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From CNET:
The Hughes box will be powered by an Intel Pentium MMX processor while the Philips box will contain a MediaGX processor from National Semiconductor.
AOL lights up with TV deals
By Sandeep Junnarkar
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
May 11, 1999, 11:05 a.m. PT
Internet service provider America Online today announced four partnerships to help develop its AOL TV services.
The partnerships are with DirecTV, Hughes Network Systems, Philips Electronics, and Network Computer (NCI).
As previously reported, the online giant hopes that its AOL TV product will bring interactivity to the television experience while extending AOL services through television.
AOL also is planning to release non-PC devices such as screen phones to allow people to connect to the Internet.
DirecTV is the country's leading digital television service provider, with more than 7 million subscribers. The company will collaborate with AOL on a new service that combines digital satellite television programming from DirecTV with AOL TV's interactive television Internet service.
Philips Electronics, a provider of set-top boxes, will produce an advanced set-top box enabled for AOL TV.
The Hughes box will be powered by an Intel Pentium MMX processor while the Philips box will contain a MediaGX processor from National Semiconductor. The design win for National can be seen as a validation of the company's strategy, announced last week, under which National said it would get rid of its PC processor business to concentrate on "system-on-a-chip" processors like the Media GX, which integrate graphics and modem functions into the same piece of silicon as the processor "brain."
The selection of these chips also will likely give some additional life to the argument that processors built around the Intel "X86" architecture will find a home inside set-top boxes. So far, the dominant players in this segment are companies like MIPS, whose chips are built around a RISC-based architecture. National and other companies, however, have said that the X86 chips are a better choice because they are compatible with most existing PC software.
AOL added that the technologies provide an open Internet platform scalable to support additional information appliances that will be developed in the future.
The company said the set-top boxes will be connected to AOL through built-in 56K modems over standard phone lines and will be enabled for digital subscriber line (DSL) connectivity as well.
"As consumers want to extend that interactive experience to connected non-PC devices, we will continue to deliver [our services] as connected interactivity becomes available on platforms like the television," AOL president Bob Pittman said in a statement.
Shares of AOL surged in afternoon trading, climbing 8.13 percent, or 10.44 points, to 138.75. The stock also got a boost after Morgan Stanley Dean Witter's influential Internet analyst Mary Meeker raised AOL's outlook to "strong buy" from "outperform."
AOL already is scheduled to roll out DSL with regional phone companies Bell Atlantic and SBC Communications. Analysts agree that it is still too early to tell which access technology--cable, wireless, DSL, or satellite--will emerge as the winner in providing broadband services. |
