What are your thoughts on this article, lifted from RB:
ragingbull.com
Sony 1394 chips could boost DTCP
encryption scheme
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
(05/27/99, 1:43 p.m. EDT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a move to end the continuing copy-protection
debate over digital interfaces for consumer appliances, Sony Electronics
this summer will roll out IEEE-1394 chips that secure the transmission
of digital audio and video content. The chips could give an edge to the
digital transmission content protection (DTCP) scheme over the rival
extended conditional access (XCA) approach.
Semiconductor divisions of Japan's two consumer-electronics giants —
Sony Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. — each launched
their own DTCP-enabled IEEE-1394 chips in Japan last year. But
Sony's announcement of the CXD-3204 and CXD-3205 versions of its
IEEE-1394 chips will mark the company's full-fledged introduction of
DTCP-enabled IEEE-1394 devices in the United States.
The consumer-electronics industry remains split over competing
encryption schemes for digital interfaces. Zenith Electronics Corp.,
which along with Thomson Consumer Electronics is heading one group
of manufacturers fighting over the digital-encryption interface, favors the
smart-card-based renewable encryption scheme called XCA. The other
group, led by Sony, favors DTCP's encryption-based IEEE-1394 link
layer.
With the emergence of Sony's DTCP-enabled 1394 chips, many
industry sources predict the market may finally start solidifying around
that interface to connect digital cable or satellite set-tops, VCRs, DVD
players and PCs to DTV sets. This development could come as early as
Christmas.
"Sony has the first-move advantage," said Jay Srivatsa, senior industry
analyst at Dataquest (San Jose, Calif.), a market research firm. "The
new DTCP-enabled chips will essentially remove the last stumbling
block for the digital-interface debate."
"The presence of a real solution available today is a quantum leap in the
course of the digital-interface debates," said Jodie Hughes, general
manager and senior vice president of the semiconductor business
division at Sony Electronics.
Mark Kirstein, vice president of research at In-Stat Group (Scottsdale,
Ariz.), agreed. "I think XCA is significantly behind in development
compared to DTCP. I don't expect to see any XCA production boxes
this year."
Sony's devices are a single-chip IEEE-1394 controller solution that
integrate DTCP technology in the link layer with the physical layer.
Designed for use in digital set-top terminals and other digital appliances,
the chips support the DTCP-based, secure, two-way transmission of
digital content across the IEEE interface at speeds of up to 200
Mbits/second.
At a time when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is
urging the industries to come to an agreement on compatibility between
DTV service provided by cable and other video distribution services
and consumer-electronics equipment, Sony's chips could play a critical
role in determining the future of digital interfaces that connect a DTV
with a set-top box.
The DTCP is a specification that defines a cryptographic protocol to
protect audio/video entertainment content from illegal copying,
interception and tampering as the content traverses such
high-performance digital buses as IEEE 1394. Developed by five
companies known as the 5Cs — Hitachi Ltd., Intel Corp., Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co., Sony and Toshiba Corp. — the technology is
available for licensing in two forms. The "use license" is for system
OEMs and the "development intellectual-property license" is for
semiconductor companies. Sony has added DTCP's IP-based
encryption/decryption block to its IEEE-1394 chips.
The CXD-3204, supporting two ports, and the CXD-3205 with three
ports, are designed to allow a single chip to control multiple IEEE-1394
interfaces. Both chips encrypt and decrypt digital content in real-time
with no load on the consumer appliance's microprocessor. Samples of
the CXD-3204 and CXD-3205 are priced at $25 and $30
respectively. Volume shipments are slated for August.
With companies such as AT&T, an emerging cable power, planning to
deploy millions of digital set-tops next year, it appears that the cable
industry's consensus is also forming around the 5C scheme. "I don't see
a solution [to the copy-protection problem] besides 5C," said Laurie
Schwartz Priddy, senior vice president for advanced technology at
AT&T Broadband & Internet Services.
Sony's IEEE-1394 chips are based on the "proven design" of Sony's
CXD-3201R, a separate link layer chip with a DTCP
encryption/decryption feature, launched in Japan late last year,
according to Sony's Hughes. That chip was designed into Sony's
SkyPerfect TV digital set-tops, Hughes said.
There are other notable features to the new chips. By integrating the link
layer and the physical layer in a single-chip IEEE-1394 controller, each
new version of the chip is offered in a compact low-voltage package.
Another important element is that the solutions support isochronous data
transfer. "This is absolutely essential to manage a live video transmission
reliably, offering as high a level of performance as possible," said
Hughes.
Sony is thinking ahead by anticipating that its new IEEE-1394 chips will
be used in home servers or advanced set-tops functioning as a gateway
or bridge to the home-network applications. Each chip is designed to
handle simultaneous transfer of two isochronous signals. Thus, when the
chip is used in home servers, for example, it can allow for simultaneous
recording and playback, or simultaneous playback of two signals.
Multiple ports made available on the chips also enable connection to
multiple appliances to form a home network. The CXD-3205 device
with three ports, for example, could function more as a master controller
in the home network, said Hughes.
The CXD-3204, meanwhile, incorporates both parallel and serial
input/outputs for MPEG transport streams, making it functional for
digital set-tops and other applications.
Both CXD-3205 and CXD-3204 integrate the IEC958 audio interface,
previously known as the Sony-Philips Digital Interface.
—Additional reporting by George Leopold
Oliver |
