here's something fishy: regarding the E4 release.
X-mas selling season is the key. however, E4-CUBE selection seems to be a little bit late to ship for volume. they'll probably make some low volume in time. just hopin'.
"-July 21, 1997--Furthering its position as a leader in DVD [whatever, mr. Balkanski], C-Cube Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:CUBE) today announced that E4, a leading developer of multimedia PC board products, has selected C-Cube's ZiVA DVD decoder with SecureView to drive E4's next generation of CoolDVD cards."
biz.yahoo.com
E4-MPACT release, it looks like E4 already ramped up production with MPACT processors. Why sell the next-generation products when your current inventories are not consumed yet? E4 will not likely sell through DVD cards powered by ZiVA engine until their customers are done digesting Mpact DVD inventories.
"May 27, 1997--E4 (Elecede Technologies Inc.), and Chromatic Research Inc. today announced that E4 has chosen to use Mpact media processor technology for DVD add-in cards it will sell to its PC OEM customers. E4 is also planning broader product offerings in the future that will take advantage of the software-scalable Mpact media processor."
software-scalable sounds similar to ESST's MPEG-2 decoders... perhaps, software/hardware DVD engine is a better choice afterall.
watch MPEG-2 DVD decoder turn into a commodity market by Late 1997. I will stay away from all chip makers in the DVD industry, unless they have some design pact with Intel. just my personal opinion, as you are entitled to yours. |
