Related news: Conexant and Liberate to Bring Complete Digital Set-Top Box Platforms to
Market; Combined Solution to Speed Time-to-Market for Network Operators
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. and SAN CARLOS, Calif., Oct 30, 2000 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Conexant Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNXT) and Liberate Technologies (Nasdaq:LBRT)
Monday announced they will collaborate to develop a next-generation set-top box
platform for telephone companies and for satellite, terrestrial and cable
operators.
By providing a complete, end-to-end solution in early 2001, the new platform
architecture will enable more affordable products and will accelerate how
quickly network operators can introduce new interactive services to consumers.
The new reference design will integrate Conexant's set-top box devices with
Liberate's TV Platform(TM) software to enable emerging interactive applications
such as interactive television, Web browsing, e-commerce and personal video
recording (PVR).
As part of the collaboration, the two companies will integrate the Liberate TV
Navigator(TM) client software and Conexant's chipsets for digital satellite,
cable and terrestrial set-top boxes. In addition to collaborating on technology
development, Conexant and Liberate will pursue joint marketing and sales
initiatives to build and support market demand for the new set-top box platform.
The collaboration supports a new industry paradigm in which silicon
manufacturers and software developers are working directly with network
operators to define future standards for digital cable and other interactive
services.
"We are pleased to strengthen this relationship with Conexant, and to leverage
their industry-leading semiconductor communications technologies for interactive
TV and set-top platforms," said Charlie Tritschler, vice president of marketing
for Liberate Technologies.
"Together, Liberate and Conexant are addressing the needs of network operators,
hardware manufacturers and consumers for the latest interactive features at
affordable prices."
"Liberate's middleware solutions are an ideal complement to Conexant's IC
portfolio and the powerful system processor in Conexant's CX22490 interactive TV
decoder device," said Dan Marotta, vice president and general manager of
Conexant's digital infotainment division.
"Our combined solution will raise the bar for set-top box performance and
functionality, and will bring a new generation of fully featured set-top devices
within the reach of mainstream consumers for the first time."
Conexant's comprehensive set-top box IC portfolio includes silicon tuners and
demodulators, a single-chip programmable cable modem, dial-up and digital
subscriber line (DSL) modems, home-networking technologies and single-chip,
back-end solutions with a high-performance CPU, 2D rendering engine, MPEG-2
audio/video decoder and programmable demultiplexer.
These products enable set-top box platforms that support widely adopted digital
cable, satellite television and digital terrestrial television broadband
communications standards, including direct broadcast satellite (DBS), coded
orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM), Data Over Cable Service
Interface Specification (DOCSIS), EuroDOCSIS, digital video broadcast (DVB) and
Digital Audio Video Council (DAVIC).
The Liberate TV Platform software enables cable, satellite and telecommunication
companies to deliver applications that integrate the Web's interactivity with
the richness of TV-based content.
Using open Internet and international broadcast standards, Liberate provides an
efficient client (Liberate TV Navigator) and server (Liberate Connect(TM))
platform that combines the best of both the Internet and television into one
compelling, interactive medium-enhanced TV.
Liberate enables a range of services and applications from interactive
advertising and gaming, to chat and e-mail, to enhanced programming. |
