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To: Stoctrash who wrote (24810)	11/4/1997 5:10:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

Device bay/Firewire PC interface.................... Device Bay Ready: 1394 Trade Association to Sponsor World's First Demo in This Year's Comdex Demo Room, N246, Las Vegas Convention Center COMDEX LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS EDITORS)--Nov. 4, 1997-- To Be Featured at 1394 TA's Comdex News Conference Nov. 18 at 11 The industry's fastest-growing trade association today announced it will host the first-ever demonstration of Device Bay technology at Comdex Nov. 17-22. The 1394 Trade Association, with more than 160 members now, will host the Device Bay demonstration in room N246 in the Las Vegas Convention Center. The long-awaited demo will be fully 1394-equipped according to 1394 TA Chair Gary Hoffman, and will be accompanied in the TA room by new 1394-based technology from industry leaders such as Texas Instruments, Sony, Intel, Adaptec, Philips Electronics, IBM Microelectronics, Symbios Logic, NEC Electronics, Fujitsu and Molex. "Device Bay and IEEE 1394 will enable people to easily customize their PCs and peripherals. With Device Bay, people will be able to add peripherals like a DVD drive directly into a PC without opening, rebooting or turning off the PC," Hoffman said. "As an industry spec for 1394 peripherals, Device Bay and the standard create a perfect, complementary fit. Device Bay defines the mechanical form factor, operating system behavior and mechanism for adding PC peripherals without opening a PC chassis. IEEE 1394 provides the essential multimedia connection for commands and data." "Device Bay is the industry's most exciting new technology for the PC and digital set-top box (STB) market," said Del Whitaker, Texas Instruments' Senior Vice President of Mixed Signal and Logic Products. "Texas Instruments has been providing cost-effective 1394 solutions since 1994, and also USB since 1996. We expect Device Bay to change the way individuals purchase, use and upgrade their PCs and digital STBs, because these standards allow them to easily upgrade and reconfigure their computers." "Device Bay promises to do for the desktop what PC cards have done for notebook computing, opening the platform to numerous peripherals from many different companies," said Max Bassler, corporate marketing manager for I/O at Molex Corporation. "With 1394 as the major interface, the integration of the PC with consumer devices will follow. The physical interface is based on the internal 1394-1995 connector design with provisions for much higher speeds." Device Bay and IEEE 1394 modularity are also applicable to future digital consumer electronics packaging requirements. Similar to the interconnection of analog audio and video components with coax cables, IEEE 1394 and Device Bay may be used by their digital successors. Other companies in the 1394 TA Demo Suite include Yamaha, Phoenix Technologies, Maxtor, MacroDesigns, 3A International, and Lucent Technologies. CONTACT: IPRA Dick Davies, 415/777-4161

To: Stoctrash who wrote (24810)	11/4/1997 7:48:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Time-Warner looking to take-on HITS from TCI............................. usatoday.com Time Warner steps up digital cable race NEW YORK - Time Warner might be on a collision course with Tele-Communications Inc. to control one of the cable industry's most important new businesses - one that could affect the programming millions of subscribers will see. Time Warner says that in the first half of 1998, it will pick a group of cable channels, convert them to digital signals, and package and distribute them to local operators via satellite. That could make Time Warner a competitor of TCI in cable's fast-growing digital TV distribution business. TCI's service, called Headend in the Sky (HITS), has no major rival. The services are crucial to cable operators and subscribers. Many cable systems - hamstrung by a lack of capacity - can't provide many of the smaller and newer cable channels their customers want. But most plan soon to deploy a generation of digital cable boxes that will enable them to add dozens of channels. Those channels would come from a menu provided by HITS, or perhaps Time Warner. Indeed, Time Warner is said to have decided to launch its service partly out of concern that its own channels will be shortchanged on HITS. For example, HITS' packages, with 125 channels, provide more slots to TCI's premium channels - Encore and Starz! - than they do to HBO's services. Time Warner Cable's Michael Luftman says the company's digital transmissions initially will go just to Time Warner systems. He says Time Warner is entering the business because its systems, mostly in large cities, need different programming choices. "HITS was tailored to the channel lineup of the TCI systems," which serve smaller communities, Luftman says. Some Time Warner systems, he adds, plan to use HITS. As a result, Time Warner "is not a competitor" to HITS. But HITS does see Time Warner as a potential rival. "It's too early to say at what level," HITS chief Rich Fickle says. "I'm not even sure Time Warner knows." By David Lieberman, USA TODAY