Optimum Semiconductor Technologies Inc shows this single-core Freescale i.MX53 ARM Cortex-A8 and single-core AmLogic ARM Cortex-A9 based Android Set-top-box for $100-$120 depending on order quantity.
Category: Set-top-boxes
Marvell Armada 1500, ARM Powered Google TV
Posted by – January 9, 2012
This is the new ARM Powered Google TV solution ready to ship in full production early Q2 2012 in set-top-boxes and built-in into HDTVs by all manufacturers wanting to build and sell cheap ARM Powered Google TV solutions. The performance is faster than Intel’s discontinued Google TV solution, this one lowers the cost, lowers the power consumption, makes it more compact all the while including all the HDMI input/output and IR blaster features of a full Google TV.
Geniatech shows Ice Cream Sandwich Set-top-box preview
Posted by – December 31, 2011
Geniatech sent me this video demonstrating a preview version of Ice Cream Sandwich running on one of their Set-top-boxes. The processor is not yet confirmed, I don’t know if it is ICS running on the single-core AmLogic ARM Cortex-A9 AML8726-M which I filmed Genitech a few months ago demonstrating here and here. I think ICS is the version of Android to merge (passthrough or non-passthrough) Google TV features over onto ARM Powered devices with HDMI outputs, ICS set-top-box developments are to be confirmed at CES next week.
Read more about the Geniatech ARM Cortex-A9 set-top-box platform at: geniatech.com
MHL Consortium shows some of the latest MHL features
Posted by – October 30, 2011
There are now 2 HDTVs that are MHL compliant, the Toshiba WL800A and the Samsung UN46D7000 now also got a firmware update that ads MHL support. Possibly that all new HDTVs will include this functionality. It allows for charging MHL compliant phones and tablets and to remote control them with the TV remote through one simple cable and one Micro-USB connector. Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich might add new MHL features to the UI, otherwise the MHL Consortium is trying to convince app developers and smart phone makers to design the apps and the OS to take advantage of the 1920×1080 resolution of the HDTV when using the HDMI output, to provide higher resolution user interfaces, higher resolution games, the ARM Processors and GPU in those phones and tablets are now getting powerful enough to output full 1080p UIs, videos and graphics, it’s time for the industry to take advantage of that! One pocketable phone can now combine the features of Android, Chrome OS and Google TV, it’s now a phone, a desktop, a set-top-box and a home console all in one!
Latest news from Texas Instruments at ARM TechCon 2011
Posted by – October 27, 2011
Category: Tablets, Laptops, Smartphones, Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, ARM TechCon, Android
The OMAP5 ARM Cortex-A15 processor is taped out, they are about to show impressive samples soon, they will then be tweaking and optimizing it before release in commercial products within about a year. OMAP4 is being launched in the Motorola Razr and in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phones, each more awesome than the other. Ice Cream Sandwich Android 4.0 works awesomely on OMAP4, Honeycomb 3.2 tablets like the Archos 101 G9 are being released now, TI is also looking forward to power products such as Laptops that run Chrome OS, Ubuntu and Windows 8.
Mentor Graphics at ARM TechCon 2011
Posted by – October 27, 2011
Mentor Graphics is one of the major EDA providers of the ARM industry. At their booth they are showing some impressive 3D graphical user interfaces that they say is easy and cheap to implement on ARM Powered devices to make them more appealing and to differentiate in the UI design, and they are also showing an auto-balancing lego robot built using Texas Instruments Sitara microcontrollers and the nucleus real-time software.
Coupoint.net $65 1Ghz Single-core HiSilicon ARM Cortex-A9 Android set-top-box
Posted by – September 4, 2011
Here’s the first time that I see an Android set-top-box with the new HiSilicon ARM Cortex-A9 Single-core processor made by Huawei. This seems to be a pretty smooth Android set-top-box implementation for the price, though obviously, just as for all other Android set-top-boxes, this will only really be useful once the Google TV software is finally open sourced for ARM Powered devices, which is expected to happen next month when Ice Cream Sandwich is released and open sourced. It’s very interesting to see this new HiSilicon ARM Cortex-A9 processor from Huawei.
Opera TV Store at IFA 2011
Posted by – September 2, 2011
Opera Software presents a new Web TV user interface for the set-top-box market, one that requires least processing power to run, to enable any HDTV access to the Web, video on the web, apps, widgets and more.
Toshiba Stor.E TV Pro, Rockchip RK2918 Linux based Connected Set-top-box
Posted by – September 1, 2011
Toshiba is using Rockchip RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 processor in this new low cost Internet set-top-box.
Panasonic UniPhier, 1.4Ghz ARM Cortex-A9 for HDTV/Set-top-box
Posted by – June 12, 2011
Category: Set-top-boxes, Displays
New Panasonic ARM Processor
The Panasonic UniPhier MN2WS0220 is claimed to be one of the fastest to use for HDTV and Set-top-box will begin sample shipments this month.
