What Is 8K resolution
8K resolution refers to an image or display resolution with a width of approximately 8,000 pixels. 8K UHD (7680 pixels x 4320 pixels) is the highest resolution defined in the Rec. 2020 (UHDTV) standard.
8K display resolution is the successor to 4K resolution. TV manufacturers pushed to make 4K a new standard by 2017. At CES 2012, the first prototype 8K TVs were unveiled by Japanese electronics corporation Sharp. The feasibility of a fast transition to this new standard is questionable in view of the absence of broadcasting resources. In 2018, Strategy Analytics predicted that 8K-ready devices will still only account for 3% of UHD TVs by 2023 with global sales of 11 million units a year.[5] However, TV manufacturers remain optimistic as the 4K market grew much faster than expected, with actual sales exceeding projections nearly six-fold in 2016.
In 2013, a transmission network's capability to carry HDTV resolution was limited by internet speeds and relied on satellite broadcast to transmit the high data rates. The demand is expected to drive the adoption of video compression standards and to place significant pressure on physical communication networks in the near future.
As of 2018, few cameras had the capability to shoot video in 8K, NHK being one of the few companies to have created a small broadcasting camera with an 8K image sensor. By 2018, Red Digital Cinema camera company had delivered three 8K cameras in both a Full Frame sensor and Super 35 sensor
The Poluar 8K chipsets include:
MediaTek MT9969
A smart display SoC with a quad-core CPU, graphics engine, and AI processing unit. It supports up to 8K60 displays and is suitable for a variety of applications, including smart homes, conference rooms, and advertising.
Dedicated 8K Video Decoding Engine
MT9969 can decode 8K60 video streams using common multimedia formats such as HEVC, VP9 and AV1.
New AI Visual Experiences
Using the high‑performance CPU, GPU and AI processing units, manufacturers can differentiate premium display designs with various intelligent applications to provide more utility through facial recognition, scene recognition, face trajectory tracking, voice separation, and video call background blurring.
Real-time AI Image Quality Enhancement
The integrated AI processor (APU) powers MediaTek’s advanced AI image quality technology (AI-PQ). This real-time enhancement technology recognizes faces and scenes in the video stream. When combined with MediaTek MiraVision display enhancement technology, the intelligent recognition can automatically fine-tune color saturation, brightness, sharpness, reduced noise and dynamic motion compensation to enhance the overall visual experience.
Integrated Voice Assistant Support
As an industry leader in voice assistant devices (VAD), MT9969 supports MediaTek AI-Voice technology and up to four far-field microphones. Low power standby and fast wake-up ensure even when the smart display is in standby it can still be receptive to voice triggers. Brand manufacturers can integrate voice assistants into smart display devices to offer a convenient, hands-free interactive experience.
MediaTek Pentonic 2000
A TV SoC designed for flagship 8K TVs with up to 120Hz refresh rates. It features an 8K MEMC engine, AI engines, and imaging and audio technologies. 、
The MediaTek Pentonic 2000 is designed for flagship 8KTVs with up to 120Hz refresh rates. Offering a wealth of cutting-edge technologies – including integrated 8K MEMC and AI engines, as well as the latest imaging and audio technologies to provide the ultimate cinematic experiences in Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos – this leading chip is the world’s first commercial TV SoC to use TSMC’s advanced N7 (7nm-class) process, providing unparalleled capabilities in an ultra-efficient package.
By integrating an advanced MEMC engine into the chip, the MediaTek Pentonic 2000 goes beyond competitor 2-chip solutions to provide the industries most advanced 8K capable motion compensation engine that’s always reliable and incredibly power-efficient.
MediaTek offers a comprehensive global demod platform for receiving over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts, over-the-top (OTT) services and web streaming, allowing brands to focus on creating stunning products that are ready for global markets. In addition to supporting video decoding of commonly used HEVC, VP9, AVS3 standards, and the latest AV1, MediaTek is among the first to support the latest VVC (h.266) standard. This comprehensive feature set provides brands with a single, optimized platform for global markets.
