Google I/O 2017: MediaTek's New Chipset Supports Google Assistant and Android Things

MediaTek on Thursday introduced its all-new MT8516 chipset which has been designed to enable Voice Assistant Devices (VADs) and smart speakers including the Google Assistant. The new chipset from MediaTek also comes with Android Things pre-certified system on modules (SOMs). The Taiwan-based chipset maker showcased the new MT8516 at Google I/O 2017.

MediaTek says that new Google Assistant devices using MT8516 chipset can be expected to hit market shelves in Q4 of this year.

The company says that the new chipset by supporting Google Assistant and Android Things can deliver a smart home user experience with interaction between voice command devices and IoT products.

The MediaTek MT8516 features a 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex-A35 MPCore clocked at up to 1.3GHz. The chipset also integrates Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity options. The MediaTek MT8516 for microphone voice input and connected audio products comes with interfaces for TDM (up to 8 channels) and PDM inputs (2 channels).

For microphone voice input and connected audio products, the MediaTek MT8516 has interfaces for TDM (up to 8 channels) and PDM inputs (2 channels). Additionally, the chipset has flexible memory support including LPDDR2, LPDDR3, DDR3, DDR3L and DDR4 to accommodate diverse platform needs.

Announcing the new chipset, Joe Chen, Executive Vice President and Co-COO of MediaTek said, "Smart home products are growing in popularity and MediaTek's expertise is making connected devices smarter, smaller and more power efficient without sacrificing performance. Our dedicated Android support will help expand the market for voice-based intelligent devices."

MediaTek, a fabless semiconductor company, also claimed that its chipsets are powering over 1.5 billion consumer devices a year.

We discussed everything that was announced at Google I/O 2017 on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast. You can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, or just hit the play button below to listen to this episode.