NAPA DataPlay music player DP600

http://www.amaxhk.com/products/napa/dp600/dp600.htm

OpenGlobe Unveils UPnP Network Audio Reference Design


By Mark Long -- e-inSITE, 1/9/2002


Indianapolis-based OpenGlobe has unveiled a new reference design (RD) for universal plug and play (UPnP)-compliant network audio entertainment receiver/players that incorporates a DSP from Texas Instruments. The RD has been designed to enable Internet radio and streaming of digital music files from a digital audio server appliance or a PC in a home network.

The reference design plays WMA and MP3 music files, as well as Internet radio stations streamed in either format. According to OpenGlobe, the company's new offering will give OEMs the ability to construct next-generation networked audio receivers in support of the Windows Media Audio (WMA) and MP3 standards for under $200.

"OpenGlobe's new reference design makes use of a variety of silicon solutions from Texas Instruments, including DSP, codecs and digital amplifiers," stated CEO Bernie Sepaniak in a prepared statement.

Based on TI's network audio processor, the reference design incorporates OpenGlobe's Entertainment Services, which deliver metadata and other content for enhancing the end-user's the listening experience. TI's network audio processor features programmability that will allow OEMs to differentiate their products by offering a variety of home networking options, including Ethernet, HomePlug, HomePNA, or 802.11b, as well as a power amplifier subsystem, plus front panel control and display features.

OpenGlobe's TI-based UPnP-compliant reference design and evaluation board are expected to become available in March of this year.

You'll need Moxi — or something like it

By USA TODAY


Joe Cavaretta, AP
Home server: Samsung's Home Media Center will distribute entertainment content throughout the house from a home "server."


Related stories

More from the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show




Now that you have so much digital entertainment in your home — from CDs to DVDs to MP3s — you probably need help organizing it all. And many companies want to help you out by selling you a single do-it-all box:

•The latest brainchild from WebTV co-founder Steve Perlman is the Moxi Media Center, from his newly named start-up Moxi Digital. An all-in-one, broadband-capable set-top box, the Moxi combines a satellite receiver or digital cable box with a personal video recorder, CD/DVD player, digital music jukebox (holding roughly 6,000 tracks), Internet gateway and home media server.

It will let you distribute recorded or live TV shows, music, pictures and games throughout the house without wires, by adding optional extension modules in other rooms. EchoStar, the first licensee, demonstrated a Moxi box for its Dish Network with two TV tuners (to watch one show while you record another), an 80-gigabyte hard drive, and speedy wireless networking capabilities. Moxi is expected out by year's end; pricing has not been set.

•Kenwood's Entré Entertainment Hub (just out, $1,500) has a 20-gigabyte hard drive with a built-in CD recorder, but it also links up with Kenwood DVD changers and receivers. Just load up to 400 discs in the changer and the Entré, which has a modem and Ethernet capability, will go onto the Net and get album or movie artwork and other information. Using an easy-to-manage onscreen interface, the Entré also plays Net radio stations and 60 channels of Sirius Satellite digital radio.

On the Web

Moxi Media Center



Plug Kenwood's Axcess Remote Portal ($500, out next month) into a home phone line and you can send music or Net radio from the Entré to another room in the home.

•Samsung and Microsoft are collaborating on a Windows XP-powered home media center (due in the fourth quarter, no price set) that will control TVs, DVD players, PCs and other devices, distributing entertainment content throughout the house from a home "server."

•Pioneer also announced that it will market a digital library server later this year (about $1,800) that will organize and transmit music, video clips, photos and other digital content throughout the home. A hard drive (at least 60 GB is planned) would hold up to 1,500 CDs' worth of music, plus thousands of photos and video clips. Eventually, DVD movies stored within a connected changer could be watched in different rooms of the home.

The premise of home entertainment networking sounds great, but it is a complicated concept, with a potentially high price tag that may scare off consumers. "That's going to be the challenge, showing the value of this but making it seem undaunting to install," says technology consultant Gary Arlen, president of Arlen Communications in Bethesda, Md.

Gateways To The Future
By John Poultney
Communication Systems Design
(01/07/02, 02:50:11 PM EDT)

When any product is in its infancy, it's up for grabs what shape it will assume. Take cars for example. We're used to them having four wheels, a circular steering device, and some levers and pedals for basic operation. That's the way it's worked out, but along the way there have been alternate designs - some with three wheels, some with different ways of steering, some with lots of accessories, some without.