MediaTek Intelligent View can put the extra-large 8K resolution to great use by dividing it into multiple screens at once where previous generation can only provide limited PiP displays. MediaTek Intelligent View can showcase a ‘display wall’ of content in a single view. At home, this novel technology allows users to, for example, stream multiple angles of a favorite sporting event at the same time or watch and video call with friends and family simultaneously to share the moment. In the office, it can enhance meeting rooms and conferences with effective space for virtual attendees, or, placed in a company foyer it can showcase company stock prices, live news feeds, plus the latest products and corporate information; all easy to manage.
Typical digital TV SoC’s only offer picture quality adjustment for the primary content view, however the powerful MediaTek Pentonic 2000 and MediaTek Intelligent View enables dynamic picture quality adjustment in every view shown.
Other user experience improvements include non-muted audio/video when switching between primary and sub-views, and ensuring the video continues to play seamlessly even if the sub-views are moved around the main display, rather than falling out of sync or going black.
The MediaTek Pentonic 2000 chip incorporates the most powerful CPU and GPU combination in the TV industry, while ultra-wide memory and fast UFS storage give these powerful processors plenty of data bandwidth to ensure users always have a highly responsive Smart TV experiences.
The MediaTek AI processing engine (NPU) is fully integrated into the chip, ensuring the synergy between processing engines is faster and more power-efficient than alternative multi-chip solutions. The high-performance NPU powers advanced AI-enhanced features such as:
AI-Super Resolution 2.0+ with detail creation
AI-Picture Quality Scene Recognition 2.0
AI-Picture Quality Object Recognition 3.0 with depth and richer picture quality enhancement
As the world’s largest supplier of chips for voice assistant devices, the MediaTek Pentonic 2000 supports up to four directional microphones, which in addition to AI-Voice technologies enables TV makers to provide voice assistant services, direct voice control and integration with smart homes as the central interactive display.
Four HDMI 2.1 ports provide support for the latest TV interface standard, while up to Wi-Fi 6E support enables ultra-fast internet connectivity suitable for streaming 8K content. 5G connectivity can also be added using a MediaTek T700-based M.2 add-in card, greatly extending the range of ultra-fast internet connectivity and potential use-cases.
Amlogic S928X
An 8K media chipset that supports 8K HDR and Dolby Vision VS10. It can upscale content to 8K or downscale 8K to any resolution.
CPU sub-system
1x Arm Cortex-A76 core and 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores in big.LITTLE configuration
NEON and Crypto extensions
Private L2 cache and unified system L3 cache
Build-in RISC-V core for system control processing
GPUs
Arm Mali-G57 MC2 3D GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2, and OpenCL 2.0
2.5D graphics processor for scaling, alpha, rotation, and color space conversion operations
VPU
Amlogic Video Engine (AVE) with dedicated hardware decoders and encoders
Decoding
AV1 MP-10 @ L6.1 up to 8Kp60
VP9 Profile-2 @ 6.1 up to 8Kp60
H.265 HEVC MP-10 @ L6.1 up to 8Kp60
AVS3 Phase 1 up to 8Kp60
AVS2-P2 Profile up to 8Kp60
H.264 AVC HP @ L5.2 up to 4Kp60
MPEG-4, WMV/VC-1, AVS, MPEG-2, MPEG-1 up to 1080p60
MJPEG and JPEG unlimited pixel resolution decoding (ISO/IEC-10918)
Support multi-video decoder up to 4x 4Kp60
Encoding
JPEG image encoding up to 4Kp60
H.265 video encoding up to 4Kp60 with low latency
H.264 video encoding up to 4Kp60 with low latency
8th Generation Advanced Amlogic TruLife Image Engine with support for Dolby Vision (optional), HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, and HDR Vivid processing
AI accelerator – Up to 3.2 TOPS Neural Network Accelerator (NNA) with Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) architecture, supports TensorFlow and Caffe
Memory and Storage Interface
Up to 8GB RAM DDR4-3200/LPDDR4/4X-4266 SDRAM
