Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: VidiVici who wrote (38591)	1/26/1999 10:51:00 AM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

Microtune claims first single-chip TV tuner A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted 9:30 a.m./6:30 a.m., PST, 1/26/99 semibiznews.com By J. Robert Lineback PLANO, Tex. -- Three-year-old Microtune Inc. here today announced the first silicon-based TV tuner IC capable of handling television signals from the airwaves and cable networks. Until now, TV tuner modules have not change significantly for more than 25 years, according to the Texas startup. "For the first time, silicon will serve as the foundation in a new architecture [for TV tuners] that ushers in the digital media era, while enabling compatibility with legacy analog standards," said Douglas J. Bartek, CEO, president and chairman of Microtune. Bartek joined Microtune as it was quietly starting up in 1996 after holding management positions at Cirrus Logic, VLSI Technology and Motorola. During the past 20 months, Microtune engineers developed the company's MicroTuner IC, which integrates all of the analog functions needed to receive radio-frequency signals from broadcasts or cable TV connections. The company has lined up IBM Corp. as a foundry to produce the 0.8-micron BiCMOS tuner-on-a-chip. Microtune's TV tuner IC is believed to be the most complicated RF device of its type. The chip has about 35,000 transistors implementing the TV tuner function--about twice as many now used in RF chips for cellular phones, says Bud Taddiken, vice president of engineering at Microtune. The startup has obtained seven patents and applied for eight more covering over 600 patent claims to protect its technology, according to Microtune managers. "Microtune achieved what many in the industry said could not be done," declared analyst Gerry Kaufhold, who tracks digital TV and multimedia for In-Stat in Scottsdale, Ariz. He noted that the surface-mountable MicroTuner IC is "smaller than a thumbnail" compared to today's so-called "canned" TV tuner modules, which have dozens of discrete components and require manual tuning during assembly. To put a tuner on an IC, Microtune created a proprietary RF silicon architecture and circuit design techniques to eliminate on-chip interference from multiple local oscillators and other TV receiver functions on a single die. The MicroTuner chips used a dual conversion tuner architecture to address both the off-air dynamic range requirements of broadcast signals that can vary in strength and the ability to select tightly-packed cable TV signal from networks. Initially, Microtune is focusing its tuner IC on cable TV set-top boxes and cable modem systems in North America, but it is also working with component suppliers supporting digital TV and other set-top box applications to offer complete design solutions for consumer electronics, says James Fontaine, executive vice president of sales and marketing at the Plano company. Microtune figures its initial product and follow-on ICs will be able to address a worldwide tuner market that totals about 300 million units a year, counting color TVs, VCRs, direct broadcast satellite (DBS) systems, cable set-top boxes, cable modems, PC/TV, and picture-in-picture (PIP) applications. Microtune's first product, the MT2000, will sell for $19.95 each in quantities of 10,000. Samples of the TV tuner chip are available now with production deliveries slated to begin in the second quarter.

To: VidiVici who wrote (38591)	1/26/1999 5:33:00 PM
From: VidiVici	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

Microsoft Europe Deals Focus On PC-TV Convergence By Dick Satran SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) has done two deals in two days with European companies that it says share the software giant's ''roadmap and vision'' of digital television's future. Microsoft invested $500 million in Britain's NTL Inc. (Nasdaq:NTLI - news) and completed a technology-sharing agreement Amsterdam-based United Pan-European Communications NV (UPC), saying it will work with both companies on interactive television using their cable technology and systems. The companies did not disclose a dollar value for the UPC deal. ''There will be new commercial products by midyear 2000 out of these ventures,'' aimed at the digital television arena, Microsoft's director of digital television strategy, Alan Yates, said in an interview. Cable technology is becoming increasingly attractive with the emergence of digital television, because the cable wires can carry two-way multimedia transmissions, Yates said. That allows for the evolution of a system more sophisticated than the widely used satellite TV systems in Europe, he said. ''Satellite does provide lots of benefits in terms of providing more digital channels through a wide footprint (coverage area),'' said Yates. ''But in areas where cable is laid, is it is a complete two-way network, as opposed to satellite which just goes downstream and telephone is needed to carry messages back upstream.'' The vision is to use cable's two-way wiring into homes so television and personal computers can become two-way devices connected to the Internet, offering a wide variety of services. ''Consumers are going to really love the synergy between the PC and the TV that this will bring,'' said Yates. ''They will be able to get their e-mail from either the PC or the television and go to their favorite Web sites either on the TV or the PC.'' While Europe has lagged America in the development of the Internet over telephone lines, it is well-placed to jump ahead in Internet-connected digital television, which will carry multimedia to a new level, said Yates. Microsoft chose UPC and NTL as the companies to work with because they will be able to work quickly in the highly competitive and fast-changing digital market. ''With both NTL and UPC, the thing that attracted us was their aggressive commitment to digital deployment,'' Yates said. With the new deals, Microsoft appears to be moving ahead of its U.S. competitors in creating a presence in the growing ''broadband'' market in Europe. It has been less dominant in the United States, where high-speed Internet service deals have reached a frenzied pace. In the biggest deal so far, telephone giant AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T - news) will acquire cable leader Tele-Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:LBTYA - news), the majority owner of cable modem technology leader AtHome Corp., which in turn is acquiring Internet search service Excite Inc. (Nasdaq:XCIT - news) America Online Inc. (NYSE:AOL - news), meanwhile, has aligned with Bell Atlantic Corp (NYSE:BEL - news) to offer high-speed service and programming to its 14 million customers. All are betting that the convergence of the Internet and broadband wiring will be an unbeatable combination for consumer offerings and a focal point of the growing e-commerce business. Microsoft's European deals follow the same thinking. Indeed, Yates noted, UPC even has a cable modem venture, Cello, that follows the exact same model as AT&T's new affiliate, AtHome. And Microsoft in 1997 invested $1 billion in Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq:CMCSA - news), the large cable provider that once owned NTL and later sold it off. Microsoft views the ventures in Europe as a way to promote its development tools -- such as its Windows NT server software -- and also its consumer products ranging from Windows CE, the pared down operating system being used by some cable operators, to the Microsoft Network, the umbrella for its numerous Internet services, and WebTV, a set-top box that turns televisions into Internet stations. ''It's quite possible we will partner (with UPC and NTL) around common services or a set of common services,'' Yates said. ''They could be services that originate with Microsoft, as well as each having their own unique set of services, or a mixture.'' dailynews.yahoo.com