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To: John Rieman who wrote (35790)	9/10/1998 1:10:00 PM
From: DiViT	Respond to of 50808

Zoran's Oren spinoff could make for a nice aquisition by DiviCube... Oren Bids For Slice Of DTV Market 09/07/98 Electronic News Page 18 COPYRIGHT 1998 Cahners Publishing Company Copyright 1998 Information Access Company. All rights reserved. Zoran spinoff to challenge with 3-modulation scheme DSP santa clara, calif. -- With digital television (DTV) signals expected to start broadcasting in November, as per the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) mandates, consumers will have a choice as to what format they will want to view these digital broadcasts -- either through the cable lines, through satellites or through the terrestrial network of antennas. However, Oren Semiconductor will today introduce what it claims is the first single chip offering that will combine all three formats on a single chip for all digital broadcast applications, including DTVs, PC-TVs, set-top boxes and VCRs. Each format contains its own standards that allow for the decoding and demodulation of digital TV content and DTV OEMs are making plans to support all three. In the past, each format has required its own chip for demodulation: vestigial sideband (VSB) for terrestrial, quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) for cable and quadrature phase shift key modulation (QPSK) for satellite. Replacing 3 Chips Dubbed the OR51220, Oren's chip can receive DTV transmissions from terrestrial, cable or satellite connections replacing approximately three demodulation devices in traditional designs. The company's DTV demodulator for the front end of digital television automatically determines the type of connection and switches in real-time to the appropriate demodulation scheme. For example, if a consumer is using cable to generate DTV signals the demodulator switches to a QAM demodulation scheme. "I think since they are the first to offer this kind of three prong modulation scheme and initially targeting the PC-TV area they are well on their way," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, a market research firm in Tempe, Ariz. "Others like Motorola/Sarnoff and Lucent don't seem to be moving very fast so they have a good shot at making some headway in this market." Craig Wiley, director of marketing at Oren, said the company is targeting various aspects of the DTV market but may initially target PC-TVs because of the opportunities there, and numerous reports that indicate PCs may be the first bastion of the digital television transition. According to Mr. Strauss, the PC-TV area is much easier to get into and won't be dominated by Sony, which may dominate all other portions of the front end for DTV as well as the consumer electronics themselves when the DTV systems roll out. "Enabling DTV on the PC is really the path of least resistance for them," he added. Close To Intel Oren said it is also in good favor with Intel, which plans to enable DTV on a PC by using a high-end Pentium II microprocessor with software for the back-end. For the front end, Intel is looking toward receiver add-in cards where Oren said it is already making plans to play in. "PCs are a very important space for us and these adapter cards need a programmable interface with the ability to run all three modulation schemes," said Mr. Wiley. "PC OEMs and chipmakers want to go multi-standard because they will be able to penetrate deeper into the DTV market initially, but technology was the limitation, until now." The OR51220 is based on a digital signal processor (DSP) core meaning the device is programmable and is able to make these changes on the fly by itself and also has the ability to switch between one scheme to another, Mr. Wiley said. The OR51220 is planned to begin sampling in November with production to follow in 1Q99 priced at $36 in 1,000-unit quantities. Oren, which spun off from Zoran in 1994, has previously rolled out two ghost cancellation products and this is its initial DTV product. The company has no plans to enter into the back-end war raging with the likes of Equator, TeraLogic, C - Cube , STMicroelectronics and others. However, it plans to team up with these back-end companies for some sort of joint chipset. This will allow the company to strictly focus on the front-end.

To: John Rieman who wrote (35790)	9/11/1998 1:10:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

SKY HAS PROBLEMS WITH DIGI-BOX 09/09/98 Interspace (c) 1998 Phillips Business Information, Inc. BSkyB is understood to have continuing software problems with its digital set - top boxes. Insiders at two manufacturing plants admit there have been problems to rectify, although Pace's official line continues to be: "We are on target to meet Sky's October launch." Grundig's marketing manager for digital, Martin Gough, said he was satisfied the software problems, as far as Grundig was concerned, were now fixed and that volume production was due to begin within the next ten days, with box shipments reaching retailers before the end of September. He admitted the software was later than planned, but that bug-fixes had occurred during the summer. The problems centred around the embedded software which had the digi-box 'locking up' in the same way a computer sometimes crashes. Anxiety had also been expressed in some quarters over the slow speed with which the box switches from channel to channel, and again that the box is said to freeze on some channels. There was also said to be serious concern as to how the box interacts with a separate VCR. A software fix was understood to have emerged two weeks ago, but unconfirmed rumours persist in the market suggesting some problems might still remain. One report, which suggested that 50,000 boxes were "returned to Pace" for remedial work, was strongly denied by the company. It seems the boxes had not left Pace's Saltaire assembly plant. Grundig's Gough says any minor problems, plus additional box- functionality, can be addressed directly with automatic upgrades direct from the satellite to individual receivers. "These rumours may have begun with a box demonstration to a Fleet Street journalist. The box did not have the most up-to-date software and there were problems." Any software problems might also hold up the supply of Pace's circuit-boards for LG's BSkyB-ready integrated digital televisions, at one stage expected to be first to market. The circuits are being supplied to LG's Seoul, Korea assembly works, with TV sets then having to make the long voyage back to Britain prior to Christmas. Meanwhile broadcasters such as Discovery, Flextech and others are pressing on with wide-scale transmissions beginning September 1, even though there is zero audience. Sky's new Sky Sports News channel has also been broadcasting since August 10, although Drake Automation was able to show transmissions to visiting journalists last week. Discovery in particular is digi-casting all of its new channels and multiplex of existing channels in their 18 hours a day versions in full from September 1, and the BBC is understood to be "monitoring daily" the planned availability of set - top boxes in order to start transmissions of its brand-new BBC Choice channel, again on hold at least until October. Sky is telling callers to its "digital hot line" that October 1 is the start date for broadcasts and is promising to get information packs to callers "as soon as they are available". Sky sponsored the 'Digital Cafe' at the Edinburgh International TV Festival last weekend, equipping two rooms with a half-dozen large- screen TV sets and individual feeds of actual Sky programming, including some of the key debates captured live from locations around the city, uplinked back to Sky centre and retransmitted in digital back to the George Hotel. Except there were problems. While the images were excellent, there were obviously problems with receiver boxes. Each TV was driven by its own dedicated decoder box, and Sky's dedicated digital team was under strict instructions not to allow Festival delegates to handle the remote controls. Worse, the on-screen images crashed and froze, especially when scrolling through the EPG. Sky's handlers were sympathetic, but "it's happening all the time," admitted one individual. Even Elisabeth Murdoch's prestigious "Worldview Address" signals fell apart on at least two occasions, much to the chagrin of delegates who were viewing from the comfort of the Sky cafe. Some of the problems at Edinburgh may be down to BSkyB's recent adoption of variable bit rates for digital transmissions from 28.2 degrees East. Whereas channels such as Bravo have used and continue to use bit rates of the order of 2Mbit/s with reasonable success, Sky News came in for a lot of industry criticism when test transmissions first began. It then used a fixed bit rate of this order which, although operating fine for the 'talking heads' sequences in the studio, could prove problematic when the programme cut to, say, a clip of a soccer match needing a greater bit-rate to accommodate the fast action. Sky News is now varying the bit rate in real time from 1.9- 5.4Mb/s, seemingly with success so far as MPEG image artifacts are concerned. Sky's official line, uttered frequently by the huge Sky contingent present at the Festival, was that "everything would be all right by October 1."