Intel announces Atom CE4100 for insanely powerful cable boxes and Blu-ray players
By Nilay Patel 
posted Sep 24th 2009 12:34PM
posted Sep 24th 2009 12:34PM
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Looks sexy, can't wait to see it actually get put into an end user product.
how can processor look sexy? damn you should really get a girlfriend...
@bublik
I think he meant the guy holding it was sexy, but he wants the item in his hand to go into the EUP.
Will they make use of it? My cable box has had the same TERRIBLE slow and laggy interface with graphics from 1991 for more than 10 years now. I can only pray we'll get something faster and prettier (a la tivo) soon.
I agree with mUng. Anything with a yellow body and blue skimpyness has Swedish Sexy written all over it.
You may never see it. The primary factor driving adoption in cable is the COST of the set top box components. Since you rent them from the cable company, they'd rather pay as little as possible for them. If this is CHEAP compared to the other possibilities, then it has a chance. If it isn't, then it doesn't much matter that its faster. It'll never see the light of day.
why do i want this so bad?
So there's absolutely no lag on your DVR...
Srsly. My cable box is slow as balls.
The lag on your cable box isn't just the CPU. There are lots of things involved in changing channels on a cable box, including changing to a new frequency, acquiring the signal, decoding the tables, acquiring the program, finding the tables, finding the decoding keys, starting to decode, etc that won't be helped by a faster CPU. They're inherent in the way the signal is sent out on the cable.
Some things, like Video On Demand, involve conversations between the cable system and the back office software running in the cable companies head end. Again won't be helped by a faster CPU.
Things always look great in shows when all the equipment is unloaded and the cable lengths are near-zero.
Woah, that's actually awesome. Please, Motorola, Tivo, take note and toss some decent processing power in your set-top boxes; what there is now is laggy crap. Honestly, changing channels is a PITA.
I love the direction Intel is going with scaled products for mobile use - set top - etc.
Unfortunately, they are going right back to EU court too Im sure - especially with AMD so close to folding.
that is purely AMD's fault at this point. they just cant cut it. besides, intel does not have to operate in europe. they choose to. personally microsoft and they shoud just tell the EU to shove it.
"personally microsoft and they shoud just tell the EU to shove it."
Not much clue about economics, huh?
I don't like this direction, CISC systems run most of these embedded markets intel is trying to hit with Atom. The high adoption of x86 on desktops make it hard for things like ARM to enter the market. Unless intel has something up their sleeves, I don't see how and x86 CPU can take on ARM or MIPS on embedded systems in terms of power consumption and ease of design
@ NFH
Actually AMD's troubles are not all their own making. Everyone likes to say that if they just developed a fresh processor that beat Intel's CPU's that they wouldn't be in trouble in the first place. That's a pretty stupid comment given the well documented histories of the past ten years in the two companies development's. AMD most certainly did do exactly that with the release of the AMD64 platform. They spent years competing with Intel on the bargain market, and proved very able even there with the AMD 586 line topping the Intel 486 and Original Pentium lines. They built up the company to the point they could invest, not millions, not tens of millions but hundreds of millions of dollars into the Athlon architectures. And they totally spanked Intel with the AMD64 processor line and did so for a period of 3 - 4 years. Unfortunately each new CPU architecture requires that same investment in dollars to pay for the R&D. Dollars that they would have made plenty of if not for Intel's use of extortion, threats and bribes to computer manufactures to keep their market share from climbing any more that it already had. You can't make new and better without the money to pay for it, and despite having the better processors for years on end they weren't bringing in the money needed to really spend on the kind of R&D required at that level. The position they are in atm was a combination of their own mistakes with the launch of a few of their later lines and also the desired outcome bought and paid for my Intel's huge coffers.
@L actually i do. and i do know that Intel might actually still be profitable with europe on its books. its more about finance than economics anyway
@dennis,
so lets just say that Intel didnt extort the manufacturers and their sales were about 6% less than they are now. Would that really make a difference. i am sure chips take longer that 2 years to design much less get production to any measurable capability. Its called lead time. what then. AMD would be slightly ahead of where they are now and no more.
Lets say microsoft pulled an intel and a few software companies did not make apple compatible products. Would that make apple's innovation suffer? didnt think so.
Damn, Intel really unleashing all it power lately, this is both good... and bad... since they have the ability to dominate all the markets they venture in.
and ugly?
Wait, so if they replace a Pentium M core with an Atom core, wouldn't it run slower?
Not for what it's intended for.
Atom + a zillion dedicated processing units for video, audio and other media > Pentium M
And consumes less power, while at it.
