After the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television gradually issued relevant documents, the OTT box industry brand manufacturers have been moving forward through a process of self-correction. The applications of OTT boxes have begun to diversify from a single video function to game console capabilities. As the core of smart terminal products—the CPU—not only is it accelerating its iteration, but more importantly, it is starting to leverage underlying technologies and hardware performance to create new trends. This is a change initiated by chip manufacturers.
On April 14, Rockchip released the RK3399 new flagship processor at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair.This chip features high performance and high extensibility, and can be applied not only to 2-in-1 tablets but also shows significant technical advantages in VR and game box products. Rockchip positions it as an “all-round” chip, and as one of the giants in OTT box chips, this chip has great potential for enhancing game boxes and providing technical support.
The RK3399 is a monster in both CPU and GPU performance. The CPU adopts the big.LITTLE architecture, with dual Cortex-A72 big cores and four Cortex-A53 small cores, significantly optimizing integer, floating-point, and memory processing, resulting in revolutionary improvements in overall performance, power consumption, and core area.The GPU uses a quad-core ARM next-generation high-end image processor Mali-T860, integrating more bandwidth compression technologies such as intelligent blending, ASTC, and local pixel storage, and supports more graphics and computing interfaces, with overall performance improved by 45% compared to the previous generation.
With ultra-high specifications for CPU and GPU, it can outperform the current mainstream products such as HiSilicon Hi3798, HiSilicon 3798C V200, Allwinner H8, Amlogic S905, and MediaTek MT8693. Currently, the Amlogic S912, which is not too far behind in performance, still awaits mass production, so the RK3399 currently has no competitors in the overall box chip environment.
The RK3399’s high performance in CPU and GPU is not limited to this; its five major technical advantages for game boxes allow them to compete with high-performance game consoles like Sony PS and Microsoft Xbox series.
1. Integrated dual USB 3.0 Type-C interfaces, supporting Type-C Display Port audio and video output
2. HDMI 2.0 interface, H.264/H.265/VP9 4K 10bit@60fps video decoding
3. Built-in PCI-e interface, supporting PCI-e based high-speed Wi-Fi and storage expansion
4. Dual camera image capture and processing, supporting gesture recognition
5. Compatible with Android, Linux, and other operating systems
The five major technical advantages, in terms of video capabilities, the previous flagship RK3288 already featured HDMI 2.0 interface and H.264/H.265/VP9 4K 10bit@60fps video decoding capabilities. The RK3399 continues this trend while adding 10-bit color depth HD decoding and Image Enhancement technology. Although these capabilities are touted as “top-tier” by similar chip solutions, for the RK3399, this is not the focus. The most noteworthy features are the Type-C interface, built-in PCI-e interface, and dual-camera support for gesture recognition, which will be revolutionary for the user experience of game box products.
The RK3399 integrates dual USB 3.0 Type-C, with a maximum transfer rate of up to 10Gbps, supporting bi-directional power and double-sided insertion. This significantly enhances stability and speed when connecting to TV devices with Type-C interfaces. The support for PCI-e interface allows for high-speed Wi-Fi and larger capacity, faster storage devices to finally be supported on game boxes. Lastly, the dual camera image capture and processing with gesture recognition technology expands applications to VR products, indicating that VR + RK3399 game boxes will have enormous application expansion opportunities in the future.
As industry perspectives on the RK3399 suggest, its impact on the OTT box industry will be unprecedented. It is not just an upgrade or gradual parameter improvement; more importantly, it may open up a vast market for home game consoles. This will greatly promote both horizontal and vertical industrial expansion of OTT box products.