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

To: John Rieman who wrote (30468)	3/8/1998 12:54:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

New Multimedia Wares On The Way (Cube mentioned)... Kelly Spang 03/09/98 Computer Reseller News Page 138 Copyright 1998 CMP Publications Inc. San Jose, Calif. -- In addition to card makers' planned products that support Intel Corp.'s first graphics accelerator, VARs are anticipating a host of other multimedia products, as well. Aside from delivering its Intel740 graphics accelerator to card makers, Intel plans to offer VARs graphics cards based on its new chip, company officials said. While details of the product have not been released, Intel will target its graphics card specifically to VARs for integration and will not offer a retail product, according to Intel officials. Specifics on the new Intel graphics card should be available in the next month or so. On the applications side, SciTech Software Inc. unveiled SciTech Display Doctor, which supports the new Intel740 chip. The software enables automatic graphics chip detection; display-centering and refresh-rate control; display power management; and performance enhancements. SciTech Display Doctor is available now for $44.95. A number of hardware vendors are developing boards that incorporate DVD to support the Intel740 3-D graphics accelerator. At the Intel Developer Forum held here last month, companies including C-Cube Microsystems Inc. and Zoran Corp. revealed DVD solutions supporting the Intel740 chip. Zoran, Santa Clara, Calif., demonstrated a daughtercard reference, designed to add hardware DVD capabilities to the Intel740 graphics chip. The net effect of the design is to enable VARs to add hardware DVD support to a system without significantly increasing the price, Zoran officials said. In total, the bill of materials for the Zoran design is less than $30, according to company estimates. The daughtercard design uses the Vaddis decoder, a single chip developed by Zoran, which integrates DVD decoding and presentation functionality. The reference design also calls for Zoran's Soft DVD Navigator software. A kit including schematics and design files is available now from Zoran to hardware vendors and OEMs. Similarly, Milpitas, Calif.-based C-Cube is offering a reference kit to enable its Chelsea-I daughtercard to work in conjunction with the Intel740 graphics accelerator. Chelsea-I will let OEMs add hardware-based DVD performance to Intel740 products and is based on C-Cube's ZiVA integrated DVD decoder chip. As a result, VARs can implement hardware DVD into systems for half the cost of previous solutions, according to C-Cube officials. Hardware vendors, including AsusTek Computer Inc., STB Systems Inc., Real 3D and Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc., have signed on to use C-Cube's Chelsea-I design. Long term, however, Intel executives are lobbying for a software-based DVD solution that will enable VARs to eliminate up to $50 from the system cost. For example, Zoran and Mediamatics, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Semiconductor Corp., already are delivering software-based DVD solutions, although broad availability is not expected until the middle of next year, according to Intel.

To: John Rieman who wrote (30468)	3/8/1998 1:41:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

MPEG patents, maybe one could argue prior art.... Connected: Putting television in the picture Technoturkey BARRY FOX 03/05/98 The Daily Telegraph London Page 07 (1998 (c) The Telegraph plc, London) Digital TV and digital video rely on MPEG compression to reduce the amount of data needed to represent moving pictures. The encoder distinguishes between moving and stationary parts of the pictures and codes only the difference in information. Memory in the decoder rebuilds complete images. In 1937 the BBC had just launched 405-line television from Alexandra Palace. The short wavelength transmissions carried only a few miles. Medium waves would travel further but the channels allocated for radio were not wide enough for moving pictures. A British electronics magazine proposed a solution, "based on the realisation that with many TV scenes a relatively large area of the picture is stationary so a large proportion of the signals are merely repetitions". The trick was to analyse each TV picture, distinguish stationary from moving parts, and use a separate MW transmission channel for each. The background information would be transmitted at very low picture rate, while the action would be transmitted at the full rate of 25 frames a second, on a second MW frequency. The receiver would recombine the two images. In 1937 there were no digital memory chips, so the scheme's inventors proposed a system for using film to create two records, one of the background, one of action. These would then be superimposed on a screen. "This may offer certain practical difficulties," they admitted, adding with prescience: "Nevertheless the germ idea may be capable of development."