This is cool and was the kind of thing I was hoping (am hoping)
LSI can come up with one of these days since it plays to a lot
of LSI's markets (and presumably strengths) [a good way
for Mr. LSI to build the new PlayStation as well???]:
Motorola to Unveil New Home-Entertainment System
Schaumburg, Illinois, Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Motorola Inc., the largest U.S. wireless-phone maker, said it will unveil a consumer-electronics product tomorrow that will revolutionize interactive home entertainment and bring in several hundred million dollars in revenue.
Motorola will demonstrate its ''Blackbird'' multimedia architecture, which it says will set a new standard for television set-top box technology. The product combines a number of functions, including DVD, video conferencing, high-speed Internet access, 3D-video gaming and digital TV reception.
The rollout of the ''Blackbird'' platform comes as Motorola seeks to bolster its semiconductor business by developing systems that include its chips. The new system will compete for a piece of the $10.5 billion market for multimedia technology projected by 2000.
''This is the home-entertainment hub,'' said Ray Burgess, vice president and assistant general manager of Motorola's consumer systems group. ''Our expectation is to drive a multibillion business out of the technologies we are putting into this product.''
Motorola is making the technology available through set-top boxes, and by selling motherboards or components and software. Potential customers include consumer-electronic manufacturers, cable and satellite TV companies, and telephone companies.
Market Acceptance
''It sounds like it has a lot of capabilities, but the open question remains applications, distribution and consumer adoption,'' said Larry Marcus, a BT Alex. Brown analyst who follows set-top box makers General Instrument Corp. and Scientific-Atlanta Inc.
Adoption of the product by cable television and distributors of set-top boxes will be crucial for its success, Marcus said.
''The core capabilities that they are offering are extremely attractive, and really resemble what the set-top box producers are aiming to create,'' he said.
Blackbird may be more attractive than the current generation of set-top boxes because it couples Motorola's PowerPC central- processing unit with the Project X media processor from VM Labs that it's manufacturing under license, Burgess said. The CPU can be reprogrammed through downloads from a cable TV system or from a telephone company, while the Project X architecture provides graphics and video-processing capabilities.
''We've got the capability and flexibility to handle almost any kind of audio, video and graphical streams that go into it,'' Burgess said. The system is also capable of routing data to personal computers or shows to another entertainment device, he said.
Moreover, Motorola believes the Blackbird set-top boxes may be a groundbreaking proposition for cable TV companies that buy boxes for their customers. Consumers may buy the Blackbird box for its DVD or 3-D gaming capabilities and find they can use the box for a modem or cable programming.
The set-top's retail prices most likely will be in the $300 to $500 range, Motorola said. Production is set to start later this year.
UniView Technologies Corp. already has signed up to integrate the technology into its Internet and entertainment system, and will have Motorola manufacture the set-top systems for Uniview deployment.
''It really has incredible graphic capabilities,'' said Tom O'Mara, UniView vice president of sales and marketing.
Companies contributing to the project include Spyglass Inc., which is providing Web-browser and server technology, and Microware Systems Corp., which is supplying an operating system.
Motorola fell 1/4 to 41 3/8.
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