Hmm....
Microsoft moves deeper into cable
By Junko Yoshida
EE Times
(12/04/98, 4:52 p.m. EDT)
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Microsoft Corp. moved closer to its stated intention of converging Windows CE and its WebTV set-top this week when it showed an early version of CE running on a reference design that's based on a new version of the ASIC that powers the WebTV system. The demo was just part of a series of broader moves-including striking a development deal with set-top maker Scientific-Atlanta-designed to position the PC software company in the cable-TV arena.
Microsoft and Scientific-Atlanta Inc. (Norcross, Ga.) announced two agreements at the Western Show, here. Microsoft said it would let its WebTV Networks service run on non-WebTV boxes for the first time-in this case, Scientific-Atlanta's Explorer 2000 advanced digital set-top box. Separately, the two companies said they would collaborate in developing Scientific-Atlanta's next-generation set-top, which will run Windows CE.
However, Stephen Necessary, vice president of marketing at Scientific-Atlanta, noted that this box, planned for launch in late 1999 or early 2000, will be based on an architecture that's designed to run both CE and the PowerTV operating system. Scientific-Atlanta owns 85 percent of PowerTV (Cupertino, Calif.), whose OS has been the key software underpinning its current Explorer 2000 advanced digital set-tops.
The collaboration with Microsoft "should get the PowerTV team members to stay competitive, driving them to work even harder to improve the PowerTV OS so that nobody wants to have Windows CE running on his set-top," Necessary said. The choice of an operating system-either PowerTV or Windows CE-is being left to each cable operator.
In addition, Scientific-Atlanta also sealed a deal with WorldGate Communications Inc. (Bensalem, Pa.) to run that company's Internet TV Over Cable service on its Explorer 2000 box as well as the WebTV service. That deal was announced at the Western Show, too.
Both Scientific-Atlanta and PowerTV officials are keeping mum about their ultimate choice of a processor and other chips to go inside Scientific-Atlanta's next-generation set-top. The current Explorer 2000 runs on microSparc, whose processing power is only 54 Mips. PowerTV runs on a number of CPUs including PowerPC, SH and MIPS. WinCE, however, is not available on microSparc.
The next-generation set-top will include a cable modem compliant with the Docsis spec now being ironed out by the cable industry.
WebTV meets WinCE
Microsoft's own set-top reference design is based on the so—called Solo II ASIC and QED's MIP 5230 CPU. The Solo II chip integrates 2-D/3-D graphics acceleration and high-quality resizing with Microsoft's unique 2 1/2 MPEG-2 Main Profile @ Main Level decoding functions.
Fabricated by Toshiba Corp. using a 0.3-micron CMOS process technology, the 2 1/2 MPEG-2 MP@ML decoder essentially allows a set-top to do high-resolution fast-forward and rewind of the MPEG-2 MP@ML video stream. Alternatively, it can simultaneously decode six MPEG-1 video streams or two MPEG-2 video streams, according to Jim Baldwin, manager of broadband client architecture at Microsoft's WebTV Networks.
The software giant designed its own chip and hardware development platform for the Windows CE OS mainly "as an enabler," Baldwin said. "We wanted to control our own production schedule, features and destiny, rather than depending on our partners to do so."
Considering a rather tight schedule imposed upon the first shipment of advanced digital set-top boxes running Windows CE, the prealpha status of the operating system has some industry players worried. General Instrument Corp.'s DCT-5000 advanced digital set-top, which is supposed to run either Windows CE or Sony's Aperios, is scheduled for late in the second quarter of 1999, according to Daniel Moloney, senior vice president of advanced network systems at GI (Horsham, Pa.).
One chip vendor looking for a design socket in the DCT-5000 said that he is concerned about when the box will actually start shipping. In order to drive the DCT-5000 into a volume product, "some critical software [OS] issues need to be resolved," he said.
For its part, Microsoft is leveraging its WebTV Network in a strategic move to establish an Internet-access business in the cable market. Running WebTV service on non-Web TV boxes is "a new direction, but a logical next step for us," said Patrick McGraw, a consulting engineer at WebTV.
Microsoft needs to port its service to the broadband cable-modem arena, since WebTV boxes to date are only capable of providing up to a 56-kbits/s modem.
Delicate integration
Scientific-Atlanta, meanwhile, will also face the crucial task of system integration: combining and tailoring the WebTV service with its own conditional-access, head-end network systems and other technologies.
McGraw, noting interest from other set-top box vendors, said that Scientific-Atlanta may be the first company to announce a deal to use the WebTV service, but it may not necessarily be the first one to implement it.
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