Cowon iAudio U3 Cracked
November 17th, 2005 by Chi An
When specification of iAudio U3 was first unveiled, some iAudio fans guessed that it is no longer using Cowon’s favourite Sigmatel chips. They claimed that Sigmatel’s STMP3520 can’t produce powerful output as iAudio U3 does (30mW + 30mW). Now, this statement is proved to be true. Chinese iMP3.net has cracked an iAudio U3 into pieces. What actually inside in it?
From pictures below, we have identified few components in iAudio U3, which are:
- System on Chip: Telechips TCC770
- FM Chip: Philips TEA5767
- Power Management Unit: Philips PCF50606HN (O2B/N1Y)
- Flash Memory: K9K4G08U0M
iAudio U3 is possible the first model to use Telechips TCC770 chips. There is still no official statement about it. Its sound quality is better than TCC767 but has lower transmission speed. It is tested to write at about 5mB/s while TCC767 writes at 10M/s.
{ via iMP3.net }
Filed under MP3 Players, Cowon having
November 17th, 2005 at 9:35 pm
[…] First look: iAudio U3: it’s the flash-based MP3 player that does FLAC, Ogg Vorbis and video. Also take a look at its innards if you’re so inclined — you’ll notice the Telechips TCC770 chipset, which sounds better than its predecessor (TCC767) but has a lower transmission speed (4944KB/s vs TCC767’s 10MB/s). Read our preview of the iAudio U3. […]
February 13th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
[…] It’s powered Telechips TCC760, not the latest TCC770 as in iAudio U3 […]
June 8th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
The original article — should anyone want to see it — can be found here: http://www.imp3.net/article/article.php?articleid=6959
To the person above me, I should like to point out that a lower transfer rate doesn’t necessarily automatically make the chip worse than it’s predecessor. As has been mentioned, it purportedly produces a higher quality of audio. If this is true, slower rates — within reason — are a worthwhile tradeoff.