SDSC/SDHC/SDXC card and SDIO interface with 1-bit and 4-bit data bus width supporting spec version 2.x/3.x/4.x DS/HS modes up to UHS-I SDR104
eMMC and MMC card interface with 1/4/8-bit data bus width fully supporting spec version 5.1 HS400 with HW CQ
Video Output – HDMI 2.1a transmitter including both controller and PHY supporting CEC, Dynamic HDR, and HDCP 2.2/2.3, up to 8Kp60 max resolution output with support for eARC, VRR, QMS, QFT, ALLM, DSC & SBTM (Source-Based Tone Mapping)
Audio
Support for MP3, AAC, WMA, RM, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, SRS Truvolume, Dolby Audio (optional), DTS (optional), and programmable with 7.1/5.1 down-mixing
Low-power VAD
Built-in SPDIF input/output up to 192KHz 16/24/32bit stereo
3x built-in TDM/PCM/I2S ports with TDM/PCM mode up to 48kHz x 32bits x 32ch or 192kHz x 16bits x 16ch and I2S mode up to 384kHz x 32bits x 16ch
Digital microphone PDM input with programmable CIC, LPF, HPF, support up to 8 DMICs
Built-in stereo audio DAC
Digital Television Interface
4x serial transport stream (TS) or 2x serial and 1x parallel TS input interface with built-in demux processor for connecting to external digital TV tuner/demodulator
Built-in PWM, I2C, and SPI interfaces to control tuner and demodulator
Integrated ISO 7816 smart card controller
Integrated I/O Controllers and Interfaces
Networking
Integrated IEEE 802.3 10/100/1000M Ethernet MAC with RGMII interface
WiFi and Bluetooth via PCIe/SDIO/USB/UART/PCM
Network interface optimized for mixed WIFI and BT traffic
USB – 1x USB XHCI OTG 2.0, 2x USB 2.0 host, 1x USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) multiplexed with PCIe 2.0
PCIe – 1x PCIE 2.0 up to 5Gbps (multiplexed with USB 3.0)
Other peripherals
Multiple PWM, UART, I2C, and SPI interfaces with slave select
Programmable IR remote input/output controllers
10-bit SAR ADC with 4 input channels
GPIOs
Misc
General-purpose timers, counters, DMA controllers
24 MHz crystal input
Embedded debug interface using ICE/JTAG
Integrated Power On Reset(POR) module
Security
Trustzone-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)
Secure boot
Crypto Engine
AES/block cipher with 128/256-bit keys, standard 16 bytes block size and streaming ECB, CBC, and CTR modes
TDES block cipher with ECB and CBC modes supporting 64-bit keys for DES and 192-bit keys for 3DES.
SM4 block cipher with ECB, CBC, CTR modes
RSA block cipher with 4K-bit keys
Hardware crypto key-ladder operation and for transport stream encryption
Built-in hardware True Random Number Generator (TRNG), CRC, and SHA-1/SHA-2/HMAC SHA engine
Hardware ECC
TS descrambler/scrambler and TS demux
Built-in 4k bits One-Time-Programming memory for key storage
Pre-region/ID memory security control and electric fence
Hardware-based Trusted Video Path (TVP), video watermarking, and secured contents (needs SecureOS software)
Secured IO and secured clock
Package – 17 x 16 mm, FCBGA
The block diagram is a little confusing with regard to USB 3.0, and the rest of the document makes it clear it’s either USB 3.0 or PCIe 2.1, and there’s no extra dedicated USB 3.0 port. The Amlogic S928X processor also has IP blocks for artificial intelligence and machine learning with a 3.2 TOPS and a VAD. It won’t be suitable for smart displays though since the only video output interface shown in the document is the HDMI 2.1 port, and there isn’t any camera port either.
As far as software support is concerned, we are just told about a standard development environment utilizing a GNU/GCC Android toolchain, but we already know S928X will support Android 13 from the previous announcements. It does not look like Linux will be supported, at least not by Amlogic themselves, since it’s not the target market. For some specific use cases, It could still be a potential Rockchip RK3566 competitor with fewer interfaces, but an additional big Cortex-A76 core, 8K support, and a faster AI accelerator.
A leader in 8K UHD technologies, HiSilicon offers a full portfolio of 8K UHD chipsets. Their products cover video capture, encoding, decoding, transmission, and presentation.
its Hi3796C V300 8K chipset, at the CCBN2021 (the 28th China International Radio and Television Information Network Exhibition) held at the China International Exhibition Center.
