Computex 2008: Broadcom Presents New Media PC Technology for Blu-ray Playback

Taking into consideration the fact that Blu-ray won the war on HD format, Broadcom has announced new products capable of enhancing low end computers to playback Blu-ray films, without making buyers empty their pockets. The company stated that its new products would bring Blu-ray playback on those widely spread low performance computers already on the market and on those to come, while buyers will still have their systems on the price range they are accustomed with.

As it is well known, most of the shoppers prefer to spend their money on computers that do not have high-end specifications, as they are more affordable. Yet, this comes at the cost of performance, which is dramatically decreased, mainly because the systems feature a low-end processor and a similar graphics card - if not an integrated one. This is why most of the systems that are on the marketplace today, as well as systems that are about to be released, do not meet all the requirements for Blu-ray playback, that being either a high end processor or a dedicated discrete graphics card.

Broadcom unveiled two solutions, the Broadcom BCM70012 and BCM70010 media PC solution. According to the company, these technological solutions target the UMPC, mobile Internet device and embedded x86 markets. Seamless playback of high quality and more compressed video in smaller and cheaper form factors is allowed through these products.

Broadcom's advanced media PC solutions have been designed for the low cost, low power and high performance requirements of the market. The BCM70012 is compatible with PCI Express applications, while BCM70010 goes with PCI applications, both acting as multimedia hubs, extending battery life and offering low power and a rich multimedia experience.

"Broadcom has a long history of delivering a rich multimedia experience to consumers across various media," said Allen Light, Director of Marketing, Media PC Products in Broadcom's Broadband Communications Group. "With our latest media PC enhancements, PC OEMs have the ability to turn UMPCs and MIDs into multimedia hubs, addressing consumers' needs to access high quality multimedia content on-the-go, in a low cost, low power consumer device."

Broadcom's new PC solutions are compatible with Windows Vista, XP, and Linux operating systems. The products will come on the market in three add-in card formats: a desktop PCI Express card, a PCI Express mini-card and an ExpressCard 34. The company announced that it would also make the technology available as a chipset solution to be used in PC motherboards.