Intel Atom CE4100 for Internet TV
In the modern era quad-core processors have become a household object. And in a time when all eyes are glued to AMD’s forthcoming hexa-core processor called Thuban, Intel has launched a new 45nm processor. This new processor is called the Intel Atom CE4100 System-on-Chip (SoC) processor. This latest addition to the Atom family has been specifically designed for digital TVs, DVD players and set-top boxes.
Formerly, codenamed the Sodaville, this Intel processor is said to be the first 45nm-manufactured consumer electronics (CE) SoC based on Intel architecture. The chipset is said to single-handedly process and run rich media applications such as 3D graphics.
“Traditional broadcast networks are quickly shifting from a linear model to a multi-stream, Internet-optimized model to offer consumers digital entertainment that complements the TV such as social networking, 3-D gaming and streaming video,” said Eric Kim, senior vice president and general manager, Intel Digital Home Group. “At the center of the TV evolution is the CE4100 media processor, a new architecture that meets the critical requirements for connected CE devices.”
The CE4100 is capable of delivering speeds of up to 1.2GHz. It also offers a small footprint that helps in decreasing the system cost. The highlight of this processor is its backward compatible with the Intel Media Processor CE 3100. The Intel Precision View technology that the processor incorporates is a display processing engine that delivers high-definition picture quality.
“The architecture of Intel media processors provides a powerful and innovative platform to showcase Flash-based applications in a vivid way,” said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. “Flash Player 10 combined with the performance of the Intel media processor and its support for standards such as OpenGL ES 2.0 offers a compelling environment for Flash-based games, videos and other rich Web content and applications.” The companies expect Adobe Flash Player 10 to be available in the first half of 2010 for Intel media processor-based CE devices.
The Intel Media Play Technology also provides seamless audio and video. The CE4100 is capable of decoding up to two 1080p video streams and advanced 3D graphics and audio standards. The other notable features of the Intel processors include hardware decode for MPEG4 video, DDR3 memory and 512K L2 cache. The processor also incorporates various processors along with dedicated security processor, general I/O, SATA-300 and USB 2.0.
Well, although this chipset is offering a host of advanced functionality, it is up to the PC manufacturers and service providers to take full advantage of it. Its pricing and availability details are still a mystery. However, we expect this mystery to unfold soon.
Post Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.