There's a similar kind of evolution going on in terms of the residential gateway. Many in the design industry agree this device will be an important piece of the puzzle that brings ubiquitous high-speed connectivity to that great untapped market, the home. But given the array of access options available to consumers - DSL, satellite, broadband wireless, even (gulp!) dial-up added to several data-distribution options within the home, and you've got a melange of utter confusion.

Knowing that the residential gateway may prove to be the critical link in finally getting all the amazing communication technology we know and love into a true mass market, we at Communication Systems Design discussed the design of this device with several prominent OEM and component manufacturers. As expected, there is a wide range of opinions as to what should be included.

Some of the concerns ring familiar - a gateway device should be equipped to accommodate changing standards, and may be designed in such a way as to sit outside the home in a utilitarian sense, or as a piece of furniture, such as we've seen with PCs in the past few years. Will the gateway take the form of the set-top box, or will it be something we haven't experienced before? Part of the answer lies in visualizing what form tomorrows' home networks will assume.

Evolutionary, My Dear Watson
Ken Christy, product manager at Embedded Wireless Devices (Pleasanton, CA) says the industry will likely need to produce multiple gateway types for various functions, rather than a single device. "You'll probably be looking at one box with a DSL connection, for example, to handle data needs," he said. "Then for media, another one through the set-top box, and possibly a third one for home automation that works with the phone lines."

Amit Dhir, senior engineer of strategic applications at Xilinx Corporation (San Jose, CA), says networked multiple gateway-type devices will become the norm as the evolution of consumer electronics technology continues to blur the distinction between the home PC and other information appliances.

"People are likely to have disparate networks within the house," Dhir said, "There will be the PC network between desktop, laptops, scanners and other devices, which will likely use a PC as the gateway. Meanwhile, video/entertainment gateways will connect with appliances like digital TVs, MP3 players, gaming consoles, and the like."

Thus, Dhir predicts, the networked home will have multiple gateways initially but a single dedicated gateway that can provide high-speed Internet access while also networking disparate appliances and networking protocols. This unified gateway, he says, is the winning design for the home networking market. But it's also likely that the evolution of gateways will lead to an entirely new device that takes the best elements of gaming consoles, PCs, utility-centric gateways (for meter reading and energy optimization, for example), and other devices.

Take, for example, a settop box. As Dhir points out, set-top boxes are basically a simple device that decode audio and video signals to output to either an analog or digital display, while performing MPEG-2 audio and video compression. At the same time it has the capability for interactive TV, interactive gaming, digital video recording (DVR), and video-on-demand via a smart card reader.

However, according to Dhir, in the future this device will likely be enhanced to support multiple broadband access technologies (xDSL, satellite, cable, ISDN, and so forth) and home networking technologies (phone/power lines, HomeRF, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11b, Ethernet, 1394), evolving into a universal gateway.

Bernard Goffart, product line manager at Alcatel Microelectronics (Brussels, Belgium), also shares the integrated-device outlook in the long term. "An integrated access device (IAD) is a residential gateway providing several services such as voice (VoIP, VoDSL) or video services using the data pipe."

Market trends, says Goffart, are making it necessary to design a single gateway for different usages. "Today, different gateways connect with ISDN, ADSL, SHDSL, and Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)," he said, but merging such connections into a single box makes sense. "You might see a set-top box with DSL connectivity, like DirectTV DSL, for example," he noted, "or a gateway combining ADSL and SHDSL."

Modular, Simple Design
Peter Kempf, vice president of technology planning at Conexant Systems (Newport Beach, CA), says that designers should keep in mind that consumers ultimately want a modular, simple design that uses existing protocols (preferably those supported by Windows) to use in home networks. "Today's modular approach to home networking will give way to a more integrated solution, but in our view is this is likely 2 to 3 years before the feature set will settle down to create a true residential gateway."

Kempf says network processors are a critical component for designers to include, as engineers can easily support routing protocols for various distribution methods, such as Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA), 802.11, and powerline.

"Residential gateways will take on multiple form factors, with different WANs supporting different combinations of multiple LANs," says Alex Vasilevsky, chief technology officer at Ucentric Systems in Maynard, MA. "They could be integrated into other devices, such as set-top boxes, or not. From Ucentric's point of view, gateway functionality is 'table stakes' - a necessary building block - for what we know to be the real market opportunity for networked homes."

