MediaTek introduces new processors for Chromebooks and smart TVs

The MediaTek Kompanio 838 chipset for Chromebooks and the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset for smart TVs and displays were unveiled by the company on Tuesday. The announcements were made during AMD’s Computex 2024 event, where Nvidia, Asus, Gigabyte and other tech giants also made separate announcements. The Kompanio 838 chipset gets a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI computing and native support for AV1 video decoding. The Pentonic 800 SoC also comes with AI capabilities for faster performance and improvements in image quality.

MediaTek Kompanio 838 is a 6nm octa-core processor, which marks an architectural upgrade over the Kompanio 520 SoC that was launched in 2022. The CPU consists of two Arm Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.6GHz and six Arm Cortex-A55 with a maximum clock speed of 2.0GHz. It is paired with the Arm Mali-G57 MC3 GPU and an unnamed NPU that can handle four trillion operations per second (TOPS).

According to the company’s newsroom afterThe Kompanio 838 chipset supports up to 64-bit LPDDR4X 3200MTs RAM and eMMC 5.1 storage. The company claims that this new architecture will offer better power efficiency and deliver all-day battery life.

MediaTek’s latest Chromebook processor supports dual 4K displays and can also output the same resolution to a connected 4K smart TV or monitor. It also has hardware-accelerated AV1 video decoding integrated into the processor. For connectivity, it supports MediaTek Filogic Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E for both dual and tri-band options.

Designed for smart TVs, smart monitors, commercial displays, and embedded large displays, the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chipset is the successor to the Pentonic 700. The quad-core CPU consists of Arm Cortex-A73 cores with a peak CPU performance of 1.8GHz. The CPU is paired with Arm Mali-G57 MC1 GPU, along with up to 64-bit DDR4 3200Mbps RAM and an integrated AI processor.

The company claims that the AI ​​processing makes the chipset faster and more power-efficient for AI tasks. The AI ​​display technology is used to improve resolution and enhance image quality. These include noise reduction, SDR to HDR upscaling, gaming optimization, and more. For audio, it supports Dolby DAP with Atmos, Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, and DTS: Virtual X.

In terms of video decoding engine, the Pentonix 800 SoC supports popular key codecs such as HEVC, AV1, AVS3 High Profile and VVC (H.266). MediaTek Filogic allows smart TV OEMs to add Wi-Fi 6, 6E or 7 chipsets for wireless connectivity.