Really good article on LSI :
"Intel may not make short list in set-top deal"
By Joe McGarvey
January 16, 1998 8:46 AM PST
Inter@ctive Week Online
Although the first 5 million or so digital set-top
boxes to be delivered by Tele-Communications
Inc. (TCICP) to cable subscribers will be based
on a scaled-down version of Microsoft Corp.'s
(MSFT) Windows operating system, chances
are slim that Intel Corp. (INTC), Microsoft's
longtime partner in the PC world, will supply the
processor chips.
Speculation on which companies will provide
ingredients for the more than 15 million cable
set-top boxes that NextLevel Systems Inc. (NLV)
will build for cable operators in the next few
years has turned to possible chip suppliers,
following TCI's announcement last week that
Microsoft and Sun Microsystems Inc. will
provide software for the first wave of equipment.
Although Intel has been rumored as a
front-runner for a deal that could be worth
hundreds of millions of dollars, at least one
analyst said the microprocessor giant will miss
out on the first round of contracts.
"It's most likely that those boxes won't have 'Intel
Inside' written on them," said Will Strauss, an
analyst at Forward Concepts, a semiconductor
research firm in Tempe, Ariz.
Strauss said Intel's line of microprocessors is
neither powerful nor inexpensive enough to
qualify for consideration as the main source of
power and intelligence for the new set-top
devices, which are expected to run applications
that combine Internet content and television
programming, as well as perform traditional
tasks, such as decoding massive amounts of
digital audio and video.
Even Intel's family of Pentium II chips, Strauss
said, would have to be fortified with additional
processing power to handle video and audio
decoding chores. In addition, Strauss estimated
that in order for the box to remain in the $250 to
$300 price range, the microprocessor can cost
set-top makers no more than $25.
The low end of the Pentium II family is priced at
$268, according to Tom Waldrop, Intel
spokesman.
Chip suppliers most likely to cash in
immediately on the set-top deployment are LSI
Logic Corp., Texas Instruments Inc. and VLSI
Technology Inc., all of which offer integrated
chips that could satisfy the demands of the new
digital television boxes, Strauss said.
Dick Badler, NextLevel vice president of
corporate communications, said a decision
regarding chip suppliers will likely be made in a
month or so.
zdnet.com
Mang |
