Marvell has added the ARMADA 1500 Ultra (88DE3218) system-on-chip (SoC) to its ARMADA 1500 family, designed for set-top box manufacturers and PayTV operators. The ARMADA 1500 Ultra's Quad Core 14K DMIPS ARM A53 CPU, 8-core GPU, carrier-grade security and power management techniques are designed to enable PayTV operators and set-top box (STB) manufacturers to deliver small form factor devices with feature-rich 4K entertainment and gaming services to their subscribers.

The ARMADA 1500 Ultra provides support for video SoCs, Wi-Fi and Internet of Things services. Marvell's video processing IP includes an enhanced Qdeo Video Processor that addresses the Ultra HD content services being launched by PayTV operators. With its quad-core ARM A53 64-bit CPU and 51 GFLOP GPU, the ARMADA 1500 Ultra's architecture combines processing power in a small package, which is four times smaller than other SoCs on the market,. The SoC also features a security processor supporting conditional access systems (CAS) solutions from Verimatrix to meet the strict standards of service operators and content partners.

Key features of the ARMADA 1500 Ultra HD SoC include:

• 2160p60 10 bit HEVC & VP9 Video Decode, 1080p PiP and transcoding with patented scaling techniques
• Up to 14K DMIPs (1.5 GHz) Quad Core ARM A53 64-bit CPU allows operators to deploy rich media/web-based TV applications and Android TV services
• 8 core GPU, 8 shader Vivante GC7000XS with hardware tessellation and geometry shaders optimized for the Android gaming ecosystem
• Security engine, trusted rendering path with TrustZone, and hardware support for video watermarking technologies such as Verimatrix VideoMark and Civolution NexGuard
• Strong portfolio of SDKs including Android TV and RDK.
• Marvell's Wi-Fi and Bluetooth solutions, the Avastar 88W8897 (2x2 11ac) and 88W8864 (4x4 11ac)

Marvell will be demonstrating the ARMADA 1500 Ultra at TV Connect 2015 in Marvell's booth MR30. TV Connect is being held in London at ExCeL London from April 28–30, 2015.