I don't know about microphone/speaker..they may have something dealing with the  analog to digital...digital to analog management process....

As for that type of hardware, I would think the interface would be more of a concern...seeing they have a patent in that area....an there has been issues of others, involving such matters.

As for flash....that is part of the streaming process....they define multiple configurations of streaming...including the use of multiple flash units simultaneously.

Any system streaming from flash will be scrutinized.

RE: ipod 2004 ...utilizes an ARM core....caching music data to a 32-Mbyte Samsung DRAM buffer.

From that, the flash argument is out....should be reviewed anyway.

doni