Compaq and Matsushita (Panasonic) build HDTV boards for PCs. Is CUBE on board???????????????
eet.com
Matsushita, Compaq develop DTV boards for PCs
By Yoshiko Hara
EE Times
(11/13/98, 11:14 a.m. EDT)
TOKYO — Compaq Computer Corp. and
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. have jointly
developed a pair of high-definition digital TV
(HDTV) tuner/decoder boards that will enable all
digital and analog TV signals to be shown on a PC
display. The boards will be demonstrated at
Panasonic's booth at Comdex Fall '98 in Las
Vegas next week.
The tuner/decoder solution consists of two boards.
The tuner board can receive and pass both digital
formats defined by the Advanced Television
System Committee (ATSC), as well as NTSC
analog TV signals. The signals are transmitted over
a PCI bus. The video decoder board can decode
digital TV signals in all 18 ATSC formats, and
downconvert them to 480p or 480i for display
over a VIP-2 port. Both boards are full-sized,
PCI-based cards.
The boards combine Matsushita's digital TV
technology with Compaq's PC interfaces to create
what the companies call the first decoder that can
handle all TV formats for the U.S. market.
Matsushita Electronics Components Co. Ltd.
(Osaka, Japan), the component manufacturing arm
of Matsushita, will begin to make the board in
volume starting next April, with a start-up capacity
of 10,000 units a month. The volume is planned to
be ramped to 50,000 units a month within one
year.
Panasonic Industrial Co. (Secaucus, N.J.), a
division of Matsushita Electric Corp. of America,
will initially market the boards on an OEM basis to
industry, including PC vendors, broadcasters,
content creation studios and content developers.
Samples of the two-board set will be available for
about $6,700 in December.
Matsushita said it expects to offer the boards to
OEMs for less than $1,000 after it reaches volume
production. |
