Bay trail chips - the end of chinese set top boxes?

[Limacsg]

Android tablets running on bay trail chips will be out in Q2 2014. And its only a matter of time before that get ported to htpcs.

The reality that htpcs like the recent Asus EB1037 being able to dualboot android and windows don't seem such a faraway dream anymore.

With such a htpc which offer the convenience of dualbooting both windows and android, have the power consumption equivalent to most setp top boxes with a TDP of 10W, the reliability of mainstream suppliers like Asus, for me I would definitely switch to such a htpc.

So, will the bay trail chip and 64 bit android signals the end of the era of the chinese set top boxes?

[Limacsg]

Bay trail chips - the end of chinese set top boxes?

And the antutu benchmark for a quad core baytrail chip versus even a tegra 4 arm chip is like comparing a supersonic jet to a zero fighter using propellers.

[kong76]

And the antutu benchmark for a quad core baytrail chip versus even a tegra 4 arm chip is like comparing a supersonic jet to a zero fighter using propellers.

Antutu is basically useless as a benchmark and in any case your implied statement about inferior relative power is uninformed when it comes to BayTrail. It is no longer the sucky Atom of old.

BayTrail 3770 is the most powerful mobile chip in terms of CPU performance though its GPU performance is roughly on par with Snapdragon S600. Power consumption and final device size leaves a bit to be desired too, but it is getting better and Cherry Trail (late 2014) will basically wipe anything else out there except maybe Tegra K1 with Denver dual cores.

Qualcomm is actually in a tough spot during 2014 when it comes to the high end. Snapdragon 805 is not going to cut it when the real competition comes second half of the year, so let's see what they can come up with after it.
Their disadvantage in outsorced manufacturing process (nanometres) compared to Intel fabs (2 years ahead of everyone else) makes it dificult to compete with intel when your whole advantage is suposed to be power consumption (and radio integration).
Nvidia basically ditches any semblance of frugality in the name of horsepower so they don't care

Some old benchmarks on a referene BayTrail prototype, not actual final shipping hardware:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7314/intel-baytrail-preview-intel-atom-z3770-tested/3

Regarding chinese set top boxes, the market is headed as follows:
- Google is rumored to reveal its own nexus console focused on gaming. Amazon too, but it is not so clear cut.
- Chinese vendors are going to start releasing Tegra 4 set top boxes relatively soon (before summer?).
-Rockchip will have relatively decent processors with good GPU (bye bye mali4XX trash) by second half of the year but I am skeptic about power drain as rockchip devices have all proven to have awful idle drain.
- Play Store is getting a revamp this February in the games section in preparation for the console era. Expect 2014's games to gradually make gamepad support an standard.
- Android 5.0 has long been rumored to provide desktop mode of sorts (multiwindow? better mouse support on apps? idk), and we all know android tv will no longer be a separate frankenstein android, making stbs and sticks a viable fist class device with less headaches.
- Nexus 8 is rumored to launch in the summer with baytrail processpr and Intel is releasing its own 64 bit build of android on second quarter of the year, with a prerelease beta on Q1 (supposedly in about 10 days from now, we will see).

Unlike incremental 2013, 2014 is going to be a great year for Android enthusiasts with big changes in hardware and software and I advise anyone against upgrading their tablets, tv boxes and tv sticks before summer-september news if they can wait. Phones on the other hand, update whenever.

Just my 2 cents.

[mitchell4you]

My though.. was perhaps 'amd A57' codename seattle (amd apu with ext-videocard and pci support)As possible end.. to ch tvboxes
but not the end of android sticks.. as the idea of having a mini-pc / mce in you pocket.. it just too amazing for words


opteron x2150 was my hope for a new pc..
But.. its only availeble to oem..


My exp
Intels atom boards-line always came with issues..
-ram limits / videocard resolution limit / video ram sharing / short lifecycle
-- i hat 3 intel atom 330 boards and 1 maxsun atom d525 board.. only the maxsun still runs
---a company i worked for.. came to the same conclusion
---thats why i will never buy a intel atom board again


Whille android runs on x86, its far from a smooth ride..
-just try it
If you buy a intel atom board/htpc you dont get a pre-installed/compiled android version
-thats left to the enduser or oem reseller

[kong76]

Well, the whole point is baytrail is a new architecture not the old pentium4 based atom line. Yes, they were awful.

Your comment about AMD is interesting becouse while I have been happily using a Trinity based APU as my main PC since mid 2012 the power consumption is proving to be an issue for AMD even if integrated GPU performance is legit. I do not miss a discrete card at all, as I play at 720p in mid settings with 15Watts idle consumption. No heat and no noise on an A10-4600M. But 15watts idle is still 15x what it should be. And 45 Watts peak is still too much when compared to 10Watts peak on tablets (6-8 sustained on gaming).

Why do I mention the above? Becouse both Tegra K1 (ARM 32 bits) and Cherry Trail (x86 64bits) are going to match its GPU performance this year on a 5W TDP. Snapdragon 805 will probably be 70% there too but I am speculating based on 40% claimed increase over S800.

Kabini (x86 64bits) is mildy interesting but still a power hog so not on the same stb/tablet league, I suspect. ARM based AMD chips on the other hand are targeting servers so not a player on the stb/stick/tablet market. This year, at least.

So, my current priority list would be choosing one of (time constraints permiting):
1st spot: Cherry Trail Intel device by christmas, either stb or tablet.
2nd spot: Tegra K1 dual core Denver tablet / stb. Christmas?
3rd spot: Tegra K1 quadcore in summer.
4th spot: Snapdragon s800/805 or whatever is available before summer.
5th spot: Android BayTrail tablet/NUC. March till google I/O.

To hell with chinese devices with slow NANDs, subpar wifi reception, monstruous standby drain (rockchip) and cheap build quality. I have wasted my money on the imito and icoo rockchip devices. Only the mk808 is still working. I would consider a Minix stb if they built something powerful enough but that's about it. Or a MadCatz Mojo if they slashed the price.

[Limacsg]

Bay trail chips - the end of chinese set top boxes?

Kong76: actually I meant the baytrail will far outperform most arm chips since it's x86 architecture and quad core.
Very interesting read from all of u. And yes I believe android will run smoothly on the baytrail since asus is releasing a dual OS tablet/laptop hybrid soon. 2014 will be a big turning point for android.

[kong76]

Kong76: actually I meant the baytrail will far outperform most arm chips since it's x86 architecture and quad core.
Very interesting read from all of u. And yes I believe android will run smoothly on the baytrail since asus is releasing a dual OS tablet/laptop hybrid soon. 2014 will be a big turning point for android.

Yeah, I thougt you meant tegra was better becouse of GPU and atom old rep. Nevermind then.

And since I am rereading my post I want to clarify that my statement about Qualcomm is meant to apply to stb/tablets only. Snapdragon chips are king in phones but stb/tablets are tolerant of more power hungry chips that trade efficiency and radio integration (where Qualcomm wins) for horsepower.

Example: The ASUS Transformer pad TF701T is the second best 10 inches Android tablet currently in the market (as in you can take home right now), only second to Galaxy Note 10.1 2014, and with good battery life to boot (due to IGZO panel I guess). Not bad for a device on sale since september and using a power hungry Tegra 4 processor, right?

I like this stuff too much so I am gonna stop my walls of text here before I turn the thread into my own blog