That opportunity, Vasilevsky says, requires a design with the ability to remotely provision gateway functions for future entertainment and communications. As to whether we'll need separate or unified gateways, he also predicts an evolutionary path.

"There is an important temporal element here," he said. "Initially, there will likely be separate gateways for different purposes, as consumers adopt early lead applications and incorporate the networked Internet lifestyle more fully into their daily lives - starting with more entertainment-oriented services and evolving to the more control-oriented possibilities."

"Over time," he notes, "as networks evolve to all Internet protocol - where voice looks the same as video that looks the same as Internet data - we will transition to a single gateway."

It's what's inside that counts
Once data reaches the residential gateway (the central receptor), what happens from there? It must get out to individual points within the home. And there are those who say it is a good idea for wireless methods to handle this distribution once the data is in the house.

Several standards vie for prominence here. There are a few new homes being built with Ethernet (IEEE 802.3) cabling to almost every room, and this is nice as it allows 100-Mbps transmission speeds and ready adaptation to emerging standards, but it also requires cumbersome wiring to be installed if it doesn't already exist.

But, while some new homes are being Ethernet enabled, there are millions of homes in the world that are not. That's why much interest has been placed on using wireless transport as the networking technology of choice.

The big challenge for residential gateway designers, however, is choosing the right wireless technology. Designers are faced with a flurry of options on the wireless front. From HomeRF to Bluetooth to 802.11, developers of residential gateways have a tough choice to make when selecting a wireless option.

Right now, the early standard winner seems to be the IEEE 802.11a and b wireless LAN (WLAN) specifications. With more enterprises rolling out WLAN systems and network interface card (NIC) and access point charges on the decline, WLANs have emerged as a clear alternative for the home market (See Figure 1 for a typical wireless home network.)

Dhir said that 802.11 (Wireless Ethernet) has significant momentum. And one of the big reasons he points to is the development of the IEEE 802.11a specification.

This specification calls for WLAN systems to operate in the 5-GHz band and employ an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation scheme. "This technology (used in 802.11a) uses an Ethernet-type media access control (MAC) layer based on carrier sense multiple access/collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) like 802.11b," Dhir

said. Much like wired Ethernet, he explained, the 802.11a products will be great for data traffic.

But, what about voice? According to Dhir, while 802.11 is well suited for data, it falls short on the voice front. That's why, as he points out, some are eyeing HiperLAN2 as a better alternative for establishing WLANs in the home.

Like 802.11a, OFDM also works in the 5-GHz band and employs an OFDM radio. But, unlike 802.11a, HiperLAN2 employs a TDMA-based MAC. This TDMA approach, Dhir said, allows "essential voice support."

In addition to HiperLAN2, some have pointed to HomeRF as a viable competitor to 802.11a/b in the home networking market. Another competitor to 802.11 could also arise in the form of Bluetooth.

As most know, Bluetooth has gotten the most hype. And while most of that hype has surrounded around connecting devices together, a good portion of industry members are already pondering the use of Bluetooth as a WLAN technology. But, an important question must be asked. Is Bluetooth really designed for WLAN operation?

As Dhir says, "Bluetooth is the ideal personal area network (PAN) and cable replacement solution. It will uniquely allow PANs to be created and torn down at a moments notice without an IT department."

But as a WLAN/home networking protocol, Bluetooth still has some way to go. In its current form, Bluetooth is not optimized for a WLAN set up. According to Dhir, Bluetooth is a good intra-device data communication tool. But, its frequency-hopping spread-spectrum (FHSS) modulation scheme and its lack of support for direct Internet access could hamper Bluetooth as a WLAN/ home networking technology.

A Dark Horse?
HomeRF could be considered a dark horse on the wireless side of the home networking market. Early on, the pundits viewed HomeRF as a viable solution for delivering connectivity to the home. Going for it, the spec had big backers, such as Proxim and Intel, and was designed specifically for the intricacies of the home.

But, HomeRF was plagued by problems. Speed became an ultimate headache for backers of the protocol. And as 802.11 WLAN technology began to grab hold, HomeRF backers began to bail, including its most visible backer, Intel.

Of course, HomeRF is still fighting. According to Christy, implementation of the Digital European Cordless Telephone (DECT) standards within the shared wireless application protocol (SWAP) specification has been a big plus for HomeRF. And, with the adoption of the HomeRF 2.0 specification, some of the speed problems have been addresses.

