Apple Interactive Television Box

This product is also referred to as the Apple Set Top Box (or STB). Based on a Macintosh Quadra 605 board but with added hardware MPEG decoder. Requires Oracle server setup as the system is designed to boot over network.

General Info

Apple assigned model number M4120 to this system (possibly specific to the STB3 unit).

Layout

Notes

• According to sources in discussion forums over the years, getting video output from these systems has not been accomplished by hobbyists likely due to the lack of specialized software drivers. Without the original Oracle based boot system and image, you're only option is using the external SCSI port with a standard MacOS image.
• With a SCSI drive connected, supposedly holding down the Option key on a connected keyboard will make the system boot off the disk.
• The RJ45 port labeled "Network" is very likely E1/T1 only and not Ethernet. With the consumer ROM, the Set top box will not boot fully unless it can download an OMO (Oracle Media Net) application over this interface - this is why the boxes appear dead/not bootable.
• The Development box has a Different Boot Rom to the normal Boxes. The Normal boxes booted from the ATM AAL1 Network which was connected to a nCUBE Media Server (Later known as Video Server).
• It seems that initial video signal only outputs on units with the red colored ROM SIMM (likely the one with LC 475 on the label) whereas units with a green SIMM likely won't until the necessary components are provided over the netboot.

STB1

This is an earlier "prototype" system built in a metal case. An LC 475 board was used but the LC PDS connector was modified to be on the underside of the board, as the second system board with the TV connections sat underneath. The power supply appears to be from a Macintosh IIsi. These units may have a floppy drive integrated in the case.

STB3

These are the more common units found online and were also the ones used in the BT test deployment.

To open the ITV, you remove one screw from the rear panel and lift the top cover off. Inside, there are plenty of standard Mac parts, including the 68040 cpu, NCR 53C96 SCSI controller, Zilog Z8530 serial controller, the 3.6V PRAM battery, CUDA switch, and a 72pin SIMM socket, which appears to have a 4meg SIMM installed. There also appears to be another 4meg of RAM on the mainboard. There are 4 cable connections going to the mainboard: the PSU, the input (ADB?) port on the right side panel, the IR receiver, and the front-panel mounted on/off switch. All other ports are mounted directly to the mainboard itself. Just forward of the RAM is a mounting spot for a fan, though in this unit neither the fan nor the cable to supply power to it from the PSU are present.

Now is where the hardware get's interesting, as promised by the ports on the rear. First, near the RAM soldered to the mainboard is a socket which has a 64-pin Apple Flash SIMM installed, labled 'LC 475 GM', which contains 2048k of CMOS flash memory in the form of 8 (256k x 8) Intel E28F020 flash memory chips. Next to this is the Aztec power supply. Near the NCR and Zilog chips is the video decoder, a Philips SAA7188A, which is able to encode video data to NTSC, PAL, or S-video formats. On the other side of the mainboard is the MPEG decoding chip from C-Cube Microsystems, labled 'CL450-P160'. I've also seen mentioned that not only is MPEG decoding supported, but the hardware in the ITV is also said to support Quickdraw and Quicktime. There's also a retangular plastic frame which corresponds to the external expansion cover and which extends nearly to the front of the casing. At the forward part of this plastic frame is an expansion socket, somewhat like the PDS expansion slot of the LC-series Mac's, though this connector runs parallel to the front of the casing, not along the rear portion of the side panel. Also near the MPEG decoder is a XILINX XC4010-4 FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), which can be seen as a reconfigurable processor though it is unclear exactly what it's function is in this case. To the rear of the XC4010-4 is a ROM labled 'STB3 A3.1N 551AA6'.

TattleTech Output

• Nubus/PDS Slot# = $00
◊ Board Name = MEMCjr Built-In Video 
◊ Board ID = 77
◊ Vendor ID = Apple Computer, Inc. 
◊ Revision Level = Macintosh CPU Family 4.1 
◊ Part# = The HORROR Continues 
◊ Date = 15-Jun-93
◊ Functional Resources :
+ Device sResource Name = CPU_68040
- Device Category = 10 (CPU)
- Device Type = 5 (68040)
- Device Software Interface Type = 0
- Device Hardware Type = 24
- Device sResource# = $FB
- Driver Number = [NA]
---------------------------------- 
• Nubus/PDS Slot# = $0C
◊ Board Name = Kevin STB3 
◊ Board ID = 1661
◊ Vendor ID = Video Architecture Group 
◊ Revision Level = A3N Xilinx 3•28 SW 3•28•95 
◊ Part# = STB3 
◊ Functional Resources :
+ Device sResource Name = Display_Video_Apple_GM
- Device Category = 3 (Display)
- Device Type = 1 (Video)
- Device Software Interface Type = 1
- Device Hardware Type = 2
- Device sResource# = $81
- Driver Number = -49

Two 'video interfaces" are being detected by TattleTech.

