Sony Eyes Entry Into OpenCable Race......................
multichannel.com
By FRED DAWSON
Sony Electronics Corp.'s semiconductor group believes that it has found a way to enter the OpenCable sweepstakes with a hardware architecture that can be leveraged across many other platforms, as well.
The group, part of Sony Electronics Co. of America, is developing a QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) chip to round out the suite of chips necessary for OpenCable applications, said Vishwanath Nayak, the group's director of marketing for consumer audio/video digital products.
The other chip components in the system architecture -- including an MPEG-2 decoder chip and a two-chip tuner chip set -- are already complete, putting the company on track to compete for the OEM (original-equipment manufacturer) business across the set-top-manufacturing sector.
The key attraction in Sony's approach is the fact that the core hardware components work with software interfaces that allow them to be used in a wide range of consumer-electronics products. These include DVD (digital versatile disk) players, satellite receivers and multiple types of set-tops, including the European DVB (digital video broadcast) model, Nayak said.
"We're using a very distributed-architecture approach, where new features can be added in hardware as customer requirements evolve," he said. "As long as customers program to our APIs [applications program interfaces], they don't have to worry about changes in hardware, which keeps their investments to a minimum."
The company has devised an embedded, real-time operating-system kernel, known as the "NanoOS," to manage operations within each chip. An API, or set of software protocols in the NanoOS, allows the individual chips to interact with the primary processor of the set-top to perform tasks in compliance with the OpenCable protocols, or with whatever other system protocols are in use.
These software controls allow for tight integration of data feeds from different sources and mixing of applications in whatever ways the overall system design calls for, Nayak explained.
For example, synchronizing a video stream from the cable-programming side with an online feed and coordinating ad insertion and graphic displays between the two streams can be done through this modular approach, rather than requiring manufacturers to design chips to support this level of integration.
The NanoOS approach supports interoperability with multiple types of operating systems in the central processor and multiple middleware architectures. It also allows much of the add-on functionality features associated with MPEG decoding and other chip tasks that have traditionally been provided by the host CPU (central processing unit) in the set-top to be performed within the individual chips, thereby freeing up additional processing power in the CPU, Nayak noted.
"Any digital set-top box design can be implemented quickly by using consistent APIs and the NanoOS customization capabilities," he added.
Distributed-architectural approaches to digital set-tops are not new, having been part of the original Silicon Graphics Inc. MIPS design in the boxes developed for Time Warner Cable's Full Service Network project in Orlando, Fla.
Now, Scientific-Atlanta Inc. is making use of the distributed-architecture concept in conjunction with Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Microsparc CPU in its Explorer 2000 boxes.
"We use our hardware graphics accelerator not only for the graphics requirements, but also to off-load some of the specific communications-processing requirements from the CPU," said Bill Wall, chief scientist for digital technology at S-A.
NextLevel Systems Inc. -- notwithstanding the fact that Sony is a new partner in NextLevel -- will be branding its boxes as Sony boxes for retail distribution.
But Sony's creation of Digital Network Solutions of America as a unit with Sony Electronics clearly doesn't hurt the semiconductor unit's chances of becoming a supplier for the new boxes.
The DNSA unit closely integrates the activities within Sony Electronics with DNSA's parent unit, which is the new Digital Network Solutions Co. that oversees digital-network-related businesses and, as such, that is the point group in the working relationship between NextLevel and Sony.
NextLevel will be building the boxes to the specifications developed by Tele-Communications Inc., which has said that its design will be OpenCable-compliant. Handling all of the potential service applications that the MSO has in mind within low-cost parameters will require innovative hardware architecture, as well as high-performing software to free up the processing power of the CPU to maximum advantage.
"OpenCable is a very volatile spec at this point, with a lot of elements unclear," Nayak said. "With TCI pushing ahead, its approach could become the reference design that everybody builds to." |
