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

To: BillyG who wrote (37566)	12/2/1998 9:30:00 AM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Scientific-Atlanta strikes deal with Intertainer news.com By Stephanie Miles Staff Writer, CNET News.com December 2, 1998, 4:00 a.m. PT A key component in Scientific-Atlanta's push to rev up its TV set-top computer business includes a deal with Intertainer, the well-funded company that is developing ways to meld the Internet and television experiences. At the Western Cable Show today, the companies announced plans to deliver Intertainer's "entertainment-on-demand," e-commerce, and targeted advertising services over SA's Explorer 2000 TV set-top box, an Internet appliance also capable of controlling digital video, communications, and home electronics appliances. Once in place, cable subscribers will be able to use the Explorer 2000 box to access a host of new movie, music, interactive TV, and shopping services. Intertainer has an impressive list of backers. To provide programming for its entertainment services, the company has agreements with movie, music, and TV studios. It also has technology relationships with Sun Microsystems and Informix, and service arrangements with online book seller barnesandnoble.com and video-based software provider Comcast, Sony, Intel, NBC and US West, and analysts say it will be a key player in the future of digital TV and set-top boxes. Intertainer's services will be the first applications designed to operate on the Explorer 2000 platform using the PersonalJava language. Explorer 2000 supports many applications with "PC-like capabilities," the company says. The box includes a built-in RISC processor, an operating system from Sun, and scripting languages. SA has received purchase orders or commitments for its digital network from 14 cable operators in the United States and Canada, representing more than 16 million cable subscribers.

To: BillyG who wrote (37566)	12/2/1998 11:16:00 AM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

TCI says digital cable sales are strong........................... cabledatacomnews.com TCI Reports Strong Digital Sales, Slow @Home Rollout In Q3 Briefing MSO Also Alludes to Set-Top Strategy Shift Resulting from AT&T Merger Tele-Communications Inc. announced it finished the third quarter with 720,000 digital cable TV customers on September 30 and topped the one-million mark in November. In the third quarter alone, TCI said it added some 300,000 digital customers, more than 20,000 per week. During TCI's Q3 analyst briefing, TCI President Leo J. Hindery, Jr. boasted the company's digital video customers are spending an average of $15.46 per month (not including set-top lease fees) on digital video, due largely to increased pay-per-view buy rates. Since TCI only incurs $5.67 per month in direct expenses per digital subscriber, Hindery says these customers are now delivering $9.79 per month in direct cash flow, or a margin of 63 percent. At this rate, TCI's current digital customer base could contribute more than $110 million in 1999 cash flow. TCI is quick to crow about the pace of its digital rollout compared to other MSOs. However, in reality, TCI's aggressive broadcast digital TV service deployment has been driven by the slow pace of its cable plant upgrades. Lacking the analog channel capacity required to meet customer needs, TCI needed to quickly introduce an expanded digital TV programming lineup to prevent customer defection to DBS competitors. Conversely, MSOs like Cox and MediaOne have widely upgraded the analog capacity of their networks and activated two-way capabilities before broadly offering digital. And compared to TCI, they have far more aggressively launched cable modem services. At its annual analyst conference in March 1998, TCI hyped an agreement with Bank of America and Intuit to subsidize the costs of digital set-tops. Under the plan, the companies were to exclusively offer personal finance services to TCI digital subscribers and pay an undisclosed per-customer fee for the privilege. TCI was also going to pay for the set-tops with an "off balance sheet financing vehicle" to avoid adding to its existing debt burden. During TCI's November analyst call, Hindery noted that the "Bank of America transaction has lapsed," and that the MSO is now negotiating with other financial players. Hindery also says TCI has now decided to keep set-top capital on its own balance sheet. Why the change? With pending access to AT&T's deep pockets and excellent credit rating, TCI no longer needs to worry about scrounging for set-top capital subsidies. It marks a fundamental change in TCI's operating strategy.

To: BillyG who wrote (37566)	12/2/1998 12:09:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50808

Need to spend a bit of time on the comparisions but here's a start.. Any help in collecting all the info in one place is appreciated. Especially from the lurking Cubies. Once collected I'll post it on the Wall. Chips needed for a settop. Broadcom vs Cube. C-Cube BroadCom NIM * BCM3300 Cable Modem BCM4201 DBS/MMDS Satellite Receiver BCM6010 ADSL/VDSL Transceiver BCM3120 Transceiver Graphics AViA-iNX BCM7014 TV Graphics System Decoder AViA-602 BCM7010 Set-top Box Decoder CPU AViA-iNX Mips SmartCard AViA-iNX IR rec/trans AViA-iNX * 1824 Interface * (Parallel port) AViA-iNX * 1394 Interface * AViA-iNX 2 way Network (ATM, HFC, MAC) AViA-iNX BCM3300 Cable Modem (MAC) Disclaimer: All information taken from recent press releases. This comparision is likely to be incomplete and probably inaccurate in some areas... (* means 3rd party) Front End = Network Interface Module (NIM).