iLounge

Portelligent said Tuesday it has confirmed that Apple’s iPod shuffle is built around SigmaTel’s D-Major STMP3550 [.pdf] MP3 audio processing chip. The D-Major series chips, including the STMP3550, are designed for low power consumption and extended battery life in portable digital audio players based on flash memory. The STMP3550 supports: digital signal processing (DSP) on audio at 75MHz; Hi-Speed USB; an LED/LCD; AA, AAA, and lithium-ion batteries; Playlists; and both NAND flash memory and other storage media such as SmartMedia, Secure Digital, and CompactFlash.

The iPod shuffle is Apple’s first portable player to employ flash memory for music storage. Other iPod models have used hard-disk drives and audio chips from Wolfson Micro in conjunction with Portal Player processors.

Due to strong consumer demand for its new iPod shuffle, Apple’s online store now has a wait of two to four weeks for the device that was just introduced last week. “The backlog of orders comes not quite a year after the introduction of the iPod mini sparked a six-week wait when ordered online. There is a two- to three-week wait for the $99 iPod shuffle, which holds about 120 songs, while customers face a wait of three to four weeks for the $149 model, which has double the capacity, according to the Apple Web site.”