Is the AppleTV 2 the future of low-CPU use servers? Desktops?

Seth Weintraub | Jul 5 2011 - 8:53 am PT

Why run a family pictures website, DNS or any other low CPU-use server on power-hungry Intel-based hardware when an AppleTV2 does the trick? The folks at MacMinivault.com have set up a webpage on a AppleTV 2 (go ahead, try to take it down) jailbroken with httpd as an example of what can be served off of the little 6 watt, A4-powered dynamo. Put 10 of these together and you’ll be using the same power as a single 60 Watt light bulb.

The Apple TV is running iOS 4.2.2 (obviously jailbroken) with lighttpd for a web server. You can see the webpage we set up by visiting atv.macminivault.com. We’ll keep an eye on the CPU load and watch the analytics to record how much traffic the Apple TV receives.

They say this won’t be a cost effective solution for their customers (8 GB of storage won’t cut it) but is a ‘fun experiment.’

What’s interesting is that Apple likely has an dual core A5-platform AppleTV coming out shortly which may push a little more into the Intel server space. Perhaps more interesting is that the A5 chips could also make nifty little ChromeOS-busting terminals or even cheaper laptops.

If you want to create your own little AppleTV 2 server, they recommend the following:

Check out Seas0npass for an easy way to jailbreak the Apple TV

SSH in and change the root password

Use apt-cache and apt-get to find and install lighttpd

Use SFTP to upload a /etc/lighttpd.conf config file for lighttpd

Within /usr/sbin/ run lighttpd-angel -f /etc/lighttpd.conf to start lighttpd

Write a plist file in /Library/LaunchDaemons to launch lighttpd on boot