ATI Demonstrates Set-Top-Wonder(TM) design for the next generation of cable
set-top boxes
ATI joins TI at the Western Cable Show in enabling enhanced television
and Internet services
TORONTO, Dec. 14 /CNW/ - Highlighting the next-generation of cable
set-top boxes, ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT), the world's
largest manufacturer of graphics chips and boards, will demonstrate its
set-top box at the cable industry's Western Cable Show in Los Angeles. The
Set-top-Wonder(TM), jointly developed with DSP market leader Texas Instruments
(TI), integrates TI's low-cost PCI-based DOCSIS cable modem and ATI's set-top
reference design. The Set-top-Wonder will be available at CableNET(TM) '99
December 15-17.
The Set-top-Wonder will enable all the benefits of high-speed data over
HFC (hybrid fiber coaxial) to the end user, while minimizing equipment costs
for cable modem vendors and installation costs for multiple system operators
(MSO).
``The Set-top-Wonder is a highly interactive reference design that
requires uncompromising performance from the front-end components,' said
Daniel Eiref, ATI's director of set-top box marketing. ``We searched the world
for the very best cable modem technology to use in our reference design and we
are partnering with TI because of their leadership technology. ATI graphics &
video chips and TI cable modems each represent best-in-class products.'
``The combination of TI and ATI silicon will dramatically enhance the
television experience provided by the next-generation of set-top boxes,' notes
Eric Dewannain, general manager, TI's Cable Broadband Communications group.
``Set-top-Wonder combined with our low-cost cable modem will usher in a new era
of cable-ready TV's and PC's with the ability to deliver fast Internet access,
IP telephony and video conferencing capabilities.'
The ATI Set-top-Wonder provides a platform from which consumer
electronics original end-equipment manufacturers (OEM) can develop low-cost,
set-top boxes. This reference design incorporates ATI's RAGE(TM) graphics chips
for 2D and 3D graphics, MPEG-2 decoding, and video decode and encode. Also
included in the reference design are a high performance MIPS CPU, a 10GB hard
disk for video and internet storage, and the Microsoft Windows CE operating
system. The reference design also provides standard I/O busses such as USB,
EIDE, serial, parallel, IR, and others.
ATI's RAGE components easily provide the world's most powerful set-top
graphics subsystem. ATI's graphics chips allow 16 or 32-bit full-color
graphics to be displayed at resolutions of up to 1920x1080 and to be alpha
blended with video on a per-pixel basis. Video-in-a-window, 3D manipulation
of video, and infinite graphics planes allow the utmost flexibility in user
interface design. Video quality is ensured through the use of hardware
flicker filters, deinterlacing support, line doublers, and advanced multi-tap
scalers.
The Set-top-Wonder is an ideal platform for OEMs designing a variety of
consumer electronics devices including cable, satellite, and terrestrial
set-top boxes, digital VCRs, and other devices requiring a high degree of
interactivity or graphics/video performance.
The Cable Modem software has been retargeted to the Windows CE operating
system and has been specially designed to utilize the CPU native to the CEPC
(Windows CE over a PC). TI's proof of concept will lead the low-cost
revolution by incorporating its advanced digital signal processing
technologies into the silicon. Some of the key TI features that will make this
application practicable include ultra-fast channel acquisition time,
interference rejection and low power consumption. |