But, as Christy pointed out, while the spec is starting to shape up, HomeRF will still have trouble overcoming the momentum of 802.11.

Dhir agreed, "This is one of the oldest home networking technologies (after infrared), and does a great job in supporting both voice and data, as the protocol's use of separate schemes for voice and data provides high reliability for both." However, he added that designs based on this technology have of late seen a mass exodus of supporters, especially with the continuing price plunge of 802.11b solutions. And now, with the faster throughput of 802.11a systems around the corner, HomeRF might be in trouble.

"We do not view this as an either/or debate," Ucentric's Vasilevsky says of the wireless standards wars. "The point of debating the differing protocols is somewhat moot," he said, "as different environments and devices have connectivity requirements that are uniquely appropriate for them."

Wired - Still An Option?
Despite the promise of wired solutions like phone and powerline networking (wherein signals travel through existing home wiring to various rooms), it's hard to get around the wireless juggernaut.

Terry Riley of Texas Instruments' (TI's) DSL group predicts that 802.11 will likely win out for home networking, and that it holds significant advantage over other options.

"The advantage is that 802.11b has a history and installed base within the enterprise community and has built a strong market through installations in airports, hotels, cafes, schools, factories, and so forth," Riley said, noting that the technology translates well to a home setting. The disadvantages of the protocol, he said - security, price, and QoS issues - are all being resolved. "Security, as with most wireless systems, is an issue, and the industry is working hard to resolve this within IEEE," he said.

PowerLine, Riley said, lacks successful deployments, and few vendors offer solutions. "The location of power outlets affects the ability to be a true home networking technology worldwide," he said, "and older wiring may have difficulties handling the transmission." Additionally, Riley says, a quick power usage increase (such as the furnace or air conditioning usage) may negatively impact data rates.

Riley voices similar concerns for the HomePNA standard. "HomePNA is only being deployed in North America where the in-home phoneline network is ample enough to support a full home network," he said, "but in Europe and other regions around the world, there is only one phone jack per home and as with powerline, older homes in the US may also have problems handling the network."

Dedicated Cat5 cabling, he says, also has issues. "It's the least expensive home networking technology from a component aspect, but if your home isn't wired already, the labor and time it takes to install is much more intensive than other networks, and you still need to buy Ethernet adapters for your appliances, as you would with other home networking options."

Conexant's Kempf said, however, that the Powerline HomePlug specification, currently capable of 14-Mbps speeds, has the right combination of a ubiquitous network and built in QoS and security (see Figure 2) "While it may be a little late and cost a little more initially," he predicted, "Moore's Law will quickly make this the technology of choice for the wired backbone in a home." (See "HomePlug Standard Brings Networking to the Home," December 2000 Communication Systems Design, www.csdmag.com).

HomePNA, Kempf said, is another story. "While it may be cheap, HomePNA suffers from the fundamental problem of too few RJ-11 jacks," he noted. "With an average of only 2.5 jacks per household in the US, it does not create much of a network."

Xilinx's Dhir offers a holistic outlook. "While HomePNA seems an ideal technology in the US, it is impossible to network a house in Europe or the Asia/Pacific region where there is a single phone jack and limited phonelines around the house. Power lines, while omnipresent, are very noisy and do not allow for high data rate traffic."

However, he noted, there are many innovative technologies that could promise power lines to become a viable network. "Quite simply, over 70% of devices in the home require a power cord, and it would be ideal to network the appliances through the same power cord," Dhir said. "Meanwhile, Ethernet and fiber require laying out new cables. They do, however, provide faster data rates and superior protocols such as 1394 and USB 2.0 to be transmitted for voice, data, and video support."

3G: The Wild Card?
Once third-generation (3G) wireless networks reach wide deployment, designers may want to consider merging gateways with the cellular network, such that a 3G handset may adapt itself to a "home" or "road" network. This may alleviate the difficulties some consumers have of switching between phones, and could lead to greater telephony integration, especially if protocols like the wireless application protocol (WAP) can be supported.

Embedded Wireless Devices' Christy thinks it's not a bad idea to consider. "We're starting to believe there should be some bridging between the WAN/cellular network and the home. But, the question is, how to bridge them? Can you have a cell phone that would adapt to the home? Once it's in your network it can hook up to your system there, or at work, you can switch automatically to VoIP services, tapping into broadband networks and realizing new services." Flash memory that can automatically load the needed protocols would be a critical part of such a device, Christy said.

