MediaTek, the largest supplier of chips to Smart TVs, has announced a new Pentonic 2000 SoC for 8K TVs. It supports 8K120 and AV1. It is also the first SoC with VVC decoding.

Pentonic Smart TV SoCs
Pentonic 2000 is the first model in a family of new Pentonic SoCs designed for Smart TVs. MediaTek refers to it as the first commercial TV chip to be manufactured using TSMC's 7nm process.

- "Pentonic 2000 is the world's first commercial TV chip manufactured using TSMC's N7 (7nm-class) process, delivering unparalleled performance and power-efficiency. This all-in-one chip supports 8K 120Hz displays, and can even support 144Hz for gaming PC hardware and the ninth generation of consoles. Pentonic 2000 is the first chip with an integrated 8K 120Hz MEMC engine. The chip's built-in high performance MediaTek APU (AI processor) powers MediaTek's new 8K AI-Super Resolution technology that intelligently upscales lower-resolution content to the display's native resolution, while also performing real-time image quality enhancements," the company announced.

MediaTek boasted that "inside the chip is the TV industry's fastest CPU and GPU, which is fueled by an ultra-wide memory bus and ultra-fast UFS 3.1 storage". It is a bold claim considering that MediaTek's current SoCs are far behind even ageing SoCs like Nvidia's Tegra X1 (20nm) in Shield and Apple's A10X (10nm) and A12 (7nm) in Apple TV 4K as detailed in our review of Sony X900H/XH90, which uses the same MediaTek SoC as Sony's 2021 TV models.

It is not the first TV SoC to be manufactured on TSMC's 7nm process either but MediaTek may only be referring to Smart TVs here.


 MediaTek said that its chips now power more than 2 billion TVs

Will power 2022 flagship 8K TVs
MediaTek said that its chips power more than two billion TVs globally. MediaTek SoCs are used in TVs from brands like Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Philips and Xiaomi, and in streaming players from Amazon and Roku. You can see which SoC is used in a given TV model in FlatpanelsHD's TV Database.

Pentonic 2000 supports 8K 120Hz including MEMC (Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation, or motion smoothing), 144Hz for PC gaming, HDMI 2.1, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, ATSC 3.0, Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture, WiFi 6E, 5G cellular models, and AV1 decoding. It is also the first Smart TV SoC that can decode VVC (Versatile Video Coding) – the successor to HEVC.

The company has not announced any other chips in the Pentonic family but said that Pentonic 2000 will power flagship 8K TV that are expected to launch in 2022. We may learn more at CES 2022 in January.

- "MediaTek has built its multimedia expertise over the past two decades and is now the No. 1 chipset provider for smart TVs. The introduction of the Pentonic brand continues our legacy as we focus on pushing the boundaries of innovation in the smart TV market," said Dr. Mike Chang, CVP and GM of Smart Home Business, MediaTek. "The new Pentonic 2000 chip is designed with all the flagship features consumers are looking for – from the latest display and audio technologies to super-fast refresh rates, powerful AI capabilities, picture-in-picture streaming and more."

MediaTek Pentonic 2000 – specifications
 FlatpanelsHD