High performance tablet and smartphone chips from NVIDIA, Samsung, and Qualcomm get a lot of attention these days, but they’re not the only games in town. VIA subsidiary WonderMedia has just introduced a new 800 MHz ARM11 chip which isn’t going to knock the Tegra 2 chip off its high horse anytime soon, but it’s a much cheaper solution for Android tablets and other internet-connected devices including television or thin client computers.
The WonderMedia PRIZM WM8710 supports OPenGL ES 2.0 graphics, can handle 1080p HD video decoding, and supports HDMI, LVDS, VGA, and other video interfaces. The chip can handle Ethernet, WiFi, 3G and Bluetooth communications.
I don’t expect to see this chip in any mainstream tablets from big name companies in the West anytime soon, but it seems like the sort of solution that could find itself into generic Chinese tablets any day now.
