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

To: John Rieman who wrote (37614)	12/3/1998 4:37:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

China gov't invests in DVD infrastructure eet.com By Sunray Liu with contribution from George Leopold EE Times (12/03/98, 4:20 p.m. EDT) BEIJING — China is stepping up efforts to kick start a domestic DVD (digital video disk) industry, investing in such key technologies as laser diodes for optical heads, MPEG-2 decoder development and the improvement of DVD manufacturing capabilities, in the hopes of building demand among consumers for the emerging but so far expensive technology. In anticipation of the new market that the Chinese government's investment in DVD technology will open, such foreign companies as C-Cube Microsytems, ESS Technology, STMicroelectronics, Panasonic and LSI Logic Corp. are offering their own single-chip DVD solutions to Chinese OEMs. Manufacturers and industry analysts gathered here last month for a government-sponsored symposium predicted Chinese consumers will buy 15 million video CD (VCD), super video CD (SVCD) and DVD players in each of the next five years. Demand for DVD players is expected to take off next year, with as many as 10 million players sold annually beginning three to four years from now. Peng Fu, chief analyst for market researchers Advanced Forecasting-HuiCong (Cupertino, Calif.), said relatively cheap video CDs and VCD players will make it tough for DVD manufacturers to crack the Chinese market. "At least for the next two years, the DVD market in China will not grow so fast," Peng said. "After two or three years, maybe the [DVD] market will be better." The China State Press and Publication Administration "is supporting the new products in electronic publishing," said Mao Xiaomao of the Administration's Department of A/V and Electronic Publishing. "We approved the importing of seven DVD manufacturing lines and a mother disk [production] line." Despite progress on several fronts, the nascent Chinese DVD software industry faces other barriers. The biggest is the lack of national DVD standards to support the software industry. Another is the lack of high-quality titles that can drive demand for DVDs. As things stand, most domestic films must be reproduced to improve their audio to international standards like 5.1-channel sound. The Chinese government is pumping funds into research on key technologies in the hopes of seeding a home-grown DVD capability. Supported by the government, the Semiconductor Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science has developed a new 650-nm red lightwave laser diode. The laser's power, optical and temperature characteristics appeared promising in tests in which it was used as an optical head. Researchers at Tsinghwa University are developing other parts of the optical head, including work on a lens, actuator and other components. Feng Jichun, vice director at the High-Technology Development and Industrialization ministry, called the laser-diode work a "breakthrough of key technologies," adding that the focus now is on volume production. "Our scientists and engineers are paying more attention to the innovation of technologies that will help our enterprises release the pressure of [intellectual property rights]," Feng said. Elsewhere, fabless design houses like the state-sponsored China IC Design Center and other domestic chip makers are focusing on developing MPEG-2 decoders. VCD player makers are also investing in similar video technology. Some are working independently, while others are cooperating with U.S. partners. 300 titles so far As the number of DVD titles in the Chinese market grows to about 300, so does the list of foreign companies announcing single-chip DVD solutions. Among the first was C-Cube Microsystems (Milpitas, Calif.). C-Cube announced it will supply fully tested chip sets that will enable DVD manufacturers here to quickly incorporate them into their players. The company also said it will help Chinese OEMs produce DVD cameras based on its DVD-RW technology. One of C-Cube's chief rivals in China, digital video chip vendor ESS Technology (Fremont, Calif.), is also trying to help manufacturers ease the transition from SVCD to DVD production. Its ESS 4408 solution aims to provide audio functions like 5.1-channel sound and karaoke via software. The 4408 integrates 32-bit RISC video and a 64-bit DSP, allowing developers to use high-end C language programming to develop DVD functions. ESS' programmable multimedia processor also allows OEMs to offer other capabilities through DVD players, including video telephones and teleconferencing. France's STMicroelectronics and Japan's Panasonic have also jumped into the Chinese DVD market, promoting themselves as one of the few IC makers offering manufacturers a complete line of DVD design solutions. STM announced a low-cost DVD-on-a-chip based on a 32-bit RISC processor. Meanwhile, Panasonic's solution includes the necessary chip sets and a kit that were originally released in Japan. Panasonic's DVD chip sets are now attracting Chinese partners through its joint ventures here as well as through its national support network. LSI Logic Corp. (Milpitas, Calif.), which set up a facility in Beijing, has announced design wins for its DVD decoder chip, and expects to announce more before the Consumer Electronics Show in January. LSI's Hong Kong-based partner has also developed DVD solutions for the Chinese industry that are expected to help China meet its goal of producing 1 million DVD players next year. Meanwhile, the state-run Xinhua Bookstore, China's largest, said it would use its chain of stores to form a network for renting DVD titles.