I'd love to see this in a TiVo

[tivogurl]

Dual-Core ARM Cortex A-9, 0.25W/CPU (http://arm.com/news/25922.html)

Users have long complained about the speed and responsiveness of the TiVo. Let's face it, if you want to run the MIPS R4k core of the Broadcom SoC at 1GHz+, it needs a complete redesign because the R4k was never designed for that speed. Who is going to pay for that?

Even underclocked to 1.25 or 1.5 GHz, the ARM would be a monster step up in horsepower, and it probably has the thermals for a fanless design with the right GPU.

[bkdtv]

The ARM Cortex solutions do not integrate MPEG-2/MPEG-4/VC1 decoders, 2D/3D graphics, or an OpenCable (CableCard) receiver. For that reason, it's not a viable alternative to a Broadcom SoC.

A TiVo based on a Broadcom BCM7410 (http://www.dianziw.com/upload/200912048919881.pdf) should provide more than sufficient performance for anything you're going to want on a DVR in the next several years.

[tivogurl]

For that reason, it's not a viable alternative to Broadcom.
Only until my orbital mind control lasers get Broadcom to switch to an ARM core :D

[dlfl]

............A TiVo based on a Broadcom BCM7410 (http://www.dianziw.com/upload/200912048919881.pdf) should provide more than sufficient performance for anything you're going to want on a DVR in the next several years.
Coming to a TiVo near you..... how soon ?

[bkdtv]

Coming to a TiVo near you..... how soon ?We have no idea what the next TiVo will use.

But if TiVo wants to remain competitive with DirecTV's DVR software, it will have to take advantage of the higher-performance processor in DirecTV's next-generation DVR. And if TiVo wants to leverage and re-use the DirecTiVo software on a standalone TiVo, then the standalone TiVo must get a CPU that is as fast or faster.

A standalone TiVo would actually need a faster CPU than the DirecTV DVR to provide comparable performance for comparable functionality, as each DirecTV MPEG-4 stream is 6-12Mbps and cable's MPEG-2 streams run 8-19Mbps.