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C-Cube's Glueless Interface to Intel740 AGP Broadens Market Opportunity for High Quality DVD Playback
Business Wire - February 17, 1998 08:38
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Intel Developer's Forum
Leading OEMs STB, Diamond Multimedia, Real 3D and ASUSTek Adopt
Glueless Interface between C-Cube's ZiVA and the Intel740 Graphics
Chip
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 17, 1998--
C-Cube Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ:CUBE), the market leader in digital video compression, today announced it has worked closely with Intel to develop a DVD daughtercard design for Intel740-based 2D/3D graphics boards.
The design, Chelsea-I, is based on C-Cube's ZiVA(tm) chip and is the first hardware DVD solution that is glueless to the Intel740. By enabling Chelsea-I to work seamlessly with the Intel graphics chip, OEMs can now offer hardware DVD performance at less than half the cost of previous implementations.
Leading providers of graphics accelerator cards and motherboards, including STB, Diamond Multimedia, Real 3D and ASUSTek are adopting C-Cube's ZiVA chip for DVD daughtercards and add-in boards to interface with their Intel740-based products.
Best-of-Breed Technologies Paired for High Performance DVD, 2D and 3D This announcement pairs the best-of-breed qualities of C-Cube's ZiVA DVD decoder chip and the Intel740 graphics chip. ZiVA provides uncompromised and secure DVD video playback while the Intel740 provides unmatched 2D and 3D graphics performance. The glueless interface allows audio/video data to be decoded by C-Cube's ZiVA DVD chip and passed fluidly to the Intel processor for scaling and display.
"DVD offers consumers a compelling video and audio experience on the PC," notes Jeff Bader, Director of System Integration with Intel's Platform Components Division. "C-Cube delivers crisp image and sound quality with ZiVA. Together, C-Cube and Intel have engineered a clean interface between our two devices for a powerful and cost-effective DVD implementation that complements the 3D and 2D capabilities of the Intel740 graphics accelerator."
Low-Cost Enables Hardware DVD on Sub-Zero PCs and Above "Many companies have offered an argument for reducing the cost of PC DVD with host-based playback," comments Andy Fischer, senior analyst with Jon Peddie Associates of Tiburon, CA. "By cooperating with Intel to deliver a low-cost hardware decoder option for Intel's graphics chip, C-Cube is furthering the opportunity for infiltration of high-performance hardware DVD solutions throughout the PC industry."
"Previously, it was cost-prohibitive for OEMs to add best-of-class hardware DVD playback to consumer level PC products," says Clint Chao, Senior Director of C-Cube's PC/Encoder Division. "With ZiVA and Chelsea-I, OEM's can now integrate uncompromised DVD quality at a minimal incremental cost, making hardware DVD viable even for segment zero PC's."
Market-Leading Graphics Board Vendors Leverage C-Cube Technology STB, Diamond Multimedia, Real 3D and ASUSTek and are leveraging C-Cube's Chelsea-I design to add hardware DVD capability to their Intel740-based products. The glueless interface makes it easy for these organizations to offer hardware DVD playback on their boards.
"This cooperation makes it easy for us to offer hardware DVD playback on our graphics cards that incorporate Intel740 graphics," notes David Watkins, vice president and general manager of the multimedia division at Diamond Multimedia. "When we launch our Intel740-based accelerators, our customers will immediately benefit from C-Cube's technology with the ability to play back the visual content of DVD movies, interactive games, educational recordings and corporate titles."
"ZiVA provides ASUSTek a powerful hardware DVD solution for ASUS AGP-V2740BX Intel740-based product lines and other product lines slated for DVD upgrade," notes HC Hung, Associate Vice President, R&D4, ASUSTek Computer Inc. Taipei, Taiwan. "Futhermore, with its secure, consistent and smooth video, ASUS' hardware DVD solution will be a very good alternative for customers who may have otherwise compromised with Software DVD."
Benefits of the Chelsea-I Daughter Card
With ZiVA, PC OEMs can deliver products with full DVD compliance and home-theater quality audio and video to leverage the full DVD experience on a PC. ZiVA has an advanced microcode programmable architecture to enable new, interactive features, such as pan, zoom, frame-accurate play, pause and slow motion that enrich the DVD playback experience.
ZiVA is the only DVD decoder in volume production to integrate SecureView(tm) integrated CSS copy protection circuitry for a tamper-resistant DVD solution.
The Chelsea-I daughtercard design includes C-Cube's navigation application and a software developer kit (SDK) that lets users easily maneuver from scene to scene in interactive movies and games. By allowing users to navigate through DVD games as well as other titles, consumers can enjoy true interactivity, a feature only achieved with hardware-based DVD solutions. OEMs can easily customize the navigator software to obtain their own 'look and feel' user interface.
Benefits of Intel740 Card
The Intel740 introduced new technologies to balance performance of compute-intensive graphical data-types across the Pentium(R) II platform. The Intel740 is optimized for the Pentium II processor's advanced floating point engine and the 440LZX's AGP capabilities to deliver the best performance graphics for new generation 3D titles. It also incorporates fast 2D graphics acceleration. With C-Cube's Chelsea-I designed into Intel740 boards, users also gain the benefits smooth, hardware-accelerated video playback at a low incremental cost to the system.
Availability
The Chelsea-I DVD daughter card is available to OEMs from C-Cube and Intel immediately.
About C-Cube Microsystems
C-Cube Microsystems Inc. is the industry leader in the development and delivery of highly integrated digital video silicon solutions that address the consumer electronics, communications and convergence markets. C-Cube is headquartered in Milpitas, California with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. Its stock is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol CUBE. C-Cube can be reached at 408/490-8000 or on the World Wide Web at c-cube.com.
Note to Editors: ZiVA, C-Cube and the C-Cube logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of C-Cube Microsystems Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
CONTACT: C-Cube Microsystems
Molly McCarthy, 408/490-8017
molly.mccarthy@c-cube.com
or
Mary Giani, 408/490-8628
mary.giani@c-cube.com |
