Allwinner H6 Processor for 4K HDR Set-Top Boxes Supports USB 3.0, PCIe, and Smart Card Interfaces

Allwinner H6 is a new quad core Cortex A53 processor designed for 4K set-top boxes. It will support “6K” video decoding for 10-bit HEVC, VP9, and H.264, integrate HDR10 and HLG video processing, support high speed interfaces like USB 3.0 and PCIe, as well as security features like two ISO7816 smart card interfaces and DRM solutions.

Allwinner H6 specifications:

CPU – Quad-core ARM Cortex A53 with NEON, hardware Java acceleration, and FPU
3D GPU – Dual shader ARM Mali-T720 with support for OpenGL ES3.1/3.0/2.0/1.1, OpenCL 1.1/RenderScript, Microsoft DirectX 11 FL9_3
Memory I/F – DDR4/DDR3/DDR3L interface
Storage I/F – 1x eMMC 5.0 flash interface, 1x NAND Flash interface for SLC/MLC/TLC flash memory with up to 80-bit error-correcting code (ECC), 1x SPI NOR Flash interface, 1x SD Card 2.0
Multimedia via Allwinner Phoenix 3.0 VE Engine
- Video Decoder
  - H265/HEVC Main/Main10 [email protected] High-tier ;4K@60fps, up to 6Kx4K@30fps
  - H264/AVC BP/MP/[email protected], MVC, 4K@30fps
  - VP9,Profile 0/2, 4K@60fps
  - VP6/VP8, 1080P@60fps
  - MPEG1/MPEG2 SP@ML, MP@HL, 1080P@60fps
  - MPEG4 SP@level 0~3, ASP@level 0~5, GMC, short header format, 1080P@60fps
  - AVS+/AVS JIZHUN profile@level 6.0, 1080P@60fps
  - VC-1 SP@ML, MP@HL, AP@level 0~3, 1080P@60fps
  - Supports Frame Buffer Compression(FBC)
  - Output pixel format configurable,YUV420/YV12/NV12
- JPEG hardware decoder up to 65536 x 65536 resolution
- Video and Image Encoder
  - H264 BP/MP/HP@level 4.2 video encoding,up to 4K@30fps
  - MJPEG video encoding,up to 4K@30fps
  - JPEG image encoding- maximum resolution up to 8Kx8K
  - Supports 1x1080P@60fps/2x1080P@30fps/4x720P@30fps simultaneous encoding
Audio Encoding/Decoding
- MPEG-1,MPEG-2(L1/L2/L3), MP3, AAC-LC, HE AAC V1/V2, APE, FLAC, OGG, AMR-NB, AMR-WB,G.711(u/a) decoding
  • G.711(u/a), AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC-LC encoding
  • Karaoke sound effects, supports automatic gain control, voice enhancement and echo/reverberation.
  • 3~5m far field sound acquisition, supports speech enhancement, acoustic echo cancellation and direction of speaker estimation.
  • Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital Plus decoding (option)
  • Dolby DMA2.0 audio effect (option)
  • DTS-HD decoding(option)
  • Dolby Digital/DTS transparent transmission
TS Demultiplexing/PVR
- 4x TS inputs supporting 32 PID each
- DVB-CSA/AES/DES descrambling
- PVR,recording of scrambled and non-scrambled streams
Security/ DRM
- Full Disk Encryption(FDE) with support for AES-ECB/CBC
- 4K bits Efuse (OTP)
- Protection for JTAG and other debugging port
- HDCP 2.2/1.4 protection for HDMI outputs
- Trusted execution environment(TEE)
- Digital rights management(DRM)
- Mainstream advanced CA
- Secure boot, Secure Storage, Secure upgrade
Display Processing ((Smartcolor 3.0 DE Engine)
- HDR10 and HLG HDR processing
- HDR conversion between SDR
- Dual independent display support
- 16 layers, video and UI input layers to overlay
- 3D video processing and display
Audio/Video Interfaces
- Video Output
  - 1x HDMI 2.0a TX with HDCP 2.2 output
  - 1x CVBS interface , supports PAL/NTSC mode
  - 1x RGB interface up to1920x1080
- Video Input – CSI camera (DVP)
- Audio Interfaces
  - Analog audio input/output
  - Digital MIC interface
  - 2x I2S supporting 7.1 channel
  - S/PDIF audio interface
Other Interfaces
- USB – 1x USB 3.0 host port, 1x USB2.0 OTG port, 1x USB 2.0 host port
- 1x PCIe 2.0 interface
- 1x SDIO 3.0
- Ethernet – 1x 10/100 Mbps Ethernet with PHY, 1x Gigabit Ethernet MAC
- 5x UART, 5x TWI/I2C, GPIOs
- 2x ISO7816 Smart Card interfaces
- IR receiver and keypad control interface
Misc
- USB, SD card and flash boot supported
- Adaptive voltage scaling (AVS)
- Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS)
Package – 15 x 15 mm BGA451 package

The CPU is not that important in TV boxes and set-top boxes, so there are no changes here except potentially a higher frequency (TBC). The dual shader Mali-T720 GPU should provide 3D performance in the same range as other competing solutions based on Mali-450MP and Mali-T820MP GPU, and includes OpenCL support for GPU compute applications. AFAIK it’s the first Allwinner processor to support HDR, so the company is mostly catching with competitors on the multimedia front. The video decoder supports 4K H.265 and VP9 at up to 60 fps, and 4K H.264 up to 30 fps, as well as 6K up to 30 fps. The processor can also support HD audio formats (as an option), while the transport stream (TS) interfaces to connect one or more more tuners, and Smart Card interfaces make it ideal for set-top box with free or premium content. The addition of USB 3.0 and PCIe will allow for fast storage options, with external PCIe to SATA chips potentially providing better performance than the SATA IP found in Allwinner R40, especially when it comes to write speed.

I found all this information in Allwinner H6 product brief published on linux-sunxi website. There’s no information anywhere else about H6 processor, even on Alibaba, so it will likely take many more months before products and boards are launched with the new SoC.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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.