Intel Helps Consumers Fall in Love with TV All Over Again

For many, watching TV is a passive activity versus an interactive experience. Television as it currently exists, regardless of its use across cultures, is simply a conduit for delivering packaged information. But if Internet applications and interactivity is added to this package, the viewer experience will dramatically change.

At IDF this week in San Francisco, Intel took the wraps off the 45nm Intel® Atom™ processor CE4100, the newest system-on-chip (SoC) in a family of media processors designed to bring Web content and services to the TV. It does this by providing a TV software development framework, now optimized with Adobe Flash, to bring visually compelling content like 3-D gaming, video streaming and social networking to the TV. The SoC supports Internet and broadcast sources on one chip and has the processing power to run complex media applications like 3-D graphics.

Consumers desire to “spice things up” with their TV – they want interaction, digital entertainment and real time information for a true multimedia experience. TV Widgets, or small Internet applications found right on your TV screen, will enhance traditional TV and allow you to view your favorite programs while at the same time accessing Web content — all on one screen.