Skiff, Marvell announce e-reader development kit at CES 2010

LAS VEGAS, USA: Skiff LLC and Marvell announced the Skiff Reader Development Kit (RDK), which is designed to enable manufacturers to more easily create innovative reading devices with various display sizes, fast performance, and reduced overall component costs. It does this by leveraging the world’s first eReading System-on-a-Chip (SoC) with an integrated Electronic Paper Display (EPD) controller.

Hardware manufacturers (OEMs and ODMs) can find more information about the Skiff RDK and the SoC in the Marvell booth (South Hall 30642) during the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show this week.

The Skiff RDK represents a leading-edge reference design that manufacturers can use to rapidly prototype and bring to market next-generation reading devices. Beyond an efficient system design, the RDK also includes built-in software support for the upcoming Skiff eReading service and digital storefront, which will enable consumers to easily access and wirelessly download a wide range of newspapers, magazines, books, blogs, and other content from multiple publishers. The Skiff service will enhance the utility and differentiation that manufacturers can bring to their devices, while increasing out-of-the-box consumer value.

“Skiff and Marvell are partnering to help manufacturers reduce how much time and money it takes to make high-performance reading devices,” said Gilbert Fuchsberg, president of Skiff, LLC. “In turn, this will make it easier for publishers to deliver engaging digital reading experiences to a broad consumer audience.”

The Skiff RDK system design is cost-effective due to the integration of the Marvell ARMADA SoC, an industry first that includes both an application processor and a high-performance controller for driving an e-paper display. Combining these elements into one component reduces costs and power while improving overall performance.

This innovation, which combines contributions from both Marvell and Skiff, enables ARMADA-based devices to display layouts, graphics, and content that people normally associate with periodicals, larger-format books and documents on e-paper screens of varying resolution and size.

Future Skiff and Marvell reference designs will support a broad range of hardware devices, including multi-purpose devices such as smartphones, tablets and netbooks, as well as various display and wireless technologies.

“Skiff signifies a new era in live content distribution. As we move to the ‘always-on’ lifestyle, consumers are demanding instant access to a growing variety of high-quality digital content and information,” said Weili Dai, Marvell’s co-founder and vice president and general manager of Marvell’s Consumer and Computing Business Unit.

“Marvell is excited to be a primary silicon platform solution provider for advanced and highly scalable solutions that will enable this digital content access anytime, anywhere and on any size screen. Through our collaboration with Skiff, we will provide consumers with more choice, more horsepower, seamless connectivity, and engaging experiences in a diverse range of smart devices.”

The Skiff RDK consists of a PCB based on Marvell’s ARMADA 166E application processor and includes an Electronic Paper Display based on E Ink’s technology.