Panasonic’s new chip will open the way for a new generation of smart TVs that allow users to simultaneously enjoy two TV broadcasting channels, as well as Internet-based content and applications in high-resolution at the same time. In addition, the new chip is able to reduce power consumption of and the number of components used in smart TVs, which will help drive smart TVs to spread in the global market.
I would find it normal for Google to qualify this Panasonic UniPhier MN2WS0220 ARM Dual-core chip to be used to run the Google TV software, and I would find it normal for Panasonic to start using Google TV for their Smart TVs instead of that proprietary Viera SmartTV stuff. I think all future Panasonic HDTVs should include Google TV, to provide for the best software for WebTV, interactive features, I think it’s the best full integration of the web in the TV.
I am not sure how big ARM has been thus far on being inside all those HDTVs, but now it seems all the major HDTV makers have serious ARM Powered HDTV plans underway, LG is definitely using ARM for their next SmartTVs, Samsung has their ARM Powered Google TV plans, what is Sharp, Philips going to do? How soon until Sony’s HDTVs shift from Intel to ARM for Google TV? How soon until all the major HDTV makers agree that Google TV is the software that they should all use?
Source: panasonic.co.jp
Found via: engadget.com
Related articles
- ARM Powered Google TV now confirmed officially by Google (armdevices.net)
- Panasonic, ARM work on 1.4GHz dual-core chip for set-top box (electronista.com)
- Panasonic targets smart TVs with 1.4GHz Cortex-A9 SoC (linuxfordevices.com)
- Panasonic’s 1.4 GHz dual-core Smart TV chip is industry’s fastest, should load Netflix quicker (engadget.com)
Honeywld Marvell Armada 1000 88DE3010 “Berlin” based Android Set-top-box
Posted by – June 8, 2011
Here’s one of the first Marvell Berlin (Armada 1000) based Android Set-top-boxes I have yet seen, firmware is still to be finalized but they can start shipping this hardware this month.
$60 Cortex-A9 Android Set-top-box
Posted by – June 1, 2011
The price is a bulk price, at least 300 pieces need to be ordered, does not include the chosen remote controller that can go from a couple dollars to twenty dollars depending on what type of remote control is used. Also there are different memory and other components that can be configured. Most importantly is the idea to communicate that an ARM Cortex-A9 powered set-top-box could potentially run Google TV basic for ARM as soon as that one is released. It depends if Google decides to support their Google TV implementation on the AmLogic 800Mhz single core implementation, it depends if Google is interested at all in supporting HDMI-out only until their open source Ice Cream Sandwich and allow everyone to make whichever Google TV on ARM implementations they want anyways.
HD Video Conferencing on Texas Instruments OMAP4430
Posted by – May 31, 2011
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Computex, Android
Wow awesome. A few years ago I would film the HD video conferencing solutions that required $15 thousand setups (Lifesize, Sony Ipela, Cisco Telepresence..), now TI is showing HD video-conferencing that works on your next ARM Powered smartphone or tablet. Just connect your smartphone to your HDTV, use WiFi is available, but even over 3G and LTE, with just 512kbit/s you can do 720p video-conferencing on SIP or Skype, and with 1mbit/s upload or more you can even do 1080p video-conferencing using the latest OMAP4460 platform. This also can support up to 8 simultaneous videos. Sorry, but I am pretty much amazed. Soon enough, HD video-conferencing using just cheap ARM Powered devices will be a piece of cake.
ARM Powered Google TV now confirmed officially by Google
Posted by – May 14, 2011
You got the tip from me from an anonymous source here since January (I have been speculating about it (2) (3) (4) for over a year), clues about it from ARM President Tudor Brown last year in November, and re-confirming rumors through Samsung in February, Google announced at Google I/O this week that Ice Cream Sandwich combines Android, Honeycomb and Google TV into one release (thus Google TV features on ARM), now it’s being reported by PC World that Google TV product manager Rishi Chandra is confirming the ARM Powered Google TV platform like this:
for the price issue, Chandra said that Google has now qualified ARM chips to be used to run the Google TV software, instead of just the Intel Atom chips that currently power the Revue. Moore’s Law–the inevitable increase in chip performance driven by increasing transistor density–will push the performance of the cost-optimized ARM chips up high enough to compete with Atom, while helping drive down the overall platform price, Chandra said.
I have thus far video-blogged over 60 ARM Powered Set-top-boxes from all the consumer electronics trade shows over the past 2 years, most are running Android, all of which could in theory run the Google TV software.
