MediaTek Pentonic 2000 SoC For Next-Gen 8K/120Hz Smart TVs

At the MediaTek Executive Summit, MediaTek has launched the Pentonic 2000, a high-end {hardware} platform (SoC) for upcoming “up to” 8K Smart TVs.

The aim is to introduce {hardware} capabilities required for Smart TVs’ evolution within the subsequent 3-5 years. Unlike smartphones, folks improve their TVs each 5-10 years (or extra!), so it’s important to see how a lot may be squeezed from the know-how that ships within the TV. In a manner, that is similar to the leap launched by next-generation consoles.

In the previous, tv processors have been poor cousins to even mid-range smartphones. While handsets will proceed to carry a technological benefit (within the quick time period), the Pentonic 2000 may be essentially the most superior in its class.

“THIS IS LEADING-EDGE”

First, it’s constructed on a 7nm (nanometers) advanced semiconductor process at TSMC. It’s not as edgy because the 4nm Dimensity 9000 smartphone chip, however for context, 7nm is extra superior than the vast majority of PC processors available on the market. In the world of televisions, that is modern.

Photo credit score: Eliane Fiolet

There’s a motive for requiring such tiny transistors: MediaTek must vastly enhance the computing capabilities inside a small bodily floor, so reducing the transistor measurement and energy necessities yield the specified worth/efficiency outcomes for the TV market. It’s all a balancing act, and going high-tech is the one method to make this work.

According to MediaTek, the Pentonic 2000’s CPU is 3.7X quicker, and its GPU is 4.9X quicker than “mainstream 4K TVs”. It may be a bit obscure, however it’s additionally in all probability true since “mainstream” (= not high-end) TVs usually have naked minimal efficiency traits.

“8X MORE PIXEL ELEMENTS TO PROCESS WITH POTENTIALLY MUCH MORE COMPLEX ALGORITHMS”

Going from 4K to 8K already quadruples the variety of pixels, and going from 60Hz to 120Hz doubles the potential computing wants once more. Having 8X extra pixel components to course of with doubtlessly far more complicated algorithms is an immense workload enhance in an business that was primarily proud of low-cost {hardware}.

Photo credit score: Eliane Fiolet

Photo credit score: Eliane Fiolet

The Pentonic 2000 is designed to run at 8K/120Hz operating superior AI picture processing and filtering. That consists of compressed video steaming that wants decoding and upscaling contained in the TV.

At the convention, MediaTek’s Alfred Chan (Vice President of TV BU, Smart Home Business Group) gave us a superb overview of MediaTek’s imaginative and prescient of the place Smart TVs are going.

Essentially, MediaTek sees the tv market getting into an period the place computing necessities will considerably enhance as a result of a number of components converge.

Photo credit score: Eliane Fiolet

During the pandemic, the ubiquity of video conferencing has durably impacted the best way folks work. It is probably going that even after a return to normalcy, the productiveness features and workflows linked to video-conferencing will stay. The firm and its companions guess that televisions could be a pure platform for this.

Handling just a few to a dozen simultaneous video streams, together with display screen sharing, wants a really completely different software program structure, and that’s one of many issues MediaTek claims to have rebuilt from the bottom up.

8K decision availability will inevitably come up, together with the business area. When you’ve that many pixels, simply shifting information round turns into a big bottleneck, and older system architectures can’t provide the required bandwidth.

“A VERY DIFFERENT SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE”

To handle this, the corporate says it has optimized the interior bandwidth utilization whereas scaling the computing sources concurrently. A mixture of specialised {hardware} and heterogenous models are built-in to deal with each job at the absolute best energy effectivity.

Even although there’s no elementary energy limitation on a TV, superior effectivity has price implications on the chip design, manufacturing, and alternate usages/markets.

As a end result, MediaTek says the Pentonic 2000 is quick sufficient to run AI picture filtering even on real-time video video games, which implies the latency is stored at a minimal, maybe as little as one to 3 ms.

Finally, Smart TVs want high-speed, low latency connectivity. WiFi-6E is a given because it’s the most recent business commonplace. However, there’s additionally a 5G choice, and whereas this will likely sound weird to have 5G in a TV, take into account that some areas have higher 5G than fastened web deployments. Secondly, wi-fi carriers would possibly compete with cable operators since 5G know-how has larger momentum and fewer rules than wired options.

Today’s most superior tv already will get PC gaming capabilities through clouds like NVIDIA’s. Expect this to turn out to be increasingly more widespread with different distributors.

If you need to see all of the fantastic prints and specs of the MediaTek Pentonic 2000, verify the official product page, the MediaTek Pentonic 2000 infographic, and the MediaTek TV hub. The general takeaway is that Smart TVs are about to get much more thrilling within the subsequent few years. MediaTek estimates that 60%+ of as we speak’s televisions are powered by its chips, so it has no selection however to guide the cost.

Filed in Home. Read extra about 8k Tv, MediaTek and Televisions.