Building on top of it ARMADA 1500 SoC for Google TV, Marvell has recently announced the ARMADA 1500 Plus (88DE3108) HD secure media processor SoCdesigned for smart video products based on Android 4.2.2, and Linux, such as media players, OTT boxes, hybrid set-top boxes and smart TVs.
ARMADA 1500 Plus features two ARM Cortex A9 cores, Vivante GC1000 and GC300 GPUs, respectively for 3D and 2D graphics, and integrates an HDMI receiver and Gigabit Ethernet.
Hisense will be among the first to use the platform with the upcoming H6 Smart TV and Pulse Pro set-top-box, but details have yet to be released for these two products.
Here are the key features of 88DE3108 SoC:
- Processor – Dual core Cortex A9 with over 6000 Dhrystone MIPS
- Dedicated 3D and 2D graphics acceleration – dual threaded unified shader (Vivante GC1000 and GC300) with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 and DirectFB.
- Video
- vMeta Video Codec – Decoding: H.264, VC-1, MPEG2, AVS, VP8 and several other formats. Real-time encoding: H.264, VP8 to allow the platform to function as a multi-screen source device.
- Marvell Qdeo video post processing engine for improved HD and 3D video quality
- Audio – Support for HE-AACv2, Dolby HD, DTS-HD, SRS and other high-end audio formats.
- Trusted Video Path certified security engine with the following DRM/CAS options: Verimatrix, Widevine, Playready, NDS VGC, DTCP-IP
- Hybrid architecture – Multiple TS inputs supports PayTV Operators STB requiring both broadcast (DVB-T,C,S) and IP content deployment.
- Peripherals – HDMI 1.4a, SATA 2.0, SDIO, 2x USB 2.0 host, 10/100/1000M Ethernet MAC with RGMII interface, and more
- Support for Google services for Smart TVs based on Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2
Marvell ARMADA 1500 Plus appears to be very similar to the older Marvel ARMADA 1500, except the company switch to ARM Cortex A9 cores instead of using its own ARMv7 implementation, it may have added Vivante GC300 for 2D graphics (TBC), fast Ethernet has been upgraded to Gigabit Ethernet, the SATA version has apparently been downgraded to SATA 2.0, and HDMI got an upgraded to v1.4a (vs 1.4). The rest of the SoC appears to be more or less the same according to the block diagrams.
Marvell also provides smart TV and STB reference designs with a complete Android TV and Linux SDK supporting PayTV and OTT services, and including device drivers, schematics, layout files and other documentation. The platforms support Marvell Wi-Fi (2×2 802.11ac) and Powerline (G.hn) technologies.
Further information may be available on Marvell ARMADA 1500 Plus page.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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The HiSense Pulse with Google TV has become unavailable on Amazon, indicating that the Pro might replace it.
This is their AndroidTV chip which replaces the GoogleTV platform.
They’ve upgraded the CPU at least, not sure about the GPU those Vivante units arent so hot but it might be good enough.
Regardless it means confirmed AndroidTV products are in the pipeline.
Too bad there i no vMeta VPU support for XBMC mainline yet?
Well it might work on Android via StageFright, but not Linux?