured by Nordic Semiconductor of Norway. Therefore, I was expecting to find a Nordic Semiconductor's wireless chip embedded in the iPod touch.
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