Toshiba today launched the TZ5000 series of ARM-based application processors, which support wireless communication of high quality video. Increasingly, delivery of video and audio over the internet requires set top boxes and similar equipment to receive the service and distribute contents to PCs and smartphones via wireless LAN.

The processors integrate a baseband function compliant with IEEE802.11ac standard for high speed wireless LAN and also incorporate 32Gbit MLC NAND flash memory and a dedicated memory controller in a single package. This secures fast boot of software, such as the operating system, and high speed data access. In addition, since the program area is built into the package, the chips offer protection against hacking attacks.

They use a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore/NEON ~1.2GHz CPU and PowerVR SGX540 GPU.

The series also adopts an original low power design, reducing power consumption and heat generation when processing multimedia applications, such as HTML5, which usually imposes a heavy load to the CPU.

The processors could be used in OTT tuners, IP media box, wearable devices, digital signage equipment, and thin client devices.

Toshiba will start sample shipments of the TZ5000 series in May, with mass production scheduled to start in September, 2014.