Intel's Timna, reportedly not due out until next year, has a competitor today:
NSM has lead-time on design-wins.
Amy J
National Semi to unveil system-on-a-chip for set-top boxes
BY TOM QUINLAN
Mercury News Staff Writer
National Semiconductor Corp. will introduce its first system-on-a-chip product today, a low-cost, highly integrated processor specifically designed for use in set-top boxes.
The Santa Clara-based company declined to comment on today's introduction, but sources familiar with the company's plans said the product, the first of a planned family of Intelligent Information Appliance chips, is based largely on the MediaGX microprocessor design the company acquired when it bought Cyrix Corp. two years ago.
National's design will combine a number of features traditionally provided by multiple chips onto one single piece of silicon, making it possible for companies to build smaller, less expensive products that typically require less power.
The company's first such product -- designed for use in set-top boxes that enable services such as pay-per-view movies through cable television -- will add an MPEG decoder to a MediaGX chip, which already included such features as an integrated graphics chip and the external connections that usually require separate chips. MPEG is the standard way of compressing video so that it can be transmitted across cable lines, or over the Internet.
National launched its drive to create a system-on-a-chip business in 1997, when it acquired microprocessor manufacturer Cyrix. That effort was called into question when National decided to drop the microprocessor portion of the Cyrix product line -- which was subsequently sold to Via Technologies Inc. -- in order to concentrate on digital appliances such as set-top boxes and digital cameras.
While a number of companies have expressed interest in the system-on-a-chip business recently -- including Intel Corp. -- observers said the product being introduced by National today would be a strong contender in that emerging market.
''It's a very elegant, low-cost design,'' one source said. ''I think a lot of companies will be interested in it.''
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Contact Tom Quinlan at tquinlan@sjmercury.com or (408) 271-3667.
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