The "PTSC Puzzle" Is more fun than a cup of Java in Twin Peaks...
Have a great week everybody!
Copyright 1998 Phillips Business Information, Inc.
INTERSPACE
May 6, 1998
CHIPS WITH EVERYTHING
The success of digital will rely heavily on the availability of
low-cost technological solutions which can be used across the
different platforms. Hardware manufacturers are now looking at ways in
which they can maximise economies of scale in a fragmented market.
Nick Flaherty reports...
With digital services starting to roll out across Europe, chip
makers should be looking forward to a bonanza as demand for equipment
rises. Surprisingly, however, some companies are actually leaving the
market.
Texas Instruments has stopped development of its hardwired set-
top box chipsets, the AV7000 and A7110, although it will continue to
support its existing customers, according to Jean Mark Darchy,
European DSP marketing & applications manager. There are fewer than
ten customers in total in the US (for the AV7000) and Europe (for the
AV7110). Meanwhile, Hyundai subsidiary Odeum Microsystems closed its
European office at Christmas and has now been sold to another US chip
company, Oak Technology.
However, high volumes should allow box makers to hit target
costs. The second generation of set top box chips will cost just $40
for digital satellite applications, says VLSI Technology, whose
VES2700 reduces the chipset from six to three chips.
IBM Microelectronics has been running hard to catch up with VLSI
and LSI Logic's Integra chipset with a single chip set-top box that
will allow a bill of materials of $130. The first generation design
has already been used by French box maker Sagem and French broadcaster
TPS, and is used with the OpenTV operating system. The key to
integrating is to use a crossbar switch to give the CPU and the MPEG2
video decoder access to both the screen memory and the system memory,
says Gordon Grove, digital TV segment manager for Europe at IBM
Microelectronics. Volume production of the chip, dubbed El Paso, is
expected in January 1999 as three companies, both broadcasters and box
makers, are close to signing up, he says.
Meanwhile the market leader in chipsets, SGS Thomson
Microelectronics (STM) also has a single chip approach. The ST5500
Omega chip includes all the functions of a set-top box, and will be
used in digital satellite and cable TV decoders. Omega requires only
one 16Mbit DRAM for both the video and system memory, significantly
reducing the system cost. The 5600 version due later this year will
include a 3D graphics engine, a modem, conditional access and a high
speed data 1394 interface. This may be used for more advanced set-top
boxes.
Consumer chip maker NEC is also planning to demonstrate its set-
top box chip later this year. The chip, EMMA, has been designed in the
UK by integrating multimedia blocks such as MPEG2 video and an
existing audio decoder and adding the DVB system expertise.
"If you are going to provide these chips to consumer companies
in millions, you need to have the capacity available, and many of the
current set-top box chip suppliers just don't have that level of
manufacturing capacity," said Bob Giddy, general manager of NEC in the
UK.
Another chipmaker, National Semiconductor, is taking a slightly
different approach with its 'Pantera' chipset, which is due later this
year. It is based around the 586 processor developed by Cyrix, a
National subsidiary. The chip will be out "in the middle of this
year" first for Digital Video Disk players, said Roland Andersson,
National's vice president and general manager Europe. A set-top box
chipset will follow by the end of this year.
There are two reasons for keeping the baseband chips (which
handle video and audio) separate from the front end chips (which
decode the signal). Separation allows the same baseband chips to be
used with satellite, cable and digital terrestrial set-top boxes, but
it also allows different architectures to be used. Providing the QPSK
demodulation and the Viterbi decoding requires significantly more
noise isolation, and the easiest way to provide this is in separate
chips that can be used in a tuner module.
This approach also means that front end modules can be added to
other boxes - a module has been developed by UK design house
Symbionics to add digital terrestrial TV reception to a digital
satellite box, using the same baseband chips. VLSI and LSI Logic argue
that the interface from the front end to the baseband does not require
a lot of work to link them together.
There is still plenty of room for integration in the front end.
VLSI was the first to integrate dual analogue to digital converters
into a single chip digital satellite receiver as part of its Vista98
chipset. The VES1877 handles the network interface with QPSK
demodulation and forward error correction, and combines 6bit dual ADCs
sampling at 70MHz. It interfaces to both the US DSS and European DVB
standards, supporting data rates up to 30Mbaud. This is increasingly
important as the DSS service has added the capability to download data
to a PC via satellite for faster Internet access.
Through 1998, satellite will remain the main delivery vehicle
for digital TV around the world, says VLSI, followed by cable and
digital terrestrial. IBM Microelectronics has also developed a design
for a digital satellite receiver to support its El Paso baseband chip,
but it has not yet found a partner to develop a standalone part.
However, the architecture with a separate front-end chip has
also allowed players to enter the market without having to have a full
digital set-top box chipset. Analog Devices has attacked the set-top
box market with highly integrated front end chips for DVB direct
broadcast satellite. The two chips of the SATCOM2 chipset integrate
more of the front end processing, allowing a simple 480MHz
intermediate frequency L-band tuner to be used to reduce costs, rather
than having to have separate I and Q signal paths. The chipset also
has automatic gain control across the whole data rate from 10Mbit/ to
85Mbit/s for all broadcast systems.
The cost for the tuner and the chipset is $25, and Analog is
looking at integrating the tuner into a single chip in the next
generation, Satcom3, later this year.
\============================
MULTIMEDIA MONITOR
May 1, 1998
Vendors Jockey For Position In 'Net Set-top Box Market
Companies targeting the set-top box as the TV conduit for Web
content are clamoring for a piece of a market expected to reach 2
million units next year, according to market researcher IDC/Link.
Multimedia Monitor caught up with several of the top vendors
targeting the convergence market at NAB in March to find out what
subscription and installed base figures they expect to see in the next
few years and how they're faring for funding.
