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To: DiViT who wrote (29432)	2/12/1998 4:55:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Intel will sell "at least" 10 million I740s in 1998, and will get 20% of the market for 3D graphics chips......... techweb.cmp.com A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted at 3 p.m. EST/noon PST, 2/12/98 Intel740 graphics chip not fastest but it still looks good, says analyst SUNNYVALE, Calif.--Intel Corp.'s new graphics chip, the Intel740, is not getting perfect marks from at least one research firm, which says benchmark tests show the device is no faster that today's best 3-D accelerators. But still, MicroDesign Resources said 3D WinBench tests show the Intel740 has superior visual quality and it expects Intel to do extremely well with the accelerator architecture. "The 740 will face stiff competition from even more advanced 3D engines this spring, with higher performance and better visual quality. But the 740 will have at least one advantage over other chips. It's backed by Intel's powerful marketing machine," concluded analyst Peter N. Glaskowsky, who is based in Sunnyvale with MicroDesign Resources. The analysis and data from the 3D WinBench tests will be released in Feb. 16 issue of the >I>Microprocessor Report, published by MicroDesign Resources of Sebastopol, Calif. Intel today rolled out its news accelerator chip, which is optimized for the Pentium II processor and intended to give PCs life-like graphics (see story on the introduction). Based on the MicroDesign Resources tests, Glaskowsky said the Intel740 sets a new record for a single-chip 2D/3D accelerator on 3D WinBench, scoring a 691 at 640x480 resolution on a 333-MHz Pentium II processor. The previous high score was 576 by Nvidia Corp.'s Riva 128. He said the higher score is due solely to Intel740's support for a single 3D quality feature (MIP-map blending) that is not implemented on the Riva 128. Excluding that portion of 3D WinBench, the Riva 128 was 2% faster, he added. Glaskowsky said the basic design of the Intel740 is relatively sophisticated and provides a basis for faster graphics chips, which are expected to be introduced by Intel in the first half of 1999. "We believe demand for the Intel740 will be very strong," he said. "Intel will ship at least 10 million units in 1998, giving Intel about 20% of the market for 3D chips for personal computers."

To: DiViT who wrote (29432)	2/12/1998 4:56:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Japan sets Digital TV standards. Encoders need to get better............................................ techweb.cmp.com Posted: 3:00 p.m. EST, 2/12/98 Japan sets broadcast-satellite digital-TV standards By Yoshiko Hara TOKYO -- Japan has nailed down standards for the delivery of digital TV via broadcast satellite,specifying six video formats with MPEG-2 Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). Service is expected to start in Japan around the year 2000. The Telecommunication Technology Council (TTC), an advisory body for the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) submitted the final recommendation for broadcast-satellite (BS) digital-TV broadcasting earlier this week. The video formats to be used are: 1,080 vertical lines x 1,920 pixels (16:9) at both 60i and 60p picture rate; 720 lines x 1,280 pixels (16:9) at 60p; and 480 lines x 720 pixels at 60i (both 16:9 and 4:3) and 60p (16:9). Unlike the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) specifications in the United States, 30p and 24p picture rates are not included, thus reducing the number of formats. Of these six formats, 720p and 1,080p were included with reservations, because they haven't yet been put through a field experiment. The 1,080p format must also be tested to see whether a single transponder can send two 1,080p channels. An MPT official, Masato Iwasaki, said that "720p has not been verified in field experiments. If it is proved to be no problem through field experiments, it will be officially added." In satellite broadcasting, one transponder sends two HDTV channels. Iwasaki, deputy director of the Digital Broadcasting System Development Division at MPT's Broadcasting Bureau, said, "To send two 1,080p channels with one transponder is difficult unless compression technology makes further progress. It is expected to take several years. But these formats are Japan's BS digital-TV specifications that broadcasters can choose." MPEG-2 Audio (AAC) became an ISO/IEC standard last April. "We believe that Japan is the first to adopt MPEG-2 Audio (AAC)," said Iwasaki. It has no compatibility with current MPEG-2 Audio (backward compatible), but has twofold compression efficiency. With MPEG-2 Audio (AAC), CD-quality stereo sound can be transmitted at 128 kbits/second. Based on the previously agreed presumption that BS digital broadcasting will be devoted mainly to HDTV programs, the council defined the specifications so that two HDTV channels can be transmitted by one satellite transponder for the first time ever. To provide services such as data broadcasting in addition to HDTV programs, a wider bandwidth is desirable. The recommendation listed three possible bandwidths--27 MHz, the same as current satellite broadcasting; 33 MHz and 34.5 MHz. Even with the 27-MHz width, the rate will be 39 Mbits/s, allowing two channels of 18-Mbit/s HDTV programs. "For better picture quality, 34.5-MHz width is desirable," said Iwasaki of MPT. If 34.5 MHz width can be used, the maximum bit rate reaches 51 Mbits/s with TC8PSK (Trellis-coding eight-phase shift keying), a high density transmission coding. Japan will negotiate at the International Telecommunication Union to expand the assigned bandwidth. Two broadcasters in Japan--DirecTV and PerfecTV--already deliver digital-satellite TV-broadcasting service. But these services use communication satellites and send 480i standard-definition programs.