21 May 09 Sony X1000 Dissected

Ever wonder what the inside of Sony’s X1000 series looks like? Well even if you haven’t, you’re about to find out. The embargo on the player’s FCC report was just lifted, allowing us to get our first glimpse of its circuitry. I’m not geeky enough to know what the hell I’m looking at, but I’m sure someone here will find this stuff exhilarating. Plus, these images might een help the folks at Rockbox to get started on a port. Can you imagine how Rockbox would be on the X1000? Be still, my beating heart.

With the help of Sony Insider, we were also able to learn about the player’s processor.It has a 250mhz ARM processor made by NEC called the MP201. Here’s a diagram and its specs:

• CPU: ARM926EJ-STM (MAX. 250MHz, I-cache: 16KB, D-cache: 16KB)
• DSP: SPXK611 (250MHz MAX., I-cache: 32KB, D-cache: 32KB)
• H.264 decoder: QVGA 30fps
• MPEG4 encoder/decoder: QVGA 30fps
• Internal RAM: 256KB SRAM
• SDRAM interface: SDR-SDRAM (125MHz MAX., 64Mb to 512Mb × 2, 32bits)
• Asynchronous memory interface: x16bit, 62.5MHz (at FLASH burst mode)
• NAND FLASH interface: Multiple values NAND error correcting circuit enabled

I think we can now see why the X1000 has such weak video support. The processor can playback QVGA , or 320 x 240 resolution videos. I expected more from a device meant to compete with the iPod touch, with a price to match it.

FCC Documents (PDF)