WorldGate Communications Inc. will launch a cable-based Internet
service next month and expects to have 150,000 customers by year's
end.
OpenTV Inc., which develops set-top box software and operating
systems for enhanced programming, currently has 1 million subscribers
in Europe and Asia. The company expects to penetrate the U.S. market
by the fourth quarter.
OpenTV CEO Jan Steenkamp projects 2 million subscribers worldwide
by year's end, 4 million by the end of 1999 and 35 million by late
2000.
Microsoft Corp.'s [MSFT] Palo Alto, Calif.-based subsidiary WebTV
Networks Inc. [MSFT] has just over 325,000 paying subscribers to date
and expects to hit 1 million this year.
Allan Thygesen, senior vice president of Alameda, Calif-based
Wink Communications Inc., would not provide sales expectations.
Wink sells software to set-top box and TV makers similar to Intel
Corp.'s [INTC] Intercast in that the technology allows viewers to
receive programming enhancements via the broadcast signal's vertical
blanking interval. Wink programming reaches digital hardware through
an MPEG stream.
Should set-top vendors choose to activate Wink, Thygesen said
Wink-enhanced broadcasting will be available to 8.5 million homes by
year's end and as many as 25 million home by 2001.
Clinton Wolf, vice president of programming for Dallas-based
Interactive Channel, is optimistic that his company can reach 12
million cable customers or 15 percent of the 75 million cable
households by 2000.
Interactive Channel has participated in two trials to date in
1995 and 1996, and Wolf expects the company to win multiple contracts
by the fourth quarter. (OpenTV, 650/849-5500; Interactive Channel,
972/701-5407; WebTV, 650/614-5500; Wink Communications, 510/337-2950;
WorldGate, 215/633-5100)
=============================================
WORLDWIDE VIDEOTEX UPDATE
May, 1998
OPENTV LICENSES PERSONALJAVA FROM SUN MICROSYSTEMS
Building on its mandate to dramatically expand the volume of interactive television content introduced and further embracing the Open Cable initiative, OpenTV, Inc. will license and support Sun Microsystems Inc.'s PersonalJava platform.
By incorporating PersonalJava into its products, OpenTV will enable the acceleration of the development of an entirely new class of interactive television services and applications focused on the living room and the enhancement of television entertainment by providing the massive population of more than 700,000 Java(TM) developers with a much larger platform base to target.
The global subscriber base for the OpenTV digital television software environment includes OpenTV satellite and cable broadcast network customers reaching 10 million viewers and is expected to continue its rapid growth.
PersonalJava, the Java platform for consumer devices, enables set-top boxes to connect to and download content from a broadcast operator's network (cable, satellite or terrestrial) and from others, including the Internet. OpenTV's integration of PersonalJava further solidifies its dominance as the application development platform of choice for the creation of interactive television applications.
"The support of OpenTV, a software leader in the emerging interactive television marketplace, for the PersonalJava platform, further validates our efforts to create open software standards that help insure cross-platform interoperability and the widest possible audience for creative and innovative services," said Jon Kannegaard, senior vice president software technology of JavaSoft, a business unit of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
"We are pleased to work with and support the Sun Microsystems' PersonalJava platform to extend our proven DVB-compliant interactive television software offerings for digital set-top boxes and digital televisions. This deal truly brings to life the vision of the Open Cable initiative by providing our large global customer base with an upgrade roadmap that enhances their ability to develop and deliver a greater range of services that take advantage of widely adopted Internet standards," Jan Steenkamp, CEO of OpenTV, Inc.
About the PersonalJava Platform
The PersonalJava platform allows applications to be downloaded automatically to the end-user, such as a Java applet that displays the user's stock portfolio or the weather conditions of a travel destination. The PersonalJava platform opens the doors for Java technology developers to create applets and applications that can run on any common consumer device that is connected to the cable network, including any Java-enabled webphone, set-top box, PDA or mobile phone. The PersonalJava platform is designed specifically for network-connectable products people use in homes, while mobile or in the office.
The PersonalJava platform 1.0 reference implementation began shipping in January, 1998. Its finalized specification was posted at java.sun.com in September 1997. There have been more than 10,000 downloads of the specification.
About OpenTV
OpenTV, Inc. is the leading software solution company engaged in providing all the key components for the development and delivery of interactive services to digital satellite, cable, terrestrial broadcast and other video delivery services worldwide. Working in partnership with the world's leading consumer electronics companies, chip-set vendors, pay television set-top box providers and conditional access system providers, OpenTV, Inc. provides a truly open, digital platform solution for the rapid delivery and deployment of interactive television services.
OpenTV played a leading role in the launch of TPS's (Television Par Satellite) interactive services in France in 1997, Sweden's Telia and Denmark's Tele Danmark Kabel, all of which continue to be actively involved in the development and introduction of new applications and services. The TPS services currently have over 400,000 interactive television subscribers, making it the largest commercially operated system of its kind in the world.
The company also recently entered into a major agreement to provide its OpenTV software solution to British Interactive Broadcasting's (BIB) interactive television services platform, and is in the final stages of negotiations with leading television services in Australia, Spain, The Netherlands, South Africa, Greece, Thailand, the Middle East and the United States.
In addition to its international deals with broadcasters, OpenTV boasts partnerships with 14 set-top box manufacturers, four conditional access system providers, four chip-set vendors, and three real-time OS vendors.
OpenTV's Palo Alto, Calif. headquarters handles the North American, Latin/South American and Asia/Pacific regions. The company's European sales office, based in France, handles Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Press announcements and other information about OpenTV are available on the Internet via the World Wide Web at opentv.com.
For more information, call 415/388-5587.
|
