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To: DiViT who wrote (28149)	1/15/1998 7:12:00 PM
From: let	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

I did not say "any short covering"... I don't think we have seen the real short squeeze yet.

To: DiViT who wrote (28149)	1/15/1998 9:16:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

The overwhelming popularity of VCD............................... nikkeibp.com Keith Chan, Beijing VCD Demand Underlines Multimedia Need In China, the overwhelming popularity of video compact disk (VCD) over the past year indicates that there is strong hidden demand for multimedia entertainment among Chinese families. Seeing this potential, Chinese personal computers (PC) makers and software developers are working hard to penetrate this largely unexplored market. PC makers are adding more multimedia functions into their PCs and trying to make PCs as easy to use as household appliances; while the software developers are testing the market with new CD-ROM categories and titles. Multimedia application in the business sector is also seen as having good potential for growth. But this market is still primitive due to the low computer usage and the general lack of software engineers. The initiatives taken by the government to improve the country's telecom infrastructure should help promote the use of multimedia applications such as videoconferencing in the longer term. <Picture: Legend's Beijing Headquarters> Legend's Beijing Headquarters ÿ VCD-Driven Demand The popularity of VCDs in China is much higher than expected. In 1997, sales of VCDs in China was estimated at 100 million units. The Ministry of Electronics of Industry said in 1997, some 11 million of VCD players were made in the country, and the figure is expected to increase to 20 million in 1998. Chinese officials attribute the strong growth to the drop in the prices of VCD players (down 20-30% over the past year to around 2,000 yuan (US$241) per unit), and the availability of more VCD titles. However, Liu Jianling, general manager of the Multimedia Technology Co of Founder Group (MTCFG), a software developer in China, said the fast growth of VCD market is due mainly to the availability of low-cost pirated copies despite government actions. Nevertheless, the current popularity of VCD is expected to last for at least three years. The popularity of VCD has also been pushed by the sales of multimedia PCs as many buy customers buy PCs for viewing VCDs. This represents good opportunities for the country's PC makers, who have been trying hard to increase the computer usage rate in Chinese households. Chan Wenhui, project manager of desktop computers with the R&D department of Legend Group Co, said multimedia capabilities have become the main selling point in China today, and in fact, all the company's new models are multimedia PCs. Legend is now China's top PC seller after overtaking former leaders such as IBM Corp, Compaq Computer Corp and AST Computer. According to Zhang Hui, assistant general manager and home PC product manager of Legend, the company sold 100,000 units of PCs in the fiscal year ended March 31, 1997, and sales around 150,000 units are expected for the current year.

To: DiViT who wrote (28149)	1/15/1998 9:35:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Toshiba Media Processor Mpact 2 Media Processors and Firewire................................... nikkeibp.com Multiuse Media Processors For decoder applications, many chipmakers have developed programmable digital signal processors (DSP) called media processors. Philips Semiconductors, of the Netherlands, offers TriMedia; Toshiba Corp of Japan sells Mpact, which they licensed from Chromatic Research Inc of the US; and Matsushita has the Media Core processor. A media processor allows a variety of market-specific chips to be designed quickly by implementing specific applications software into the chip (see NEA p 57, September 1995). For example, a media processor can execute an MPEG-decoder, two or three dimensional (2D/3D) graphic processing, voice recognition or other multimedia applications, depending on implemented software. Toshiba recently announced its second generation Mpact chip, which integrates a DVD decoder, 3D graphic rendering engine and modem functions. The 125MHz clock chip offers 6 giga-operations-per-second (GOPS) performance. The chip and its evaluation board is being sampled now. The company plans to mass-produce it in 1998. Toshiba is planning a third generation chip incorporating not only the Mpact architecture core circuit but also more peripherals to differentiate from competitors. The third generation will be available by the end of 1998. Matsushita Electric's Media Core processor implements all DVD A/V decoding functions with a single chip. The 0.35æm CMOS chip integrates MPEG-2 A/V decoder, a descrambler, an on-screen display (OSD), video digital-analog converter (DAC) and other functions. The firm plans its sample-shipment for their second generation DVD players in March 1998. The company plans to expand its product line for set-top box, digital TV with 525P progressive scan format, and car navigation systems, along with moving to advanced 0.25æm process. ÿ 1394 for Multimedia Data Transfer Transferring multimedia data has caused a performance bottleneck which IEEE1394 is attempting to improve. The IEEE1394 interface provides a standard for transferring multimedia data between PC and consumer electronics including CD-ROM drives, MiniDisc (MD) and DVD-video players, video printers and digital still cameras. US companies like Symbios Logic Inc (see p59) are joining with European firms like Philips Semiconductor to push product development for IEEE1394 chip. Sony which marketed a DVC camcorder with IEEE1394 in 1995, has been aggressively developing link layer and physical layer products. Following the introduction of the CDX1948R, a link layer chip, the firm is developing the CXD3220R link and transaction layer chip. The new chip conforms to serial bus protocol-2 (SBP-2) for storage devices including hard disk drives (HDD), DVD-ROM and CD-ROM drives, and tape streamers. Sony has completed development of a single chip integrating link and physical layers for next generation A/V equipment. The chip also integrates embedded gate array to connect with dedicated device chipsets. A/V chips vary isochronous realtime transferring protocols for individual applications; for example, a single DVC packet is 485 bytes, while MPEG data is 188 bytes. Toshiba has also completed development of a physical layer circuit as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) core. Further, Matsushita demonstrated its physical and link layer chips at Japan Electronics Show 1997, but the company has no marketing plans yet.