Broadcom’s Crystal HD to boost Netbook multimedia capability
We’ve been recently talking about the warring going on with Intel and Nvidia with the impending releases of Pine Trail and ION 2 respectively. Intel says that the ION 2 wastes power, adds un-needed graphics utilities and is basically replaceable by using other third party chipsets specifically designed to boost things like 1080p video playback. Nvidia claims that consumers are OK paying a bit extra for a much better graphics experience.
Broadcom is coming out with its Crystal HD chipset that’s going to put these statements to the test. They details are not flowing freely, but we’ve heard that top tier manufacturers like ASUS, Dell and Samsung will be slapping these onto their Pine Trail netbooks. The BCM70015 promises “near flawless” HD video playback, including support for Flash Player 10.1 and Blu-ray flicks.
Broadcom mentions that Crystal HD hardware can be installed directly on a motherboard, but will also be available in a PCI Express mini-card format. That means we’re approaching a plug-n-play situation, which definitely good news!
We were a bit skeptical as well, until we saw a promotional video from Broadcom. Now assuming that they’re using real-world systems and no doctoring has been done, the results are pretty impressive. Take a look for yourself.
Filed under: Netbook