Of course, it is up to Google to decide what kind of hardware requirements they want to enfore for Google TV on ARM, if they want those to only feature the full suite of HDMI pass-through features, meaning HDMI input and output, Infrared blasters (to change the channel on your cable/satellite set-top-box), USB hosts, Bluetooth and more, then that would disqualify just about all of the ARM Powered set-top-boxes that I have filmed thus far. I wouldn’t know how much more those hardware features require, and perhaps that requires an ARM Cortex-A9 at the minimum to run all the overlay user interface features and preferably 1080p at 60fps support at the minimum.
I think it is more likely and more logical that Google will decide to be as open as possible about Google TV on ARM, and thus support all the SoC that are currently being used and that will most likely be used. I think that means Google TV on ARM could work in “AppleTV/Roku mode”, meaning no HDMI inputs, just the Google TV experience of bringing the Web and WebTV on the TV on this separate HDMI port to your HDTV. That is why I expect there to be two kinds of Google TV on ARM:
1. Basic Google TV on ARM, this is HDMI output only, Bluetooth or RF/USB keyboards with mouse pad accessory can be used. This solution could work on 100% of the ARM Powered Set-top-boxes that I have filmed. And I believe this will be included turning every Android Smartphone/Tablet with Ice Cream Sandwich and every Tablet with Honeycomb 3.1 into a Google TV “for free”. See the Google Android Team’s response to my question submitted on the possibility of turning all Android devices into free Google TV devices when HDMI is used:
2. The Full ARM Powered Google TV experience, including HDMI pass-through, IR blaster, USB hosts, Ethernet, etc.. Since Chris DiBona answers to my question above “There’s all this other stuff that goes into a Google TV that isn’t in a phone”, well then, the Full ARM Powered Google TV will be that type that does it all. But that should not prevent an Android device with a basic HDMI output and not much else to still display many if not most of the Google TV UI features right there on the HDTV.
3. There is also a third scenario that I am envisioning, Google might use their Android Hardware division to plan out a new type of Multimedia TV Docking system for Android, using nothing more than HDMI, USB slave/host and evt MHL (that combines both into one Micro-USB connector). Basically the idea here is a cheap TV Dock that should work with most if not all Android Smartphones that have HDMI, USB (or MHL) to turn those into full Google TV, thus using the USB slave/host to transmit the right infos back and forward and feature in that Dock the right HDMI input and output, IR blaster, USB host duplicators, Ethernet connector, charging and more. The idea is a new Google Open Accessory design that could sell for $49 to dock any Android Smartphone with HDMI/USB or MHL and thus turn those into full Google TV. A solution which could evt also turn any ARM Powered Set-top-box into a full Google TV box also with adding the HDMI in/out, IR and more to those. Maybe it could be called the Google TV adapter, converter or extender.
Here’s the 56 minute session on some of the Google TV Honeycomb 3.1 upgrades and development tools at Google I/O:
Related articles
- 3 things Google TV needs from Google I/O in 4 days (armdevices.net)
- What to expect from Google I/O May 10-11th (armdevices.net)
- Impressions from the Google I/O Android Keynote, Day 1 (armdevices.net)
- ARM Powered Google TV by Samsung rumored by Bloomberg (armdevices.net)
- What’s Google TV’s Key Selling Point? (slashgear.com)
- You: What the New Google TV with Honeycomb Looks Like [Google] (gizmodo.com)
Set-top-box Media players for sale at the Hong Kong Golden Electronics Market
Posted by – April 21, 2011
Most Set-top-box Media players sold at the Sham Shui Po Hong Kong Golden Electronics Market are Realtek based, some are Sigma designs, no ARM Powered set-top-boxes available there yet. Here’s an interview with a salesperson at the Capital shop in that Sham Shui Po Golden Electronics Market about some of those media players that they have for sale.
Dehoo shows a Skyviia based Android Set-top-box
Posted by – April 20, 2011
Here’s another new Skyviia ARM9 powered Android Set-top-box.
Bonux launches ARM Powered Android Set-top-boxes
Posted by – April 16, 2011
They have Cortex-A8 and ARM9 based set-top-boxes, with 1080p YouTube streaming support, full codecs support (they claim), Android UI, could possibly upgrade to Google TV UI when that source code is available.
Rockchip Rk2918 in a Set-top-box
Posted by – April 16, 2011
Rockchip now provides a Set-top-box reference design based on their new RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 processor. This could power upcoming Google TV on ARM for cheap.
United One Telechips Android Set-top-box
Posted by – April 16, 2011
They dual-boot a type of embedded Linux for video playback and they also do Android on the TV.
Performance test on AmLogic ARM Cortex-A9 Android Set-top-box
Posted by – April 15, 2011
Shenzhen Amidia Electronics Co Ltd makes this AmLogic ARM Cortex-A9 800Mhz Single Core Set-top-box, this video features the performance of this device, web browsing on a HDTV and doing other stuff.
