Bob and Sparkle,
I believe PCFree had originally indicated they would be Wave-N*ABLing their machines by installing the HAUP boards in them. That is not to say, of course, that they have not subsequently found that their computer OEM (rumored to be NEC) will be able to deliver the Embassy functionality as part of its onboard I/O chipset on the motherboard.
Things have been very quiet concerning information indicative of the status or progress of the I/O chipmakers in integrating Wave/Embassy into their chipsets. It would seem that if the 4Q99 store-available PC's will have Wave/Embassy in the onboard I/O chipset, production product would have to be making itself available relatively soon.
While trying to remain conservative and trying to not unjustifiedly get people's hopes up, IF things have really been moving ahead silently, and IF there is some industry-wide standardization process afoot, and IF WAVE/EMBASSY-N*ABLEment is part of that development, we would be have to expect to see coordinated announcements of such relatively soon. IMHO that the further toward or into the 3rd Quarter that we go without such announcements, the less likely it is that such a standardization could be implemented for this year's holiday sales product.
I would normally be very skeptical that such could occur in time, but with Peter's industry contacts, and as evidenced by other surprise developments, we at least have a small chance of being pleasantly surprised.
It would seem that without the above, we will be on a much more gradual deployment curve through HAUP boards, smart cards, dongles, etc.
JMO
Steve |
