Marvell has just unveiled another STB SoC with ARMADA 1500 Ultra (88DE3218) with four ARM Cortex A53 cores, and instead of using Mali or PowerVR GPUs like many competitors, they integrated an octa core Vivante GC7000XS 3D GPU anda Vivante GL520 2D GPU into the chip.
The SoC is designed for 4K Android set-top boxes from PayTV operators and STB manufacturers, supports 4K UHD 10-bit HEVC and VP9 video codecs, and embeds a security processor supporting conditional access systems (CAS) solutions from Verimatrix, Widevine, PlayReady, and DTCP-IP.

Key features listed for ARMADA 1500 Ultra:
- 2160p60 10 bit HEVC & VP9 Video Decode + 1080 PiP + Trancoding concurrently
- Quad Core ARM A53 64-bit CPU @ up to 1.5 GHz (Up to 14K DMIPs) with 1MB L2 Cache
- 8 core GPU, 8 shader Vivante GC7000XS supporting OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0/3/.1, OpenCL 1.2 and DirectFB. Includes HW tessellation and geometry shaders, optimized for Android L (AEP) gaming applications.
- Security Engine including Trustzone integration and support for 4K Video Watermarking.
- Quad TS inputs for DVB-S/T/C tuners
- Peripherals – SATA, USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, PCIe for Wi-Fi or cable modem, Smartcard interface, etc…
The SoC will support Android TV and RDK SDK, and the company can provide references design including Marvell Wi-Fi (2×2 or 4x411ac), LTE, ZigBee and/or Powerline (G.hn) technologies.
The company did not say when the SoC or solutions will come to market, but it will demonstrate ARMADA 1500 Ultra at TV Connect 2015, London on April 28–30, 2015. You can visit Marvell ARMADA 1500 Ultra product page for a few more details.
Via AndroidPC.es

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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