Marvell Announces ARMADA 1500 Plus SoC for Android-based Smart TV Products

Keeping the smart TV movement alive, Marvell today announced its ARMADA 1500 Plus (88DE3108) System-on-Chip (SoC) platform designed for smart video products based on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The Full HD media processor is intended for retail OEM TV and box suppliers looking to differentiate themselves from what's becoming a crowded field.

"I believe this is the beginning of the new era of Smart TV, high quality multi-screen experience on a global scale to the masses. I am very pleased to see the leadership of Google and the progress and effort in achieving this major milestone for the development of Smart TVs with Google services. Marvell is proud to team up with Google and ecosystem partners in driving the latest version of Smart TV," said Weili Dai, President and Co-Founder of Marvell. "Today, the level of smartness of the mobile devices can now be experienced on the big screen at home. Our mission and passion are to lead this great innovation and technology for the digital lifestyle to make the world a better place through high-performance and affordable solutions to better peoples' lives."

The ARMADA 1500 Plus sports significantly improved graphics courtesy of its OpenGL ES 2.0 compatible graphics engine. It also features real-time Full HD 1080p video encode capabilities to allow the platform to function as a multi-screen source devices, an enhanced security engine, Qdeo video processing for HD and 3D video., an integrated HDMI receiver, and GbE support, Marvell says.

ARMADA 1500 Plus

This is really a continuation of Google TV's ongoing partnership with Marvell, which the two announced nearly two years ago. During that time, Google TV has struggled to gain a foothold in the living room the way the sultan of search envisioned, perhaps because it's a concept that's still a little bit ahead of its time. However, Google TV also faces increasing competition from existing set-top boxes, as well as modern day game consoles that pull double duty as media centers with streaming capabilities.

"The Google and Marvell teams have been working closely together to bring our combined software and chipset technologies to market to grow the Google TV ecosystem of manufacturers and devices. Marvell-powered Google TV solutions will enable powerful products to be brought to market at attractive prices," Mario Queiroz, VP, Product Management Google TV, announced back in January of last year.

While the ARMADA 1500 Plus is a decent upgrade over the standard ARMADA 1500 released in 2012, it's probably not enough to help Google TV revolutionize the way we consume content in the living room.