Digital convergence at COMDEX. Acer laps is "doing DVD solutions" for the Taiwanese manufacturers.........
From Page One of Electronic News: November 23, 1998 Issue
Focus On Emerging Markets
Converging At Comdex--Digitally
By Jim DeTar
Las Vegas--The PC is still the medium at Comdex, but it's clear that heading into the new
millenium, the message is going to be"digital convergence."
Leading semiconductor and systems companies all seemed to be singing from the same sheet of
music here last week, concentrating on strategies that combine digital technologies from the PC
world to address emerging markets such as Internet appliances, HDTV and digital cameras.
National Semiconductor positioned itself at the center of the fray with its broad portfolio of chip
and board-level solutions ranging from glue logic to communications ICs to the high-end M2 and
MediaGX microprocessor lines. Similarly, other broad-based chip firms like Hitachi, Philips,
Toshiba and chipset vendor Acer Laboratories Inc. (ALI) also discussed strategies for converging
their portfolios.
In some cases, successful suppliers of chips for PC and office automation applications have taken
on a new face to address the consumer markets. Conexant Systems, which is currently known as
Rockwell Semiconductor, will be spun off as a separate unit on Dec. 31 (see related story on p.
16) , The company will be built on a the digital convergence platform, according to Rockwell
Semiconductor president Dwight Decker.
Expanded product portfolios were also supported by board level design solutions. National
Semiconductor adopted a strategy that helps OEMs design-in National's single-chip PC to
applications including internet appliances.
Design Teams Expensive
Stan Swearingen, Cyrix VP of marketing, said the reasoning behind shift is simple. "As margins
get thinner , OEMs can't afford to carry design staff.
"Convergence is the angle that Brian (Halla, National Semiconductor president/CEO) talks about.
For example, leveraging our low voltage technology we can offer a sub 2.5-watt solution. In fact,
Brian has challenged the design team to come up with a week-long battery life portable PC.
"Synergies include analog, LAN and our wireless group. We will take the IP (intellectual
property) that used to be in 15 chips and put it in one chip," Mr. Swearingen asserted.
In order to implement its reference design strategy, National needed a portable systems design
team so it recently hired the team that designed the portable Ultra Hinote computer for Digital
Equipment Corp., which was recently bought by Compaq. "We hired the entire design team, 12
people, on the portable side."
Similarly on the desktop side, National has established a design team to create desktop reference
systems. "On the desktop side we hired three architects who will design in the desktop (PC),
server and workstation markets." Forrest Norrad heads the reference design group, which
created the WebPAD. "They operate like a systems company with software design and the other
elements," Swearingen noted.
The WebPAD reference design, based on Cyrix's MediaGX processor technology, will enable
OEMs to build portable Internet access devices that allow roaming up to 500 feet from home
base using a small portable handheld device with an untethered electronic "pen" to enter
information on a digital keypad.
Introduction of the WebPAD could be viewed as a preview of the PC-on-a-chip that National
plans to introduce in mid-1999. "PC on a chip lends itself well for defining products like this,"
Swearingen said. The WebPAD prototype is a hand-held, battery-powered, 8-inch by 11-inch
tablet with an interactive 10-inch LCD touchscreen supporting 18-bit color and high-resolution
graphics.
Ads for the WebPAD won't state the MHz level the chip inside operate at because this, according
to Swearingen, this isn't important information for this market. "Everyone is trying to get away
from the traditional PC model where every quarter there is a new speed bump."
Part Of The Strategy
Dr. Dwight W. Decker is president of Rockwell Semiconductor Systems, which is slated to go
public Dec. 31 as Conexant Systems, at which time he will become chairman and CEO of
Conexant. "Convergence is part of our strategy," Decker said. "I can cite three examples. First is
the PC/TV. Our Infotainment division will combine our tuners and digital encoders in this type of
product, not only for set top boxes but for PCs.
