Intel maps move into set-top CE with Pentium II
(09/29/97; 9:00 a.m. EDT)
By Anthony Cataldo, EE Times
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Intel has quietly discarded a
plan to build a Pentium II-based motherboard designed
for home-entertainment PCs and is turning up the
volume to some of its OEM customers on plans to use
Pentium II processors in set-top boxes running the
Windows CE operating system.
Intel representatives would not comment on either plan,
but they did reaffirm their commitment to enabling a full
range of consumer PCs from set-tops to high-end
PC-theater-class systems. The set-top move would put
the Pentium II up against a slew of embedded MPU
makers that are jostling for position in the fledgling
Internet-appliance market.
For the past year, Intel has been fashioning an
ATX-motherboard design that would integrate the
company's Pentium II processor, the 440LX chip set
and a third-party digital video-out decoder.
Code-named Hood River, the motherboard was
intended to provide the basis for a highly integrated
home-theater system.
But in recent weeks, the company canceled the Hood
River motherboard in the face of uncertain market
conditions for the high-priced systems. The OEM price
for the motherboard without the processor was slated
at about $290, which is about $100 more than most of
today's Pentium II motherboards, sources told EE
Times.
Intel officials refused comment on reports about the
Hood River product. However, Rob Siegel, manager of
Intel's family-room products and technologies group,
said Intel is still committed to a range of consumer
systems, from full-blown PC-theater systems to
"low-end, set-top computers that might offer digital-TV
broadcast tuners, Internet access, and run applets but
be less than a full PC," he said.
"We believe there will be multiple market segments in
the family room, and we want to plug in to all of them,"
Siegel added. "In any new market, some things work
and some things don't. Intel is constantly experimenting
and trying new things."
Intel formed its family-room products and technologies
group under its desktop-PC division about 18 months
ago. The group has not announced any products yet,
though it plans to do so over the next two months,
Siegel said.
"We are absolutely intent on putting together the
technologies for both [set-top and PC-theater]
platforms," said Dan Russell, director of platform
marketing.
Tomorrow, other Intel engineers will detail guidelines
for building PC-theater systems as part of a broad
PC-design conference the company has organized in
San Francisco this week. The track will discuss I/O,
power, audio, and video issues associated with building
such systems.
Intel is talking to PC vendors about using its Pentium II
as a solution for beefed up set-top boxes, also called
Internet appliances. Such a move would put Intel's
strategy more in line with that of Microsoft, which has
made a bid to populate consumers' living rooms with
WebTV boxes running Windows CE.
One of the companies considering using the Pentium II
for an upcoming line of set-top boxes is AST
Computer, which was recently acquired by Korean
electronics giant Samsung Electronics.
"(Intel) wants to put the Pentium II in everything," said
Terry Baker, director of worldwide product planning
for AST, in Irvine, Calif. "They will have a $999
Pentium II box next year. They expect set-top boxes
will come to fruition, and they want to set the standard
for it."
While Hood River embodied the fully integrated
home-theater approach, the Internet appliances are
designed to be more austere systems that would not
require users to discard their existing equipment.
"We want to give the end-users the capability to
maximize the investments they have with home TVs,
VCRs, and audio, and develop a PC appliance to
interconnect to legacy systems and allow the user to
upgrade," Baker said, adding that the fully integrated
home-theater systems are "a great technology statement
but not something you can drive into volume."
But Baker said AST has not decided whether to design
its system around the Pentium II. AST, Samsung, and
Intel are expected to discuss the possibility of using the
processor in their designs in October, he said.
Intel's thrust into set-top boxes puts the microprocessor
giant up against a gaggle of competitors peddling their
own Windows CE-compatible microprocessors,
including Hitachi's SH series, Advanced RISC
Machines, Digital's StrongARM, and possibly the
PowerPC. Most of these processors cost OEMs less
than $50 in high quantities, but Intel's Pentium II now
costs in the hundreds.
Intel plans to move Deschutes to its 0.25-micron
process technology starting in the first half of next year.
With a finer process, the company will be able to drive
up volumes, lower prices, boost speeds, and reduce
power dissipation -- all of which will open up
opportunities for the Pentium II.
The 0.25-micron manufacturing process is already well
under way, refining production yields on the
0.25-micron manufacturing process by manufacturing
200- and 233-MHz Pentium processors for portable
PCs.
Set-top box Web browsers, which so far have seen
only tepid sales, are also becoming more PC-like.
Earlier this month, WebTV Networks, in Palo Alto,
Calif., which has been acquired by Microsoft,
announced its latest WebTV box, a unit that includes a
hard drive.
-- Additional reporting by Rick Boyd--Merritt
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