MEMCjr is the video and memory controller that is left over when the LC475 turned into STB. This won't get us very far because the rest of the LC475 video hardware is missing.

Kevin STB3 is the new video controller that drives composite displays and it is associated with the driver Display_Video_Apple_GM. Normally this would be a DRVR resource in the video card for a NuBus board or it would be present in the logic board ROM. Obviously it is missing...

nCUBE

The nVision solution includes a deskside nCUBE media server and digital set-top box technology from Apple Computer, Inc., for delivering interactive content through a television set. The system is compatible with leading media server software such as that in use at Bell Atlantic and BT. The nCUBE media server itself provides 10 GigaBytes of disk storage, 16 I/O channels, a CT3 interface for T1 streams, and an ATM interface for E1 streams. Networking components for the system are provided by Alcatel and Telco Systems.

"Apple is leveraging its QuickTime multimedia and QuickDraw graphics technologies for use in its interactive TV set-top box," said Rick Shriner, vice president of Apple Core Technologies. "We believe the nVision system, which includes Apple's Interactive TV Box technology, will enable Interactive TV trials to come on line quickly. It will also serve as a proving ground for content and service developers who are working to create the compelling interactive television applications necessary for this new industry to succeed."

BT Tech Info

The set-top-box (STB) is based on an Apple Macintosh computer - the LC475 - running MAC O/S modified to support MPEG and a 2 Mbit/s network interface. At start-up it is downloaded with the application and Oracle Media Objects (OMO), the run time version of the authorware tool in which the services are created.

The network platform is being delivered by Alcatel Network Systems and comprises STM-16 SDH rings delivering content from the media server in Colchester to six remote telephone exchanges based in Colchester and Ipswich. Alcatel's ATM technology switches individual video and control channels at the remote exchanges where they are delivered as a 2 Mbit/s stream over either copper using asymmetric digital subscriber loop (ADSL), or fibre.

The ADSL technology, manufactured by Westell International, delivers over an ordinary telephone loop 2 Mbit/s in one direction, a 9.6 kbit/s bidirectional control channel, and the ordinary analogue telephone service. Fibre customers are connected using Alcatel's APON technology.

The Alcatel switching platform provides the concentration and distribution to allow up to 1200 of the 2500 customers to be connected to the server at any one time.

The server system consists of an nCUBE massively parallel computer controlled by a Sequent Unix computer both running Oracle's Media Server software. The significant advance in server technology since the earlier trial has been the ability to scale the server to allow up to 1200 customers independent access to 1000 hours of entertainment as well as the other applications. There is an EDI gateway to the server supporting the banking application.

All the video content compressed is to the MPEG1 standard at 2Mbit/s and carried in MPEG2 frames. The coding of all the short video sequences and bitmaps is carried out by BT using real-time coding technology.

Business support services utilise Oracle's database software and applications and all the significant components of the system are integrated with BT's normal billing, network management and customer service systems (CSS).

Deployments

The most notable test deployment of the Apple Interactive TV is with BT in the UK. We believe the STB units were also tested in a hotel under the Disney brand.

Videos

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVuFTScbZPU

Gallery

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External Links

• Apple Interactive Television Computer Town
• Apple Set Top Box manual
• https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-set-top-box.1122/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20090803195259/http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/6757/M4120.HTML
• http://www.larwe.com/museum/apple4120.html
• https://web.archive.org/web/20150608084845/https://www.aventure-apple.com/flops/settopbox.html
• https://web.archive.org/web/19990506174548/http://www.bt.com/newsroom/document/nr9535c.htm
• https://www.applefritter.com/node/8591

See Also

• Apple Computer

Small Computer System Interface

Phase Alternation Line