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

To: QuietWon who wrote (38837)	2/6/1999 12:09:00 PM
From: J Fieb	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50808

Quiet W., We have missed something? I hope; it's something BIG. Nice review of the next Encore..... winmag.com DVD Drive Deserves an Encore --by James E. Powell Right on the heels of our WinList favorite, the Creative Labs PC-DVD Encore Dxr2, comes a successor kit with a third-generation DVD drive, the PC-DVD Encore 5X. The drive features Dxr2 (DynamicXtended Resolution) picture enhancement technology to provide what are undoubtedly the most striking images you'll see. And the Dolby Digital (AC-3) sound is equally mind-boggling. Engineered to run at five times the speed of first-generation DVD drives, the PC-DVD Encore 5X achieved a 3.3X DVD rating in our TestaCD Labs' DVD Tach test. The unit also plays CDs, though only at 21.3X maximum, not its 32X rated speed. However, this third-generation drive supports existing CD-ROMs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs-a claim I verified. To test the Encore 5X, I replaced the on-board sound system of an NEC PowerMate 8100-450 with a Sound Blaster Live audio card (see Reviews, December 1998), and hooked the audio output to a Creative Labs DeskTop Theater 5.1 speaker system that supports Dolby Digital (AC-3) sound. Like Creative Labs' PC-DVD Encore Dxr2, the PC-DVD Encore 5X was extremely easy to set up, thanks to excellent documentation. The results? The drive performed beautifully. Video was nothing short of spectacular, and the DeskTop Theater 5.1 speakers delivered all the nuances of my DVD movie titles. So why get excited about DVD movies? Because of the potential for DVD-based AC-3 audio on the PC, which will make possible anything from more compelling PowerPoint presentations or marketing discs to more dynamic sound bites on encyclopedia discs. If you want a fast drive that produces unsurpassed video and audio from DVDs and CDs, the Creative Labs PC-DVD Encore 5X is an excellent upgrade for your system. That's why it replaces the PC-DVD Encore Drx2 on our WinList. <Picture: winlist><Picture: Win 98><Picture: Win 95><Picture: Win NT> Creative Labs PC-DVD Encore 5X Bottom Line: Faster, better performer and less expensive than its predecessor Pros: Performance; documentation; price Cons: None Price: $249 Creative Labs 800-998-5227, 408-428-6600 Winfo #613 © 1998 Windows Magazine March 1999, Page 103.

To: QuietWon who wrote (38837)	2/6/1999 4:33:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Respond to of 50808

MediaMatic's DVD chip........................................ techweb.com February 08, 1999, Issue: 1047 Section: Semiconductors -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mediamatics integrates DVD on a single chip Junko Yoshida Fremont, Calif. - True to its commitment to system-on-a-chip technology, National Semiconductor Corp. subsidiary Mediamatics has unveiled a single-chip DVD solution integrated with all the back-end functions of a DVD player, except for the audio D/A converter and memory. The Pantera-DVD chip combines a transport demux; MPEG-2 video/Dolby Digital decoder; CSS descrambling; NTSC/PAL encoding; video D/A converters; and Mediamatics' proprietary 32-bit RISC CPU. Unlike most DVD chip sets, the Pantera-DVD eliminates the need for an external host CPU or microcontroller, as well as a separate video encoder and video D/As. The chip's claim to fame includes high-level integration and the quality it brings to the market. "We are bringing the audio/video quality of an $800 high-end DVD player into this single-chip solution," said Prem Nath, president and chief executive officer of Mediamatics. "This should allow OEMs to build a high-quality $300 DVD player." Mediamatics said its solution improves video-display quality, with high-quality bits maintained from the digital to the analog domain. Audio and video are synchronized without the usual compromises, such as repeating or skipped frames, said Pier Del Frate, vice president of marketing. The on-chip integration of a high-quality 10-bit video D/A as well as an NTSC/PAL encoder has helped Mediamatics achieve some of those advances, he added. At the heart of the DVD solution lies Mediamatics' proprietary 32-bit RISC CPU. The embedded processor running at 66 MHz performs all the housekeeping tasks inside the chip, as well as parsing and controlling audio and video streams. No external CPU is required. Although proprietary, the good news about this homegrown CPU is that it's compatible with the MIPS R3000 instruction set. "We can take advantage of all the third-party tool sets," said Nath. The CPU serves as a platform for associated DVD applications, such as navigation, on-screen display and front-panel control. According to Nath, it has enough processing power to run other applications, such as Internet browsing. To show off the expandability of Pantera-based systems, the company demonstrated a DVD player integrated with the Net-crawling feature at the Consumer Electronics Show last month, using a browser developed by Planetweb (Mountain View, Calif.). Pantera is manufactured using a 0.35-micron process. By the end of this year, Mediamatics plans to move to 0.25 micron. "That would allow us to produce an integrated RISC CPU that can run at 81 MHz," said Del Frate. The plan is to leverage the extra processing clout to run DVD front-end servo-controller functions, with the help of architectural enhancements, he said. Squarely targeting the Asian market, including China, Mediamatics is offering a complete manufacturing kit that includes all the hardware, software, manufacturing documentation, casing, board schematics and Gerber files needed to produce a consumer DVD player. The software components are particularly important, said Nath, for consumer companies that want to customize their own user interface quickly, or for those that can't muster enough software engineers to write all the necessary DVD software, including real-time OS, on-screen display and navigation. The Pantera-DVD chip, available now, is $30 in volume. Based on Mediamatics' manufacturing kit, OEMs can build a DVD player at a bill of materials of $187, according to the company. Mediamatics says it has already signed up three OEMs in China that have started manufacturing, and one in Japan. Copyright ® 1999 CMP Media Inc.