Different take on Lucent. Diamond is showing a DTV chipset now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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LUCENT JOINS PC POWERS' DTV EFFORT: TELECOM FORCE WILL LEVERAGE R&D INVESTMENT IN CE-BOUND CHIPSET TO BUILD DIGITAL DESKTOPS
Extending R&D dollars into as many markets as possible, Lucent Technologies [LU] engineers will put the investment they're making in digital television (DTV) for the consumer electronics market into hardware designs for the PC industry.
Rather than take sides in the debate about whether the interlaced or progressive format is best for DTV displays, Lucent executives see their role as developing the infrastructure to support playback of DTV on many future platforms.
Last week the company announced plans to work with Compaq Computer Corp. [CPQ], Intel Corp. [INTC] and Microsoft Corp. [MSFT] to build DTV products that will make it possible for PCs to receive and broadcast the technology.
"We have been a member of the grand alliance, and we're really trying to facilitate the digital TV marketplace by supporting both market areas," said Tony Grewe, manager of application strategy for Lucent's microelectronics group. "We're going to reuse the knowledge that we have, and try to optimize that for different product categories."
Those R&D efforts will first appear in a chipset jointly developed with Mitsubishi Electric Corp. Lucent is working with Mitsubishi on a 5-chip module, which consists of a demodulator, demultiplexer, image decoder, audio decoder and display processor. The chipset will receive, display and broadcast DTV in set-top receivers and ultimately be sold to TV manufacturers for inclusion in their products.
On the PC side, Lucent DTV products will range from reference designs for add-in cards, to chips that are sold in DTV upgrade kits by manufacturers, to OEM chipsets sold directly to PC makers.
"We're investigating partial decoders that would ensure the [PC] screens wouldn't go black no matter what is being transmitted, and the signal would be optimized to a 480 p format," Grewe said.
Lead on Competitors
As the first modem manufacturer to meet Microsoft's PC 97 specifications, the company already has a very good knowledge of the software company's architecture and may have a head start on other chip makers seeking to build DTV components for the PC.
Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc. [DIMD] already has received inquiries from OEM PC manufacturers about DTV upgrade kits and the company plans to sell boards for digital TV as soon as chips are available, said Ken Wirt, Diamond's vice president of marketing.
Grewe said products will differ depending on if they will be used in a traditional desktop PC or a PC-TV.
"We'll probably come at this a little differently depending on the display size," he said.
The addition of Lucent - a cross-industry and seemingly neutral player - to DTV efforts for the PC might be just the rallying force Compaq, Intel and Microsoft need to gain support for their DTV efforts (see MMW, April 7, p.1 and April 14, p.8). The Team was greeted with a less-than-enthusiastic reception from broadcasters at NAB in April and toned back its "we can get more eyeballs than you can" stance when it made its DTV pitch to an audience of European broadcasters in Montreux, Switzerland, in June. The companies have made little noise about DTV since.
PC Connections
Through sales of its K56 modems, Lucent has OEM relationships with leading PC manufacturers including Compaq, IBM Corp. [IBM], Sony Electronics Inc. and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc. And the company plans to leverage those inroads for DTV sales.
"We already work with a lot of these companies, and we're going to capitalize on that," Grewe said.
He believes knowledge of the PCs infrastructure, combined with work on the joint Mitsubishi chipset will help Lucent accelerate DTV efforts so that PC manufacturers can bring products to market in late 1998.
Despite Microsoft's history of delaying new operating systems might make a late 1998 goal unrealistic, Grewe held firm to the date, implying that Lucent has the technical know-how to make DTV on the PC a reality.
"We have a significant time to market advantage, and that is measured in quarters, not in months or weeks," he said. (Lucent, 800/372-2447.) |
