The news has come yesterday that a new Apple TV version is on its way. According to AnandTech, the updated device should sport a new SOC which would be a 32 nm version of the ipad 3 A5X.

From this point, Marco Arment speculates that this new SOC is probably a test run of the one that would be used latter during the year in a future Retina iPad Mini.

The may very well be true … but I think there’s another compelling reason that may drive this upgrade and that is really specific to the Apple TV: Apps. At last …

Let’s do some math:

What we can see here is that the A5 SOC is pushing relatively small resolutions except on the 3rd generation Apple TV. But on the ATV, the 1080p is used only to display video which is a hardware accelerated process. The conclusion is that the current ATV is probably not able to run iOS apps at a HDTV resolution. If you upgrade it with a A5X that’s a completely different story: although the A5X is not lightening fast on the iPad 3, at 1080p it would have almost 1/3 less pixels to push and would probably be a very good fit.

And if you wonder of what kind of apps I’m thinking, the answer if of course games. And I’m not the only one to think that games on the ATV would be a. Pretty. Big. Deal :

Valve’s Gabe Newell says Apple TV, not consoles, is the biggest threat to Steam Box