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

To: DiViT who wrote (38872)	2/9/1999 2:23:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Set-Top Box Market Frenzy sumnet.com From Electronic News--February 8, 1999 By Peter Brown San Jose-- Almost weekly, a new round of electronics companies pledge their allegiance to OEMs and component makers for digital set-top boxes, cable and satellite broadcast markets. Despite the presence of several 'gorillas" the market continues to attract new players. So what drives these companies to actually want to get down and dirty in this highly competitive market? It has to be something viable and attainable. And that is pure, unadulterated demand. High volumes of demand for satellite, cable and digital television (DTV) products for the home. Digital set-top box revenue for satellite, cable and DTV this year alone are forecasted to be $4.7 billion with 14 million units shipping, according to Cahners In-Stat Group, based in Scottsdale, Ariz. For digital direct broadcast systems (DBS). In-Stat forecasts in 1998 10 million set-tops were sold worldwide. This is huge growth for a market that was only shipping a few thousand units a couple of years ago. "We are seeing many customers promote their design wins to encourage others to sign up," said Michelle Abraham, senior analyst at In-Stat. "Everyone is looking for the large customers and more and more competitors each week are coming out and entering the market to make that more difficult." Some of these other companies are those with MPEG encoder/decoder functions, a front or back end reference design offering or digital signal processing technology that they believe can be used for this emerging market. "The honey does attract a lot of bees and you have a situation where we are in the front end of an exciting market opportunities and high growth segments," said Dale Ford, senior analyst at Dataquest, a market research firm in San Jose. The leaders in the set-top market, such as ST Microelectronics Inc., C-Cube Microsystems Inc., BroadCom Corp. and LSI Logic Corp., are continually being challenged by new entrants into the market such as Zoran Corp., ESS Technology Inc., and many, many others including various start-ups. However, some may be rash in entering the technology. "Staying focused is a problem for a number of companies in this market," said Ford. "Rather than finding the next big growth area, they try everything and that hurts the overall company line." Ford noted that some companies onto their third generation of set-tops have chosen a different technology each and every generation leaving those other ICs used in the past high and dry. Needless to say, this might crush start-up companies with only one or two products and could drive others out of the market entirely. Yet, new companies continue to take that chance. The Cable Equation One area that seems to be generating a significant amount of heat is in the cable set-top area. This is mostly because of the OpenCable standard, which may be on the verge of being completed this year. OpenCable promotes that Cable companies would no longer be responsible for buying and supplying cable customers with set-top boxes for the home. Consumers would have to buy a cable box that could be used anywhere for any cable system. This would save cable companies millions of dollars while eliminating the need for consumers to "rent" the cable boxes. The OpenCable specification may be standardized by 1Q00. "OpenCable allows an additional opportunity for companies to move in," said Ford. "This opens barriers that may in the past been there for numerous companies. Because of this there are a lot of opportunities for innovation in this area from new and current set-top manufacturers." This may also spawn numerous hybrid boxes from new and current companies that contain a variety of value added including a DVD player, a hard disk drive, smart card or PCMCIA access, WebTV technology or equivalent, HDTV boxes with multiple data services, or a box that combines both cable and satellite requirements to receive both programming. Graphics Jump on Most of the leading graphics accelerator vendors are already on the move with products of their own that will be targeting the set-top box arena. The leading company is ATI Technologies Inc. who has already garnered design wins for its Rage Pro set-top offering from General Instruments. "Most set-top manufacturers want to improve the 2-D technology and eventually the 3-D technology to enable interactivity and Internet applications to be more feature rich. This obviously gives the graphics guys an opportunity to cash in," said Abraham. She added that while the graphics guys are making moves into the consumer space, other companies, already involved in the set-top arena, are looking to improve the graphics in their own chips. ATI is not the only one, however, last week, S3 Inc. said it plans to enter the set-top consumer market with a product of its own in the near future perhaps even before the end of the year (EN, Feb. 1). Also, add-in board and graphics IC vendor Matrox Graphics Inc. and newly public Nvidia Inc. could be the next graphics manufacturers to enter the digital consumer market. There are still a number of issues that regular set-top boxes manufacturers have to deliver. For satellites, it's solving the local programming issue while continuing to add value such as teaming with Internet companies and providing interactivity. For cable, it's passing the OpenCable standard and delivering the set-tops on time at an affordable rate. For DTV, the opportunity is endless but the costs and infrastructure still need to be worked out before these high volumes can be attained

To: DiViT who wrote (38872)	2/9/1999 9:56:00 PM
From: John Rieman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Philips likes to do it the Betaresearch way. Betaresearch's d-Box was based on C-Cube chips. Maybe a newer version.................. broadcast.philips.com Philips Digital video Systems chosen to develop and produce the ‘d-box' Eindhoven, January 12, 1999 Philips Digital video Systems has been contracted to develop set-top box products based on the platform know as the ‘d-box'. This was announced by Betaresearch, the research and development arm of the German-based Kirch Group, which today unveiled their ‘betanova' application programming interface (API) for digital set-top boxes. The launch of ‘betanova' API makes the ‘d-box' platform available to all users and will allow companies to develop their own application software, electronic program guides (EPG), games and interactive services for the ‘d-box', just as special application software programs can be written for PCs. As all commercial and non-commercial TV and radio programs can be received via the 'd-box' (which is already installed in 700,000 German households), service providers and industry will in future be able to develop new applications independently using betanova. These include, EPG's, games and a host of industrial applications, e.g. market research, data transfer and E-commerce. This new interface for the ‘d-box' will make a significant contribution to expansion of the digital market. Philips will develop and manufacture these future ‘d-box' products and intends to supply products to Premiere, DF 1, Deutsche Telekom and other service providers. Philips has vast experience in the consumer electronics field and has wide access to consumer retail outlets. Philips Digital Video Systems is the professional television and video arm of Philips and is a world leader in MPEG-2 compression and transmission systems as well as set top boxes. Commenting on the development agreement, Mr. Rob van Oostenbrugge, Managing Director of Philips Digital Video Systems, said: “This latest contract to develop future ‘d-box' products is confirmation that Philips is firmly at the forefront in broadcast development and in setting the standards in interactive TV. It further expresses the market's confidence in our leadership and innovative capacity in the professional broadcasting field.” Philips Digital Video Systems Company, a division of Philips Electronics North America Corporation, is a leading manufacturer of digital equipment and systems for the professional television and video production communities, and is a world leader in MPEG-2 compression and transmission systems. North American headquarters is located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Phone: (801) 972-8000; Fax: (801) 972-6304. European headquarters is located in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Phone: 31-40-273-2420. South American headquarters is located in Saó Paulo, Brazil. Phone: 55-11-821-2020. Far East/Pacific Rim headquarters is located in Singapore. Phone: 65-350-2000. Philips Electronics, of The Netherlands, is one of the world's largest electronics companies, with sales of over US$39 billion in 1997. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, home telephony products and electric shavers. Its 264,700 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the area of, semiconductors and components, consumer products, professional products and systems, lighting, and software and services. Philips is quoted on the NYSE, London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For further information contact: AMERICAS EUROPE & FAR EAST/PACIFIC RIM John Russel Bart van Dijk SSA Public Relations, Los Angeles Philips, The Netherlands (818) 501-0700 +31-40-273-3615 e-mail: ssapr@sprynet.com e-mail: dijk3@am.umc.ce.philips.nl