Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : C-Cube -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Helios who wrote (29444)	2/12/1998 8:46:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 50808

"If you were going to make several thousand graphics boards with the 740 and wanted an MPEGII decoder who ya going to get" Zoran?? infoworld.com Intel graphics chip spawns accelerator boards By Andy Santoni InfoWorld Electric Posted at 6:56 PM PT, Feb 11, 1998 Intel will unveil its long-awaited i740 graphics accelerator chip on Thursday, and graphics card vendors are already announcing i740-based add-in cards that plug into Accelerated Graphics Port or PCI slots. The i740, developed under the code name Auburn, will offer high performance at a price that is attractive to the high-volume PC market, said Andy Fischer, vice president at Jon Peddie Associates, in Tiburon, Calif. Intel also has developed the software drivers required to gain widespread acceptance for the chip, he said. The 3-D core of the i740 was designed for Intel by Real3D, in which Intel recently purchased a 20-percent stake. The chip's 2-D engine was designed by Chips and Technologies, which Intel recently purchased. Real3D, still 80-percent-owned by Lockheed Martin, on Thursday will unveil a family of 3-D/2-D/video graphics accelerator boards called StarFighter, named after the Lockheed F-104 StarFighter, the first aircraft to fly at twice the speed of sound. StarFighter AGP is available in configurations from entry-level, with 4MB of local memory; to high-performance, with 8MB of memory, full video, TV I/O, and hardware DVD. Suggested retail price of the StarFighter AGP board starts at $189. StarFighter PCI is available in configurations ranging from mid-range boards with 4MB frame buffer and 8MB local texture memory to performance boards with 8MB frame buffer and 16MB local texture memory, full video, TV I/O, and hardware DVD. The price of the StarFighter PCI board starts at $229. Both the StarFighter AGP and StarFighter PCI will be available at the end of the first quarter. Other suppliers will announce i740-based products Thursday and display them at the Intel Developers Forum, in San Jose, Calif., next week, said Brian Ekiss, graphics marketing manager at Intel. Graphics boards should come from Asustek, Diamond Multimedia, Leadtek, Number Nine, and STB. Third-party video vendors include C-Cube Microsystems and Zoran with their DVD offerings, Rockwell's Brooktree with video and TV products, and Hauppauge with a TV tuner. Desktop system OEMs will begin rolling out products, and Intel will integrate the i740 onto motherboards later this year, Ekiss said. Ekiss expects to see products in end-user channels by the end of March, although evaluation kits are already available from independent hardware vendors and third parties. The chip is priced at $34.75 each in 10,000-unit quantities. It is in limited production now but will be in full production in March, Ekiss said. Intel Corp., in Santa Clara, Calif., can be reached at (800) 628-8686 or intel.com. Real3D, in Orlando, Fla., can be reached at (800) 393-7730 or real3d.com.

To: Helios who wrote (29444)	2/13/1998 9:23:00 AM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

Japan's digital TV standard will use MPEG-2 audio encoding......... 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.