The pentium M runs at 800mhz. I imagine the Atom processor is running much faster than that if it can handle an uncompressed 1080p stream.
Sounds good and all...but what cable company is going to start blasting out 1080p content?? I mean as far as I know the only 1080p ready channels are ESPN ones....I could be wrong, but if I'm not then all we would have in 1080p is ESPN(which would be great) and possibly on-demand HD movies IF the cable companies did that...
I guess this chip targets media streamers and blu ray players more than cable/set top boxes.
Anything that can do ATSC can already handle 1080p since the ATSC spec for 1080 res allows 60i, 30p, 24p fps. What makes this good is that it can decode two 1080 streams. There is no bandwidth difference between 60i and 30p. So unless ESPN is doing 60p at 1080 then they are doing nothing special.
1080P takes a LOT more bandwidth than 1080i
so far no one broadcasts into 1080p exclusively, but you can find the content over the on demand channels, but the bitrates are so varying its not like everything is going to be blu-ray quality or better.
Cable will never offer 1080p unless you have fiber optic directly to your home. Even then it's not very likely because it'll be a waste of valuable bandwidth for other uses.
Never is a long, long time.
Most older movies anyway were shot on film at 24 frames per second. Meaning that 1080/24p is all they need to be played correctly. Newer films I'm not so sure. So yes it would be better if they were sent out at 1080p rather than 1080i, but 1080p doesn't have to mean 60p (well really 59.97 but who's counting)?
Most of the ESPN stuff is 720p, not 1080p. 720p (1280x720,60fps) uses much less bandwidth than 1080i (1920x1080,30fps).
Does it run Linux? =P
I'm guessing it would be close to a decade before BrightHouse updates it's cable boxes around here. They will probably 1080finityP by then.
but what about 1million80p? That would level the playing field...
It looks like a little city on a little board.
I can see my house from here!
I hope the next WD TV gets this.....The video playback is good but the menu is frustratingly slow.
if this will make my time warner box guide browsing NOT come to a complete halt when viewing an HD channel ... i cant wait.
Will this be available to the home-brew HTPC crowd, is it an OEM-only thing?
I'd be perfectly fine with it being an OEM thing, as long as it was shoved inside something like an updated Acer Revo or ASROCK ION 330, obviously no ION though ;)
http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=1652
These cheap little units already do just about everything media-wise except record TV (mainly because they don't have the appropriate tuner hardware). Put a CableCARD or internal ATSC/analog cable tuner in one of these with Windows 7 and you're golden.
I guess it all depends on what the price differential will be between the new Atom CE4100 and a 330 with ION on board.
Maybe Motorola or Pace will start making DVRs with the proper ammount of processing power. It sucks to know I pay good money for an HD-DVR that I can hit the Guide button and wait literally 6-7 seconds before it comes up.
EFB. I posted this 4 posts below.
My DVR can run Crysis now?
+1
My DVR actually can run Crysis.
No SATA controller for DVRs. :(
So, it can all do that, but will it still stutter when playing youtube videos?
It has two SATA controllers.
Thanks, I couldn't make that out on the slides.
what's a fella gotta do to get this thing in friggin' netbook?
get rid of those shitty Scientific America Boxes once and for all!!!!!!!!!!
(how long till cable companies phase out these for new boxes is the real question...)
If Apple doesn't stick this in an AppleTV 2, then somebody else needs to do something similar. We need a small, cheap set-top box that can run XBMC in 1080p. If they can sort out the "trusted path" nonsense so we can get 7.1 audio over HDMI, all the better.
Now stick this in a netbook, add a HDMI port, and I'm sold!
cool! Comcast / Motorola will adopt this technology sometime in 2023.
I have to say that no matter how much innovation tech companies bring to the media ecosystem, it's always the service providers that kill the party. This Intel SoC isn't gonna make its way to a Tru2Way box anytime soon, and certainly not to your MSO's. I mean, TWC insists on using its in-house MDN/ODN guide and Comcast is still using backwards software [ahem, iGuide] on their boxes. This pretty interface will sadly never make it to your TV. Now, if only these people chose to use the Aptiv IPGs- Tru2Way Passport doesn't look half bad.
Would anyone be willing to go to the trouble of establishing a new cable company so we can get some kickass service? I'm sick of all of this half-assed crap from the MSOs. You know, a good guide? Multi-room viewing? DOCSIS 3.0? Clear QAM?
Anyone?
Umm... you might want to take that back engadget, I don't think an atom processor could handle "uncompressed" 1080p video. Do you have any idea how large that would be?