said by cypherstream:Perhaps the X1 (and upcoming X2) are not flash or adobe air based? If so then comparing it to the performance a BCM7413 provides running the Tivo HD UI is not a direct comparison.
The X1 is not Flash based. I don't think anyone is making that mistake again. What Comcast says is that it is HTML5 based, which is pretty vague, but we know it isn't Flash based
said by cypherstream:I still think that an SoC designed around ARM cores could of provided better performance. However the ties between Broadcom and MIPS and the long term development of that platform does not make it seem like this will change anytime soon.
Yep ARM should absolutely be the next generation platform for sure. However, as I've found, nearly all the cable boxes around use a MIPS architecture. So to make a huge change like that would be to break all legacy compatibility.
Perhaps in a few product cycles after the initial X1 guide roll out, when the guide codebase isn't so closely tied to the platform its running on, we'll see set-top box vendors move on to other CPU architectures.
The other issue is that Broadcom makes a perfect SoC for digital video boxes (IPTV, Cable, Satellite, media streaming), because it has every input and output possible for a set-top box integrated into it and dedicated decoding blocks for MPEG2 and MPEG4-AVC.
Looks like Marvell might be the "go-to" vendor for an ARM SoC for a cable/satellite set-top box.
If you look at the guts of the Vizio Co-Star GoogleTV unit it uses a
Marvell Armada 1500 1.2Ghz dual-core ARM CPU which is ready to be used in an number of set-top box configurations including a cable box. The Armada has a graphics unit in it that is certainly better than the Broadcom solutions, since it is made to run Andriod. And it integrates some level of Marvell's excellent QDEO video scaling/processing.
Just need the software to be liberated from being so closely tied to the metal. That was the whole goal behind Tru2Way. Which for Comcast is the X1 Guide.