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To: DiViT who wrote (41663)	6/1/1999 2:14:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

MSU's technology would be a useful addition for a manufacturer of MPEG-2 decoders, or for a company that wants to offer a highly integrated solution that would include decoding as well as the DVD-ROM servo and playback electronics. Maybe Slipstream would be useful tech for settop box/WebTV system.

To: DiViT who wrote (41663)	6/1/1999 2:29:00 PM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

LSI's Next-Generation Set-Top Box Plans (old news) By Peter Brown From Electronic News--May 24, 1999 Milpitas, Calif.-- LSI Logic Corp. last week introduced the SC2000 source decoder chip designed to power next-generation convergence-type set-top boxes (STBs) including those with DVD players, hard disk drives and components for digital television (DTV). Long thought of as only an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) house, LSI Logic is continuing to expand into the realm of application specific standard products (ASSPs) for consumer electronics. LSI is hoping for big sales for the SC2000. The company plans to target the SC2000 at next-generation cable and satellite set-top boxes and using the chip as a digital television converter. The SC2000 integrates DVB transport and MPEG-2 A/V decoding, a 2D graphics engine, a multi -standard video encoder, audio DACs and LSI's TinyRISC 32-bit MIPS microprocessor core. LSI claims it is the first company to incorporate an audio DAC in a STB chipset. The chip now is sampling with volume shipments planned to start in the third quarter priced at $20 in OEM quantities. LSI is offering the SDP2000 platform to help its customers develop systems based on the SC2000. "The STB market is becoming increasingly competitive with our customers demanding a common source solution that leverages their finite development resources while simultaneously addressing the multiple needs of their end customers," said Elie Antoun, executive vice president of the Consumer Products Division at LSI Logic, based here. Antoun said the SC2000 meets these needs for convergence applications. While the chip will be used for satellite and cable STBs, LSI Logic is hedging its digital television bets on the SC2000 chip. The company plans to offer set-top box platforms based on these chipsets that support standard MIPS software tools as well as low level driver APIs. Not only will the company use the SC2000 as a convergence DTV offering, it also will use the chip for stand alone DTV sets in the near future as price concerns continue to be a paramount issue for DTV, as the market attempts to gain momentum. As part of the SDP2000 development platform, the SC2000 can interface with LSI's DTV channel products for digital terrestrial, cable and satellite STBs. Combined with the L64733/34 tuner/receiver chipset, LSI said it has a three-chip satellite STB offering for OEMs. In addition to traditional STBs, LSI plans to give OEMs a variety of flexibility in the SDP2000 development platform to enable graphics-rich receiver boxes or advanced entertainment systems that support Web browsing, video games and high-speed Internet access. The SDP2000 platform also may be used as a combination or hybrid launch pad for a DVD/DTV combo STBs or even for new platforms that are yet to be invented, LSI said. In other news, LSI detailed its MIPS-based processor roadmap, including its 64-bit MiniISC and the 32-bit TinyRISC that is included in the SC2000. The company plans to introduce a new version of the TinyRISC this year and one in the beginning of the year 2000 under its G12 0.18-micron manufacturing process. A G12 version of the MiniRISC may be available by the end of this year or toward the beginning of 2000 as well. The MiniRISC core is suitable for high-performance applications such as networking while the TinyRISC core is generally used for cost-sensitive applications such as DTV, cellular phones and other consumer items.