MediaTek outs Pentonic 2000 chip, the first 7nm chip for Smart TVs

World's top mobile chipmaker MediaTek recently launched the Pentonic 2000, a chip designed for future high-end 8K TVs.

Pentonic 2000

For future flagship 8K Smart TVs!

According to MediaTek, the Pentonic 2000 is the world's first commercial TV chip manufactured using TSMC's N7 (7nm class) which promises better performance and power efficiency than previous-gen chips.

The company claims that this chip brings innovative technologies in the display, audio, AI, broadcasting, and connectivity.

MediaTek has built its multimedia expertise over the past two decades and is now the No. 1 chipset provider for smart TVs. The introduction of the Pentonic brand continues our legacy as we focus on pushing the boundaries of innovation in the smart TV market, said Dr. Mike Chang, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Smart Home Business Group at MediaTek.

The new Pentonic  2000 chip is designed with all the flagship features consumers are looking for–from the latest display and audio technologies to super-fast refresh rates, powerful AI capabilities, picture-in-picture streaming, and more.

As mentioned, this chip has support for 8K TVs. Not only that, it has up to 120Hz 8K support. It even has support for 144Hz gaming PC hardware and the ninth generation of consoles. MTK highlights that this is the first chip with an 8K 120Hz MEMC engine for TVs as well.

Highlights of Pentonic 2000

For AI, it has MTK's own APU (AI processor) with AI-Super Resolution technology that intelligently upscales lower-resolution content to the display's native resolution with real-time image quality enhancements.

Moreover, this new chip supports multiple picture-in-picture (PiP) or picture-by-picture (PbP) screens to allow a large 8K display to show a display wall of different media sources. This allows TVs with this chip to have multiple apps open and stream from different sources at the same time.

It also has MTK's Intelligent View which ensures videos in each display continues to display seamlessly even when the window size or display layout changes.

MTK also said that it has the fastest CPU and GPU with ultra-wide memory bus for Smart TVs. The chip also has WiFi 6E and 5G cellular modem compatibility to allow it to stream 8K media on multiple sources displayed at once.

The company is also claiming that Pentonic 2000 is the first commercial 8K TV chip with Versatile Video Coding (VVC) H.266 media support.

To improve the multimedia experience, this chip support both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos as well as AV1 for streaming services and global TV broadcast standards including the latest ATSC 3.0.

The chip is expected to be available on flagship 8K TVs in 2022.

As of the moment, MediaTek powers more than  2 billion TVs globally.