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.

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.
• 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).

STB3

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'.

• 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

Videos

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

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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

See Also

• Apple Computer

Small Computer System Interface

Phase Alternation Line