I was reading a "hack" on another site for adding SATA support, which was really just attaching an IDE => SATA adapter to the IDE connector of the ATV. Of course, this got me thinking.
It *might* to be possible to hack into the four (or eight) wires on the ICH7 (southbridge) to provide one or two SATA port(s) in the ATV. Not the most needed thing in the world with the external USB already working, but fun, and good for larger capacity internal drives. The ICH7 southbridge chip on the Apple TV supports two SATA ports -- or does it? Anyone know which version of the ICH7 is used in the Apple TV? I think it must be the "Mobile" ICH7 (82801GBM, ICH7M) as that's the only one I see listed for use with the "Calistoga" Northbridge. But if Apple used the "Ultra Mobile" ICH7-U PC82801GU then there's no SATA support on the chip. But the big question: Is there SATA support in the ATV's firmware/ BIOS? If the ATV wouldn't recognize it even if it had it, there's not much point in pursuing the hack. Is there a more topical forum to which to post this kind of question? Or are folks happy with it here? I couldn't think of one with folks who actually understand the low level gutsy bits of the ATV. I did post a couple of ICH7 SATA implementation questions to Ars Technica because I figure those guys will know motherboard chipset hardware stuff... Jeff Walther -- To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/atv-bootloader?hl=en
