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

To: J Fieb who wrote (37491)	11/29/1998 9:02:00 AM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

C-Cube's new chip.................................... multichannel.com C-Cube Makes Graphics Chip Milpitas, Calif. -- C-Cube Microsystems Inc. is set to join the graphics-chip party this week. Dubbed "AViA TV," C-Cube's chip will debut at the Western Show in Anaheim, Calif., said Brian Johnson, vice president of advanced development for C-Cube. Johnson added that the AViA TV product family consists of decoding, the central processing unit and peripherals for interactive digital set-tops. C-Cube joins TeraLogic Inc. and Broadcom Corp., among many other personal computer graphics-chips suppliers, in the race to furnish the insides of advanced-digital set-tops. Pioneer New Media Technologies and Sony Corp. are already planning to use the AViA TV chip, according to a draft press statement issued in advance of the Western Show. Johnson said AViA TV will enable cable operators, satellite-service providers and original-equipment manufacturers to market interactive set-tops with applications like Web browsing via the TV. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- News Corp.'s Star TV Picks Zenith Boxes Glenview, Ill. -- Star TV, a News Corp. programming company operating in Asia, settled on boxes manufactured by Zenith Electronics Corp. last week. Through an agreement with Star, Zenith plans to start shipping its "World Box" digital set-top in the first quarter of next year.

To: J Fieb who wrote (37491)	11/29/1998 9:36:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

Acer talks 3Cs............................................. asiansources.com Exclusive Interview: Rick Lei, Acer Posted: Nov. 26, 1998 PC giant targets consumer electronics The world's third-largest Pc producer, Acer Inc., has its eye on the consumer electronics market. Initial targets are set-top boxes and DVD players, says Rick Lei, vice-president and general manager of the firm's consumer products unit. Q: Acer has been a major PC maker these past years. Why did the company decide to move into consumer electronics? A: We see it as a very natural move for PC companies, considering that a number of digital consumer products use the same technology as PCs. DVD players comprise one example: The manufacturing process involves digital programming, MPEG-2 compression and decompression, which are all very familiar steps to PC producers. Even the testing and QC criteria for set-top boxes are the same as those adopted for PCs. Our main disadvantages lie on brand names and sales channels. Japan makers have built a strong sales network and their brands have gained a wide market following. The biggest challenge for us is to establish the Acer brand in the consumer electronics field. Q: How do you intend to penetrate the market, saturated enough as it is? A: Acer aims to be more than a hardware manufacturer. We think that this way we will be able to create a niche for our own brands. We plan to concentrate on selected consumer products at first, and promote them aggressively in the Asia-Pacific region, with the exception of Japan and Korea. For the other markets we intend to carry on OEM projects for the time being. Q: What specific products does Acer intend to specialize on? A: We are looking into digital equipment, those that will help evolve the current life styles of peoples and families. These are products that can enable home shopping and karaoke-on-demand. Specifically, our R&D plans are geared toward developing more advanced DVD players, digital satellite receivers and NetPCs. We are currently promoting our set-top boxes, which can access the Internet and receive satellite broadcasts. But the high costs and the low application level of the product are hampering market growth. Our total shipment of set-top boxes last year reached only from 15 million to 20 million units. Q: What are Acer's DVD plans? A: We have had no sourcing problems. What we are targeting at present is control over the technology so we can cross the industry's entry barrier. Toward this we have entered a joint venture with Hitachi and have acquired several patent cross-licenses from the members of the DVD consortium. In 1998, DVD player prices in the United States ranged from $299 to $349. This year, quotes are likely to be between $199 and $249, which will be a very sweet price. Acer is planning to top that with a $199 model. Q: Japan's major brands have been dominating the market for years. How will you shake that status quo? A: Most Japan manufacturers have lost sales these past years. Product development and technology are their main problems, as these costs a lot. As a result, a number of Japan suppliers have been wanting to shed off the electronic-giant image and evolve into 3C companies. For Taiwan, technology is not a problem. The key is market repositioning. In the future, most R&D projects for consumer electronic products will consist of PC technologies, an area where we are ahead of Japan. [For example], I am confident Acer will catch up with Sony, our major competitor in set-top boxes, in a few years. Q: How will Taiwan's electronic industry fare this year? A: I see no major technological breakthroughs in TVs and audio, but I am expecting a horde of new set-top boxes and videophones. Future handheld PCs will enable connectivity with mobile phones.

To: J Fieb who wrote (37491)	11/29/1998 9:49:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

MoreCom......................... cedmagazine.com 11.23.98 Leslie Ellis Yet another company with its sights set on interactive TV services, MoreCom, announced it will debut next week at the Western Show in Anaheim, Calif. MoreCom seeks to deliver personalized Webcasts, Web-enhanced TV, electronic program guides and video-on-demand. The 25-person startup was founded early last year by Ami Miron, a former Philips Electronics and General Instrument Corp. executive. During a telephone interview last week, Miron said MoreCom's service will offer, among other Web-based services, streaming video. "The ability to provide video clips on demand, with an infrastructure that can grow into full video on demand, is what we've done," he said. MoreCom aims to move streaming video beyond the PC experience in which a video clip plays in a small, three-by-three-inch window. MoreCom maps the IP packets into MPEG packets that are decoded at the set-top boxes. Both @Home Network and RoadRunner restrict their customers to a 10-minute maximum of streaming media, mostly because their MSO owners want to retain control of the video viewing environment. But by identifying a way to map Internet video into the digital cable environment, MoreCom may have found a way to assuage that concern. Miron said MoreCom's technology suite runs on existing hybrid fiber-coax networks, using "common MPEG-2 encoders and digital headends, and the currently deployed layer of digital set-top boxes." It is also flexible enough to stretch across OpenCable, DAVIC (Digital Audio/Video Council) and DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) standards environments, he said. MoreCom's product portfolio is software-centric, consisting of four servers dedicated to four service categories: MoreWeb, MoreCast, MoreVideo and MoreMail. The MoreWeb service is for Web browsing via the TV. MoreCast serves up one-way Webcasts, and MoreVideo is for streaming IP (Internet Protocol) video clips. MoreMail is for e-mail, either one-way or two-way with an optional infrared keyboard. At the digital set-top is a thin, downloadable client, Miron said, that includes a browser customized to run within four megabytes of set-top memory. Miron said MoreCom will pursue a variety of business approaches with cable MSOs, but will likely seek a 6 MHz channel ride in return for an unspecified revenue-sharing arrangement. He added that following the Western Show demonstration, which will consist of "pre-field trial" prototypes, an unnamed cable MSO will test MoreCom's technology.