Marvell Announces Industry-First Audio Video Bridging Family of SoCs with Integrated Switching, CPU and Endpoint Functionality

The Marvell 88E7221, 88E7251, and 88E7251F are the company’s first fully-integrated turnkey AVB SoCs that decrease time-to-market for original design manufacturers – and the first in the industry to offer full AVB compliance. In addition, the new chips combine high performance and low power, which are key components for cost-effective, cloud-based services and proliferation of cloud networks. Marvell will demonstrate the technology at Interop 2012, which takes place May 8-10 in Las Vegas.

The new devices support IEEE 802.1’s new AVB standards, designed to enable seamless delivery of time-sensitive multimedia traffic for both consumer and professional AV applications on an easy-to-configure Ethernet network. They also support the IEEE 1588v2 Precision Time Protocol standard, which enables synchronization of nodes across an Ethernet network to less than one microsecond.

The 88E7221, 88E7251 and 88E7251F feature the ultimate in performance and efficiency, operating at up to 400MHz while consuming less than one watt of power. All three chips feature ARM CPUs with integrated Fast Ethernet switches, USB and SDIO interfaces, and two AVB time-aware TDM/I2S ports that enable synchronized audio playback using the latest AVB standards. The technology is ideal for wireless routers, VoIP adaptors, 3G/4G gateways and wired or wireless-networked speakers.

“These new entrants to Marvell’s Link Street family demonstrate a significant step forward in a market shaped by relentless demand for flawless audio and video delivery in homes and enterprises,” said Tim Bajarin, president, Creative Strategies Inc. “The solution helps end users derive a better experience from lifestyles increasingly reliant on constant access to content from various cloud services and servers.”

“Marvell remains committed to providing connected-lifestyle solutions that are as explosive in performance as they are light-footed in power consumption,” said Paul Valentine, vice president of marketing for the Cloud Services and Infrastructure Business Unit of Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. “To the extent that today’s consumers can easily discern an exceptional multimedia experience from a passable one, Marvell offers the industry its first real chance to deliver outstanding AVB technology in a fully integrated package. The 88E7221, 88E7251 and 88E7251F are central players in Marvell’s larger cloud access ecosystem and help our customers significantly expand revenue and overall end user satisfaction.”

Marvell is a member of the AVnu Alliance, which is an industry forum dedicated to the advancement of professional-quality audio/video by promoting the adoption of AVB standards across multiple markets.

Product details include:
-400 MHz CPU core with 16 KB I and 16 KB D four-way set associative L1 caches
-High bandwidth, dual-port DDR2/DDR3 memory interface (8/16-bit DDR2/DDR3 SDRAM at up to 800 MHz data rate)
-Integrated four-port (88E7221) or seven-port (88E7251/88E7251F) AVB-enabled Fast Ethernet switch
-USB 2.0 port with integrated PHY
-SD/SDIO interface running up to 50Mhz
-Two AVB-enabled TDM audio interfaces supporting up to eight channels per port with sample rates up to 192kHz
-SPI port with multiple chip selects
-16550 compatible UART interface
-Bootable from SPI, MII, PHY, UART
-TWSI port
-GPIO pins (up to 16)
-Internal real-time clock
-Interrupt controller
-Timers
-Integrated reset controller and power monitor
-Low power dissipation - <1W
-14 x 20 mm 128-pin QFP (88E7251/88E7221) or
-20x20 mm 176-Pin QFP (88E7251F)