TridentMicrosystems
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Trident and ARM get together to make smarter STBs, bring more of the web to your tube
While you're surely familiar with ARM and its suite of processors powering many a spicy mobile device, Trident is something of a more silent entity -- having a presence in half of the TVs sold worldwide but hardly making a mark when it comes to consumer perception. That could change with a new line of web-enabled set top boxes that will be powered by the ARM Cortex-A9 processor, which, even in its earliest incarnations, does a fine job of handling web duties and even decoding HD video. The goal is to deliver "the most advanced multimedia experiences into the home," and while we think that's perhaps a bit optimistic, the right players are involved here, with an "extensive ecosystem" being developed including Flash, Android, and Qt user elements. It remains to be seen whether this device will actually run Android, perhaps joining Google TV on the STB front, but there is talk of pushing content to mobile devices and matching a consistent user experience whether you're couch or coach-bound. When will all this come to pass? We think it's a bit too early to be troubled by such details.
