Intel has made a number of announcements at the Intel Developer Forum (currently taking place in San Francisco) which indicate that the company is thinking hard about how to spur the development of advanced television services, not least the introduction of its Atom-based CE 4100 system-on-chip processor for set-top boxes, codenamed 'Sodaville'.

The new chip is based on the Atom low-power chip that Intel hopes will eventually power the world's handheld devices and consumer electronics.  The CE 4100 is roughly half the size of its predecessor (the CE 3100) and includes a 45-nanometer Atom processor with a clock speed of up to 1.2 GHz, supporting hardware decoding of up to two high-definition 1080p video streams, as well as the latest 3D graphics and audio standards.

A major selling point of the new chip is the ability to take on an increasing number of PC-like functions, many of which are envisaged as revolving around the Internet, as well as full support of Adobe Flash 10 - allowing many existing applications to run unmodified on the television and meaning that many video sites will be be able to deliver content directly to the TV screen.  The porting of Flash Player 10 to Intel's CE media processors is expected to be completed in the first half of next year.

Another interesting announcement was made yesterday at the Intel Developer Forum by Canadian firm TransGaming, a partner of Intel which is bringing its GameTree gaming service to CE 4100-powered devices, making PC games capable of running in Linux-based Intel CE SoC environments.  Furthermore, since GameTree is cloud-based, it is "uniquely suited" to the modern and often diskless CE environment, according to US research firm The Diffusion Group.  Colin Dixon, Senior Partner at The Diffusion Group, adds that taken together, these announcements made at the Intel Developer Forum are a "powerful endorsement" for open Internet services.