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

To: DiViT who wrote (37522)	11/30/1998 5:34:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

C-Cube the internet company? What happened to the communications company? I like this intro better, "Meanwhile, chip giant C-Cube Microsystems Inc." .................................. mediacentral.com Bridging the Internet-TV Biz Lures Two More Hopefuls By Jim Barthold The lure of putting the Internet on TV has drawn two more companies like moths to a flame with potentially the same bottom-line results. Israeli start-up Peach Networks Ltd. has developed The Access Channel, using Microsoft Windows to translate Web content into MPEG-2 digital streams. Meanwhile, chip giant C-Cube Microsystems Inc. unveiled Avia@TV, a technology it says will enable a new class of services and capabilities based around the TV delivery platform. Both rely on digital set-tops. While espousing the same goals, the two companies take a different approach. Peach, by using Windows-based technology, claims it can inexpensively deliver Web content to the TV, via the digital set-top. Peach is initially working with Scientific-Atlanta Inc.'s Explorer 2000 platform. "We have filed a patent on how to convert computer-generated graphics and specifically Windows output into a video stream very economically," explained Ofir Paz, Peach's president and CEO. Paz said Peach's magic does not rely on the set-top box's central processing unit (CPU) to decode the signals but instead formats them into MPEG and delivers to decoding set-tops. "In our system you virtually do not need a CPU because you only tell the set-top box to listen to a certain stream and when the stream arrives at the set-top box it displays the stream as if it was a movie," Paz said. "We're Windows compatible; we're fast; we bring all the Windows content to the TV without using the PC at all." C-Cube's Avia@TV is heavily dependent upon a chip-based high-powered CPU. "We have a powerful CPU to run processing by HTML plus hardware acceleration so the CPU doesn't have to get involved in any of that," said David Ballie, C-Cube's consumer network products general manager. C-Cube is working with a variety of set-top vendors, including Pioneer New Media Technologies Inc., which is incorporating the chips into its OpenCable platform set-tops. Peach's approach, based as it is on translating Web content to Windows and MPEG, helps cable operators enter the market quickly and inexpensively, said Paz. "If you're talking about the first 500 subscribers, it will be $100 per sub charge to the MSO. We're talking a real fast return on investment," Paz pointed out. He also noted that the technology lets operators continue to use the same digital set-tops even as customer demands escalate. "Since we're not relying on the power of the CPU at home, we're really extending the lifetime of those set-top boxes," he said. "We can really allay the fear of the MSOs. We can tell them we can extend the life of those set-top boxes much longer than three years." C-Cube's believes that processing costs will continue to spiral downward, meaning more power per chip for less money. C-Cube's model also gives the program providers the chance to become Internet Service Providers (ISPs). (November 30, 1998)