MediaTek Showcases AI and IoT Focused Chips for Smart Home Solutions at CES 2018

Semiconductor giant MediaTek announced several new products and partnerships at CES 2018. These include a partnership with Alibaba AI Labs, new chips for UHD Smart TV platforms, portfolio of Wi-Fi chipsets for IoT devices, solutions for smart home devices, and AI solutions for cross platform devices.

Partnership with Alibaba AI Labs
At CES 2018, MediaTek announced a strategic partnership with Alibaba's AI division. Under this partnership, the companies will work on smart home standards, customised IoT chips, and AI smart hardware. The partnership also revealed a Smartmesh connectivity solution in China that will help increase adoption in smart home settings. Smartmesh will enable smart home devices to pair with Tmall Genie, Alibaba's voice-controlled virtual assistant.

Two customised Bluetooth SoCs (MT7581 and MT7583) have been developed for Smartmesh and will be available in the second half of 2018.

MT5598 Chip for HDR-Enabled Smart TVs
MediaTek also revealed its new MT5598 chip that is a prKemium UHD Smart TV platform with support for a wide variety of HDR technologies. This will allow 4 TV manufacturers to incorporate HDR content from Blu-Ray as well as streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, and others. The MT5598 chip also has a few AI enhancements that bring voice commands and customised experience to smart TVs.

New Wi-Fi Chipsets
MediaTek also announced that router manufacturers like Asus, D-Link, and other will use MediaTek Wi-Fi SoCs for their premium range. These SoCs will offer whole home coverage, with products ranging from PCs, smartphones to televisions and smart home devices like smart speakers.

The newest networking SoC from MediaTek, MT6722, is claimed to be the world's first SoC with 4x4 802.11n and Bluetooth 5.0. It offers high performance and advanced security. The MT6722 SoC comes equipped with the smart Quality of Service (QoS) for easier device management.

AI for Cross Platform Consumer Devices
MediaTek aims to bring AI capabilities to billions of devices with its NeuroPilot SDK that will be available for smartphones, smart homes, automobiles, and others. The NeuroPilot AI platform helps improve day-to-day experience on mobile devices and IoT products through the implementation of AI in image and voice detection.

AI for Home Entertainment Platform
MediaTek's new MT8695 SoC is claimed to be the industry's first 12nm SoC designed for 4k streaming on dongles. It supports features like UHD 2k resolution at 60fps, Dolby Vision, and HDR10.

The MT8516 SoM (System on Module) improves support for Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, and overall home coverage. MediaTek now also adds support for AI voice platforms including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Alibaba, and Baidu.

Partnership with Plume
MediaTek has partnered with Plume Design to showcase a compact, cost effective dual-band Wi-Fi Pod that has the MT7621A and the MT7615D chipsets for dual-band 2x2 platform for ISP and retail applications. Other dual-band 4x4 and tri-band 2+2+4 configurations will also be available.