Mac mini Developer Note

This note describes the Mac mini computers based on the 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo microprocessor or 1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo microprocessor and introduced in February 2006. It includes information about distinguishing features of the computer, including components on the main logic board: the microprocessor, the other main ICs, and the buses that connect them to each other and to the I/O interfaces.

The computer comes with Mac OS X version 10.4.5 or later installed.

The value of the Mac mini model identifier string is Macmini1,1.

Architecture

The architecture of the Mac mini is based on the Intel Core Duo or Intel Core Solo microprocessor, the North Bridge memory controller, and the South Bridge I/O controller,which are connected to each other by a Direct Media Interface (DMI) bus. The North Bridge IC provides the bridging functionality among the processor, the memory system, the DMI, and the internal graphics controller. The South Bridge IC supports these components:

A DMA controller internal to the South Bridge supports LPC DMA (low pin count direct memory access). The DMA controller has registers that are fixed in the lower 64 KB of I/O space. The DMA controller is configured using registers in the PCI configuration space.

Figure 1 provides a simplified block diagram of the North Bridge and South Bridge ICs and the buses that connect them together.

Figure 1  Block diagram
This block diagram shows the memory controller and I/O controller ICs and the buses that connect them on the main logic board. Each component in the block diagram is defined in text.

Features

The Mac mini computer includes an integrated IR receiver and the Apple Remote. For a complete list of user-visible features, see the Mac mini specification sheet at Apple's Specifications site. Other features are described in this section.

Intel Microprocessors

The microprocessor in the Mac mini is either a 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo or a 1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo. It has the following features:

  • 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo processors or a 1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo processor

  • 2 MB on-chip L2 cache

  • Digital Media Boost

  • Connection to the North Bridge IC over a 667 MHz frontside bus

See the Intel Core Duo Processors or Intel Core Solo Processors support sites for detailed microprocessor documentation.

Digital Media Boost

Intel Digital Media Boost accelerates data manipulation by applying a single instruction to multiple data at the same time, known as SIMD processing. SIMD technology accelerates vector math operations and floating-point calculations. Digital Media Boost supports Intel Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) versions 1, 2, and 3.

For information on Digital Media Boost, refer to the following websites.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/coreduo/digitalmediaboost.htm

Processor Bus

The processor bus is an up-to-667 MHz bus connecting the processor to the North Bridge IC. The bus has a 64-bit wide data path. The processor has 32-bit addressing.

The point-to-point architecture provides each subsystem with dedicated bandwidth to main memory. The North Bridge IC implements an independent processor interface. The input clock to the processor PLL is 166 MHz.

Memory

The computer provides two RAM slots that accommodate 200-pin DDR2 SDRAM SO-DIMMs up to 1.25” in height. The SO-DIMMs must be DDR2 PC2-5300-compliant and must be unbuffered, unregistered, 8-byte, nonparity, and non-ECC. The computer ships with two 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM SO-DIMMs for a total of 512 MB. Additional RAM must be installed in pairs of equal sizes. For additional information, refer to RAM Expansion Developer Note.

Direct Media Interface Bus

The North Bridge and South Bridge ICs are connected by a Direct Media Interface (DMI) bus, a high-speed, bidirectional, point-to-point link supporting a clock rate of 1 GB per second in each direction

Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) Boot ROM

The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) Boot ROM consists of 2 MB of on-board flash EEPROM. It includes the hardware-specific code and tables needed to start up the computer, load an operating system, and provide common hardware access services.The EFI Boot ROM connects to the South Bridge via Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus.

Graphics/Video Subsystem

Internal to the North Bridge IC is the Intel GMA950 graphics subsystem. The Mac mini has a DVI connector for an external video monitor. For more information on the graphics subsystem and display capabilities, refer to Video Developer Note.

Serial ATA Drive Interface

The Mac mini comes with a 5400 rpm Serial ATA (SATA) Gen-I (1.5 Gbps) disk drive. The SATA disk drives operate through an AHCI 1.1 controller that supports advanced SATA-II features such as Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and PHY power management.

For more information on SATA, see the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) website.

For information on the AHCI controller, see http://www.intel.com/technology/serialata/ahci.htm.

Ultra ATA Interface

In the Mac mini computer, the South Bridge controller provides an Ultra ATA/100 interface (running at UATA/66) to the slot-loading, SuperDrive or Combo drive. The drive can read and write optical media, as shown in Table 1 and Table 2.

The optical drive is configured as device 0 (master) and complies with the ATA/ATAPI-5 industry standard. For information on parallel ATA interfaces, see the International Committee on Information Technology Standards (INCITS) Technical Committee T13 AT Attachment website.

Table 1  Types of media read and written by the SuperDrive

Media type

Reading speed

Writing speed

DVD +/- R

6x (CAV)

8x ZCLV

DVD+R DL

6x (CAV)

2.4x CLV

DVD +/- RW

6x (CAV)

4x ZCLV

DVD-ROM SL

8x (CAV)

–

DVD-ROM DL

6x (CAV)

–

CD-R

24x (CAV)

24x ZCLV

CD-RW

24x (CAV)

16x ZCLV

CD-ROM

24x (CAV)

–

Table 2  Types of media read and written by the Combo Drive

Media type

Reading speed

Writing speed

DVD +/- R

8x (CAV)

–

DVD+R DL

5x (CAV)

–

DVD-ROM SL

8x (CAV)

–

DVD-ROM DL

5x (CAV)

–

DVD +/- RW

5x (CAV)

–

CD-R

24x (CAV)

24x ZCLV

CD-RW

24x (CAV)

16x ZCLV

CD-ROM

24x (CAV)

–

FireWire Controller

The computer has one IEEE-1394a FireWire 400 port, which supports transfer rates of 100, 200, and 400 Mbps. For more information, see FireWire Developer Note.

Ethernet Controller

The computer has a built in Ethernet port for a 10BASE-T/UTP, 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T Gigabit operation. For more information, see Ethernet Developer Note.

USB 2.0 Controller

The South Bridge IC includes an integrated USB 2.0 controller supporting the Bluetooth module, IR receiver, and 4 external USB 2.0 ports. The USB ports comply with the Universal Serial Bus Specification 2.0. For more information, see Universal Serial Bus Developer Note.

AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR Module

The Mac mini computer has an internal AirPort Extreme module, connected to a dedicated 1-lane PCI Express link, and a Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (enhanced data rate) module, connected to the USB 2.0 controller. AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth have independent built-in antennas. For more information, see AirPort Developer Note and Bluetooth Developer Note.

Audio System

The computer has a combination analog audio line-in and S/PDIF digital optical audio line-in jac, and a combined analog output and S/PDIF digital optical audio line-out jack. For more information, see Audio Developer Note.

System Management Controller

The Mac mini uses an advanced system management controller (SMC) to manage thermal and power conditions, while keeping the acoustic noise to a minimum. The SMC is fully independent of the operating system.



Copyright © 2007 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Updated: 2007-04-04