Marvell Android tablet reference design spotted

Chip maker Marvell has come up with a tablet reference design powered by its own Armada 600 chip. The tablet runs the latest Android 2.2 Froyo, has a 10 inch display, and a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The prototype tablet is capable of playing back 1080p HD quality video and has support for 3D graphics acceleration. Of course, the whole point behind the move is to show off what the latest Marvell creation, the Armada 600 chip, is capable of. And it is this that forms the most interesting part of the story, because the tablet has been mighty impressive in its performance and seems to have an answer for anything thrown at it. Marvell is claiming the Armada 600 chip will have a clock speed of 1 GHz and will have ultra low power requirement characteristics.

The hardware bit of the tablet is yet to be set in stone as things are still being worked out. The Android 2.2 Froyo has also been tweaked to render better performance on the larger sized and higher resolution screen since the operating system has largely been conceived for use on smartphones. In the end, what turned out is an exemplary idea of what a tablet should be.

The apps are working fine, response has been zippy, display is crisp, and the tablet has no qualms playing back a HD video simultaneously on its own screen along with an external display via an HDMI connection.

However, Marvell has ruled out diversifying into actually manufacturing tablet PCs and have stated they are content with producing the chips that goes into the making of these tablets. The chip maker has announced there will be at least a finished tablet PC up for display at the upcoming CES. The tablet is certainly one to look out for. More so since by that time Google will have its tablet specific version of Android, the Gingerbread, up and running.