Thread- This article/interview of a CUBE VP starts out mentioning three topics of which we have discussed quite extensively here on the LMT as drivers for network upgrades(or the other way around). Bringing the Internet to TV(in what form we really don't know yet), A-D conversion of the entertainment world, and finally broadband to the home.
This article is, of course, heavily slanted to CUBE but the general ideas apply to a lot of the companies we have discussed on the LMT that will be able to capitalize on these megatrends. -MikeM(From Florida)
PS If you are thinking about a CUBE investment, read the CUBE thread where there is a lot of negative information posted along with the postive. CUBE has a lot of competitors.
LMT- last mile technologies
A-D analog to digital conversion
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C-Cube Chips Away at Digital
By Jim Barthold
Having devoured and digested DiviCom and TV/COM, among other assorted electronics pieces, C-Cube Microsystems is ready to chip away at the digital market.
"We’re really capitalizing on three megatrends," says Patrick Henry, C-Cube’s VP-corporate development and marketing.
The first of these is the ever-growing Internet. "This is primarily through the PC, but we’re seeing over time it’s going to be a lot more prolific, definitely the set-top and other things like that," says Henry.
Next is the trend to convert everything analog into digital. "Phones are going digital," he says. "VCRs are going to DVD and, eventually, recordable DVD. The set-top box is going from analog to digital. Everything in the world is going digital."
Finally, there is broadband access to the home. "Since digital video by its nature is broadband, we’re right in the middle of that," he says.
C-Cube, he says, is leveraging its digital strengths.
"We’re No. 1 market share in DVD, No. 3 in set-top box but gaining market share – satellite, cable, terrestrial and MMDS (Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service) – and No. 1 in CODEC (Coder/ Decoder) products," he says.
These strengths cover both hardware and software, so C-Cube can "go with a pure hardware architecture that’s very cost-effective but inflexible and, on the other hand, go with a fairly programmable architecture that isn’t super cost-effective," he says.
C-Cube, Henry adds, has been in the digital business since the first DVDs were burned. The company’s digital efforts still reap huge profits from China’s CD-Video markets. By taking skillsets from DiviCom and TV/COM, C-Cube can move into the Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) box standard that’s prevalent throughout the world outside North America. C-Cube has landed contracts with DVB-based Philips, Sony, Nokia, Pioneer and Motorola set-tops.
All this experience, coupled with an emphasis on developing faster, more powerful digital CODECs, will go into devices such as digital personal video recorders (PVRs) for set-tops.
"Digital video and audio manipulation is a key factor," he says. "In our next-generation CODEC architecture, we’ll have enough DSP (digital signal processing) and video processing to do other things like voice CODECs for voice-over-IP (Internet Protocol) or voice-over-DSL (digital subscriber line) and Web browsing."
C-Cube, he says, wants to put those digital chips into as many home devices as possible.
"Longer term we see that there could be convergence into a single home media gateway and then distributed voice, video and data throughout the home," Henry says. "Right now C-Cube is focusing in the media processing space."
It is also focusing in the broadband cable space "because we see the biggest opportunity for us near term, and it plays very well to our existing set-top box strategy," he says.
Followed by DSL.
"It doesn’t make sense for us to get into the ADSL (asymmetric DSL) market that’s already pretty well established," he adds. "VDSL (very-high-speed DSL) we’re exploring to see if it makes sense as an entry point."
The chipmaker is even looking at a satellite market that is controlled almost completely by ST Microelectronics.
"It’s very commodity-oriented, so going into one-way satellite modulation space doesn’t make much sense for us," he says. If that space should move to two-way, using an advanced form of phase shift keying (PSK) modulation, "It might be interesting," he adds.
Finally, he says, C-Cube won’t shy away from home networking but will avoid the emerging Home Phone Network Alliance (HPNA) wired standard.
"We really see that as very data-centric and more PC-centric and U.S.-centric," he says. "That’s not our focus at all."
The focus, he says, is digital video.
"Now that we’re a standalone semiconductor company, we are the largest pure play in digital audio/video," he says. "The market’s fairly small, focused primarily on the broadcast and professional space, but we see there’s a huge growth opportunity by 2003." |
