Boxee and D-Link think Tegra 2 right out of the Boxee

[integrated]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3912/b...e-inside-story

Anand scooped S|A on a very Charlie story.

...reading...

- Seems Tegra's GPU was too weak for 1080P h264 high profile

- Somehow an Atom-based CE4100 can handle high profile 1080P...
- Sodaville platform
- Now 64bit RAM interface for DDR2/3

- Higher thermals than Tegra 2
- Active cooling on a "large heatsink"
- SGX535 GPU @400Mhz
- Additional decode acceleration for video and audio including Dolby TruHD
- Dual stream HD decode (!)

- NAND controller, IO controller, security algorithm acceleration all on package
- Very cool remote flips to reveal QWERTY

- No display port support
- No HDMI 1.4
- Gbe is only running at 100T for some reason
- Power use still secret

- Is this the Bobcat competitor that some sites were hinting at?
- Heavier integration than Bobcat
- Fewer chips solution

[JeeBee]

This says a lot about the weak Tegra 2 than anything superior in the CE4100, except that the CE4100's PowerVR SGX535 GPU can be clocked higher in non-mobile situations to handle 1080p, whereas Tegra 2 doesn't appear to be capable. Or Intel waved some money.

[Brother Michigan]

From my experience with the CE3100 and seeing that the CE4100 has a slower CPU, there's no reason to even compare it to Bobcat. They don't even target the same markets.

[integrated]

Originally Posted by Brother Michigan

From my experience with the CE3100 and seeing that the CE4100 has a slower CPU, there's no reason to even compare it to Bobcat. They don't even target the same markets.

I'm not expecting it to compete in performance.

Other sites (sorry for no link) were saying that Intel has an answer to Bobcat. I thought perhaps this was it.

Could this power a netbook or would it be too painful? It has much better GPU than any Atom package and seems to be cheaper.

[DavidC1]

I don't think this chip supports Windows. It might be just like Moorestown that it runs Android, MeeGo and such. Netbook on CE4100 essentially becomes x86 Smartbook.

[Brother Michigan]

The SGX535 is actually the GMA 500 GPU included in the Poulsubo chipset that is paired with Z-series atom processors, so we already know how it performs (badly). The GPU in my cell phone is actually twice as fast as the SGX535.

As for using these in netbooks, sure, you can do it, but I don't see any point in it. It's just an Atom processor, GPU, and some addition connectivity and dedicated video decode hardware.

[DavidC1]

Err, the SGX535 is featured in most phones so I don't understand you here? How can x be 2x faster than x?

[Brother Michigan]

SGX540 ftw

[DavidC1]

SGX535 in Sodaville clocks at 400MHz.

[Palliot]

Funny it took them 6 months and a bunch or prototypes and demo's to realize what was known since launch day; tegra (1 and 2) decoders are limited to ca 1080p 10 Mbit. Its not like nvidia ever said otherwise or claimed to be able to decode blu-ray (which is around 15-50+ Mbit).

Probably makes sense to want that in a dedicated media player, but they could have thought of that earlier and I also wonder if that atom can actually do blu-ray ? I hope so because going to an actively cooled solution sounds like a serious tradeoff. And why not put a sigma or whatever dedicated decoder in there? Even with an atom at least it gets rid of the need for fans.