Marvell and E Ink SoC to Power Next Generation E-Readers

Marvell and E Ink have signed a joint development and croos licensing agreement and are now shipping an integrated system on a chip (SoC) e-reader processor. The two companies have been developing products together for the past three years, but say the new partnership should allow for higher integration and lower cost for manufacturers of e-reader devices.

The new SoC, the Marvell ARMADA 166E application processor, contains a processor and Electronic Paper Display (EPD) controller on a single chip, and is designed for fast rendering of high resolution PDF documents as well as support for the latest ePaper technologies. The ARMADA 166E will bring e-readers new features for saving power and extending battery life, like a zero power hibernation mode. The two companies also announced FirstPaper, LLC, a joint innovation enabling various display sizes and resolutions, including support for larger screens that will deliver layouts, graphics, and content choices that people normally associate with periodicals, larger-format books, and documents.

"Periodicals are the next big frontier in e-reading", said Gil Fuchsberg, President of FirstPaper, "To enable great newspaper and magazine reading experiences, e-reading devices need the right tools to make richer layouts and complex content come to life. We're excited to be working with Marvell to bring such tools to the market. Device manufacturers will be able to take full advantage of FirstPapers integrated content and commerce platform with the ARMADA 166E".

According to Marvell Co-founder Weili Dai, "Because this is a total platform solution including Marvell key technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G modem, and power management the ARMADA e-reader has the potential to deliver the first mass market product accessible and affordable to billions of consumers around the world. Marvells passion is to give consumers more choice, improved features, and greater access to more information with e-readers that are aimed at education, health, and business applications". E-readers with the new processor expected on the market in 2010 include the entourage eDGe, the Plastic Logic ProReader and Spring Designs Alex.