The HiSilicon Hi3796C V300 8K chipset is designed for next-generation 8K STBs and TVs produced by world-leading carriers, and household STB and TV brands. It stands out in four key ways:
1 As the first chipset to support 8Kp120 decoding: Bolstered by world-class decoding technology and an innovative system architecture design, the chipset is capable of handling a streamlined 8Kp120 decoding process. Its performance has been validated during the live coverage of several high-profile events, including China Media Group's 2021 Spring Festival Gala.
2. As the first chipset to support AVS3 decoding: AVS3 is the third generation of the Audio Video Coding Standard (AVS), developed by the China AVS workgroup for 8K UHD videos. Compared to H.265, this standard offers 36% better compression efficiency. Hi3796C V300 is an AVS3 implementation on the SoC — the culmination of HiSilicon and AVS workgroup's joint efforts, put into practice at the 2021 Spring Festival Gala.
3. Built-in high-performance NPU: As the first chipset to pack a neural processing unit (NPU) with UHD capabilities, HiSilicon's solution offers computing power of up to 4T. It stands to help content partners, carriers, and product developers incorporate AI innovations, such as intelligent interactions, gesture/posture recognition, and content recommendations.
4. Industry-leading UHD picture quality: Similar to other members of HiSilicon's smart TV main processing chipset lineup, the chipset supports HDR, AI PQ, motion estimation and motion compensation (MEMC), and a range of different resolutions (from FHD to 4K/8K). It also allows for video upscaling powered by AI and big data, which results in enhanced video resolution with natural video details and colors.
Qualcomm 865
A chipset that supports 8K video, 4K HDR, and 960fps capture.
To play back 8K Ultra HD video, you'll need a GPU that's compatible with 8K playback and a display setup that can support the full detail of the video. The display device and GPU should support HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 1.4.
Qualcomm has introduced the Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform, its latest chipset that pushes the limits of mobile processing in a device that’s small enough to fit on the face of a penny.
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In addition to support for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 4G/5G modem, the chipset also brings a number of improvements in the imaging department thanks to its Kryo 585 octa-core CPU, Adreno 650 GPU and Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor (ISP).
Unlike previous chipsets, which could only hand one pixel per clock cycle, the Snapdragon 865 can handle four pixels per clock cycle. In addition to power savings and running cooler, this increase enables exciting new features on the photo and video front.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G Mobile Platform - American Coin
Specifically, the Snapdragon 865 can handle up to two gigapixels of data per second thanks in part to its dual 14-bit ISPs. This means the Snapdragon 865 will be able to handle up to 200-megapixel captures, as well as dual 64-megapixel camera captures with zero shutter lag and HEIC photo capture. It can also apply multi-frame noise reduction on the fly, as well as provide real-time object classification, segmentation and replacement in images thanks to its 5th generation Qualcomm AI Engine. This new technology will make it possible to ‘quickly and intelligently identify different backgrounds, people, and objects, so they can be treated individually for a truly customized photo,’ according to Qualcomm.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G Mobile Platform - Chip Front
The Snapdragon 865 chipset is also a major boost for mobile video. In addition to 8K video capture, the chipset can also handle 4K HDR (HDR10+, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision), 4K video at 120fps and 4K video capture while simultaneously capturing a burst of five 640-megapixel photos. This makes it the first chipset that captures Dobly Vision video on the fly and in addition to capturing 120fps video, the chipset can also playback 120fps video in realtime when paired with a 120Hz display, such as those found inside the Razer Phone, Razer Phone 2, Sharp Aquos R3 and Asus ROG Phone II smartphones.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G Mobile Platform Chip Case
Qualcomm has addressed high-speed capture as well. The Snapdragon 865 can capture 720p video at 960fps without limits. 720p video at 960fps is nothing new, as the Sony Xperia XZ and over a dozen of other smartphones from Sony, Samsung, Huawei, Sony and Xiaomi can attest to, but current devices are limited to capturing just a few seconds at a time. When paired with the proper hardware, the Snapdragon 865 chipset will be able to record 960fps video indefinitely; or at least until you run out of storage.
Below is Qualcomm's day two livestream of its Snapdragon Tech Summit in Maui:
Qualcomm says flagship devices based on the Snapdragon 865 are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2020. So far HMD, Motorola, Oppo and Xiaomi have confirmed they have devices on the way based on the Snapdragon 865 chipset.
