re: Intel cancelling their SoftDVD solution...
Just a month ago they were touting it. Now it's gone.
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techweb.com
Intel Tries To Fuel Soft DVD Implementations
(04/17/98; 6:57 p.m. EST) By Anthony Cataldo, EE Times
SAN FRANCISCO - In an effort to fuel demand for its fastest processors as it faces falling margins and weak demand, Intel is quietly offering PC makers a software DVD decoder optimized to run on its newest Pentium II processors without the need for a hardware MPEG-2 decoder.
Intel's decision to distribute the decoder coincides with the introduction of its 440-BX chip set, which provides the underlying system-bandwidth boost for such memory-intensive applications as DVD.
Though Intel has long touted the benefits of software-only DVD on the desktop, it is only with the recent introduction of its 350- and 400-MHz Pentium II processors and BX chipset that a system could provide the horsepower to decode DVD's MPEG-2 video streams without dropping frames or overwhelming the processor.
Running DVD on a system with a 400-MHz Pentium II processor at 100-MHz system-bus speeds consumes about 60 percent of the CPU's processor power, leaving it sufficient headroom to run other applications without dropping frames. Running a 300-MHz Pentium II on the 66-MHz system bus, by contrast, requires all the CPU's processing power to decode the DVD, an Intel spokesman said.
Much of the performance improvement is enabled by the company's 440-BX chip set, which increases system bandwidth to 100 MHz and provides a more sophisticated buffering and arbitration scheme to manage CPU traffic. The chip set alone is claimed to provide a 20 percent to 50 percent boost in overall system performance, favoring memory-intensive applications.
"This is where you move from hardware-assisted [DVD] to software," said Avtar Saini, vice president and general manager of Intel. "A 400-MHz processor running on a 66-MHz system bus would have been choked."
The software DVD decoder is a product of Intel's Architecture Labs, the division that is responsible for developing and promoting new applications for the PC. Architecture Labs has provided other software products in the past for such functions as videoconferencing and early video decoding.
Still, the move is unusual. In the past, Microsoft has traditionally taken on the role of incorporating video decoders in its operating system, as it did when it included the MPEG-1 decoder it licensed from Mediamatics for its Windows 95 operating system.
There is also the question of why Intel would develop its own software MPEG-2 decoder for DVDs, since several other companies, such as Zoran and ATI Technologies, provide the same type of software.
One reason may be that Intel sensed an acute urgency to promote software DVD in order to provide a compelling application for its fastest and most expensive microprocessors. Intel recently logged a drop in first-quarter profits, citing unusually high inventories and a reduction in the average selling price of its processors.
On the software DVD front, Intel will get little help from Microsoft because the initial version of Windows 98 will not be equipped with the Media Player software module that will include a software DVD decoder. Instead, Media Player will ship with future versions of the operating system and Windows NT, said John Paddleford, program manager for Microsoft.
At its recent product launch of its new Celeron Pentium II processor, Intel spent much of its time touting new applications for its most advanced processors, from jazzy 3-D charts to "enhanced DVD" movies, played back to Microsoft's Chrome API for viewing 3-D images on the Internet. Intel also demonstrated a home shopping application running on a system based on its 266-MHz Celeron processor.
Intel aims to enable more "aware" applications for a new class of professional PCs that would be able, for example, to run a virus check, download "push" data from the Internet, perform on-the-fly encryption/decryption and compress and decompress data streams, all at the same time, said Paul Otellini, executive vice president of Intel's Architecture Business Group.
"In the past, we've identified the power users in a corporation, but now we're seeing that the very speed of business is turning us all into power users," Otellini said. "The problem is that too many times we're slowed down by the features of the software. You can now have an environment called constant computing." |