"A second example of our convergence strategy is our CMOS sensors which are applicable not
only in digital cameras but also in wireless cell phones. Also, our voice function technology is
finding its way to the networking side for voice-over-IP (internet protocol).
Decker said that Conexant will be also be heavily involved in the emerging home networking
market. "The home networking market will provide opportunities for synergies as various
technologies converge."
Rockwell is one of the supporters of the Home Phone Networking Alliance (HomePNA) and
"We were first to market with a combination 56K and home networking (specification compliant)
product." The next step in home networking, he predicted, "is DSL or cable, and we will be
there."
More Of The Pieces
Dr. Kenji Takeda, senior VP and CTO, Hitachi America Ltd., said in a Comdex presentation on
Hitachi's convergence strategy, "When you look at all we do, Hitachi has more of the pieces of IT
(information technology) than most people recognize. Very few companies can bring such an
array of IT to the market.
"OEMs more and more want strategic partnerships." Takeda said that the opportunity lies in the
area where consumer products overlap server technology and desktops, such as Internet
appliances.
"In coming years you can expect us to introduce convergence products both developed internally
and through partnerships.
In an interview, Mr. Takeda said that he sees these convergences occurring soon. "For example,
DTV trials started in five cities in November in the U.S. For the household consumer, TV will be
digitized and telephony will be merged.
"Once we have the simple digital freeway, so many things will emerge."
Converging On x86
Nancy Hartsoch, VP of marketing and COO of San Jose-based Acer Laboratories Inc. (ALI)
USA, said "We see a convergence of communications and data networking technologies.
Companies want to be x86 compatible; it's a way to get software for test etc. Also, there is a
convergence in Internet appliances. For example, in China $200 to $300 Internet devices are very
popular.
"There are a lot of peripheral areas which have to be active in DVD. And if we have the
technology home-grown it helps us," Hartsoch said. ALI is aided in this effort to find synergies
among its products by its current parent, Acer Group of Taiwan.
"Taiwan will be the home of this convergence, where it will become a mainstream thing," Ms.
Hartsoch said. She cited the DVD (digital video disc) market. Until now, DVDs have been
relatively expensive compared to existing technologies such as VCRs and compact disc players.
"Taiwan as a country is trying to find a way to get there. Japan owns that market now. But PC
OEMs such as Hewlett-Packard and Compaq are constrained as they ask, 'Is it worth having
that (DVD) technology; is it worth partnering with a Taiwan company," to get an inexpensive
DVD product that will keep margins livable. "We're doing the chips for these emerging Taiwan
DVD makers," Hartsoch revealed.
"The question is: How fast are these converged technologies going to come about? For the DVD
products we are looking at early 1999."
She said that the movement toward closed boxes in the consumer market will provide an opening
for Intel's competition. "The home networking market is primarily PC technology but it will be
closed boxes in the future.
"Intel still wants to control the chipset market. They have not make it easy on chipset companies.
But OEMs want choices. The more closed the box, the less of an issue it is which CPU is inside.
This give Intel competitors like AMD and Cyrix a chance."
ALI is facing some tough decisions, Hartsoch admitted. "Do we integrate our own graphics chips
in our chipsets, or do we us other companies' products?" Although ALI has the technology, in this
case the company decided to buck the wave.
"We decided to use other companies graphics." She said that Acer is still contributing some of its
own graphics technology in a small way, however. "As these closed boxes emerge, the chipsets
still have to be cheap so we are using our own drivers," for the graphics ICs.
Ron Baker, multimedia marketing program manager for Philips Semiconductors' TriMedia
Product Group, said HDTV is one of the primary market opportunities for Philips.
"Examples of convergence include HDTV (high definition television) where our core functionality
is being combined with things like support for Internet browsers. In addition, in the HDTV market
we support multiple video formats including NTSC/PAL and the ATSC (Advanced Television
Systems Committee) version that will provide the ability to take signals from multiple sources.
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