Intel Atom CE4100 Gets Beefed Up to Be SoC

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By Marcus Yam
published

Intel Atom becomes a System-on-Chip.

The Intel Atom is going to be appearing in more places than just the countless number of nettops and netbooks of today (and tomorrow).

Intel at IDF announced the Atom CE4100 processor, which was formerly codenamed Sodaville. The CE4100 is a System-on-Chip processor that integrates not only the Atom core, but also a display processor, graphics processor, video display controller, transport processor, a dedicated security processor and general I/O including SATA-300 and USB 2.0.

Such a package is designed to be the core to digital TVs, DVD players and advanced set-top boxes – particularly as more consumer devices become net-connected for streaming content and other media.

"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 will run up to 1.2 GHz in order to stay power friendly for set-top devices. It is backward compatible with the outgoing Pentium-based CE3100 and supports hardware decode of up to two 1080p video streams and 3-D graphics and audio standards. New over the CE3100 is decoding hardware for MPEG4 video that is ready for DivX Home Theater 3.0 certification, an integrated NAND flash controller, support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory and 512K L2 cache.

Earlier this week, Intel revealed that the Atom processor would also find a home into BMW and Mercedes-Benz vehicles for the 2012 model year.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
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13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ssalim
    I'll get -20 for this but I guess it can't possibly run Crysis.
    Lol.
    Reply
  • ChuvelxD
    You retards are missing the point of all this. It isn't mean to be a desktop, or even notebook grade processor. It's for netbooks and for t.v. tuners and stuff. There isn't much processing need behind those devices and the processing power you DO need Intel is setting themselves up to be the chip of choice. Why would you need a desktop-grade processor for a DVR? You don't.
    Reply
  • Camikazi
    zipzoomflyhigh1.2ghz? Low power for set-top devices?? I can understand battery operated devices needing low power soc but a set top? Poor excuse for another slow ass Atom.You do realize most set-top DVRs use 80-300MHz CPUs with 400MHz DDR RAM right? This Chip is a huge jump for those types of devices, need to remember electronics that do just one thing don't need components as fast as general electronics do, they can do more with less since it can be programmed to do that one thing efficiently.
    Reply
  • Great! Now my netbook will truly have the same processing speed as a portable DVD player.
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    I smell a very good DVR/HTPC type thing coming soon.
    Reply
  • thackstonns
    Shadow703793I smell a very good DVR/HTPC type thing coming soon.
    really, because last time I checked intel couldnt output 1080p, so either they updated something or they will suck
    Reply
  • It would have to be pretty low power consumption and price. The box I am using now is using 25W when recording 2 video streams and playing a prerecorded stream. I don't know what the power consumption is when idle is, but I know that both tuners and the hard disk shut down.

    Price in the set-top box market is probably going to be the main issue. The cable companies probably buy boxes in the 100,000 at a time type rate. If Intel is trying to sell a $35 chip vs Broadcom selling a $15 chip that would mean a lot more $$. Even $1/per box is quite a bit in those quantities.

    Would probably make a sweet processor if the video can manage 1080p.
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    thackstonnsreally, because last time I checked intel couldnt output 1080p, so either they updated something or they will suckCorrect, but there was a few reports they were working on that.
    Reply
  • jeffkro
    Streaming video usually uses flash, such as HULU. Flash video in HD quality needs more cpu muscle then the current atom 330 can provide. Unless they made the actual cpu part significantly faster it will not be good enough for a "do all" HTPC.

    P.S. so far flash video can't be done in hardware acceleration.
    Reply
  • Blessedman
    "New over the CE3100 is decoding hardware for MPEG4 video that is ready for DivX Home Theater 3.0 certification, an integrated NAND flash controller, support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory and 512K L2 cache."

    I think that would be how they are less likely to suck...
    Reply