"Definitely, protocols like 3G should be supported," Ucentric's Vasilovsky said. "Gateways need to be part of a network that can deliver content and services to consumers anytime, anywhere, seamlessly." Software platforms that enable gateways to use WAP-, WML-, or HTML-enabled cell phones, he said, as well as support for SMS messaging system alerts and caller-ID messages, open up whole new categories of products that interact with dual-purpose cell phones.

The merging of cell phones with home networks makes sense to TI's Riley as well; he is bullish on the possibilities of such confluence. "Consumers will want the same connectivity wherever they are, including their home. And when they are home, they will want to also access their local network." Considerations will need to be made, he said, for transferring information between the home and 3G networks - or the possibility of a cell phone with 802.11 capabilities. But, he added, "There are a lot of technical and service related questions that will need to be answered before this happens."

Duty Now For The Future
So it's clear that standards are in constant flux. How then does a residential gateway designer go about future-proofing? After all, getting gateways deployed in the first place is arguably the most pressing problem in getting the much vaunted services (on which so much depends, economically at least) out to a broader customer base.

This means paying attention to components. Conexant's Kempf says the most practical way to future proof a gateway is to provide it with sufficient flash memory as well a good amount of processor overhead so that firewall upgrades and protocols such as universal plug and play (UPnP) can be implemented as they become available. "It is also important that every gateway be enabled with a HTTP microserver," he said, "so that customers can easily download upgrades and save them in flash without having to use a command line interface."

"A gateway, by definition, is not future-proofed," Ucentric's Vasilevsky said. "These and other non-managed devices can be built with memory enhancements, but the 'future proofing' possibilities are limited to bug-fixes and minor upgrades, not for wholesale additions of functionality."

For managed and network connected devices, Vasilovsky said, designers and providers can tap an application framework that enables rich services to be remotely provisioned and deployed over time. As such, he noted, these managed devices will effectively eliminate stranded capital and let providers leverage the CPE already in the home.

Alcatel's Goffart added, "Firmware upgrading will offer a solution to interoperability improvement, management of traffic prioritization service customization, and firewall security enhancements. We see a lot of evolution in the medium that will be used in home networking that will not be solved with just a software upgrade."

Whatever happens it pays to keep a close eye on the standards. Designers working on gateways are in a sense being asked to do the impossible - predict the future. Keeping systems adaptable with reconfigurable logic, flash memory, and versatile network processor architectures is a good start. But a good ear with which to listen to the market's demand is priceless in this scenario. We're not suggesting you sit in on marketing meetings just yet, but now's the time to pay attention.


John Poultney is a freelance technology writer in Northern California, and is the former Executive Editor of Communication Systems Design. He can be reached at jpoult7734@aol.com.

OPENGLOBE™ DELIVERS UNPARALLELED MEDIA EXPLORATION SERVICES FOR HOME ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEMS

In-depth music, movie & artist information complements broad range of digital media platforms delivering heightened knowledge of entertainment from comfort of the couch

Las Vegas, NV, CES, LVCC Booth #22741 (Jan. 8, 2002) — OpenGlobe today announced, the OpenGlobe Entertainment Services, a first-of-its-kind set of home entertainment services delivered to a broad range of platforms, making it simple for users to explore behind their media through a TV interface. OpenGlobe-enabled devices, shipping as early as July 2001, gain the new capabilities of these ever-evolving services. Current OpenGlobe-enabled devices include the Compaq iPAQ Music Center, Escient Convergence Fireball™, the Kenwood Sovereign™ Entré and Axcess.

Based on years of delivering visually engaging media management technologies for the home theater, OpenGlobe (an affiliate of Escient Technologies) again takes the lead bringing diverse, once PC-bound, convergence technologies to the living room in a meaningful way. "Our goal is to help users gain a heightened awareness of their media collections and, in turn, a heightened awareness of themselves," said Rob Hudson, OpenGlobe vice president of marketing. "You just can’t take a PC approach to this, you need to understand the couch experience and be true to it, while still breaking new ground with the use of technology behind the scenes. We let the user drive and the result is a totally opt-in personal journey of discovery into their entertainment interests."

Current OpenGlobe Entertainment Services capabilities include:

Music and Movie* Exploration: in-depth information behind the scenes of music and movies. Explore favorite artist/actor: biographies, discographies, filmographies and influences.
Music Programming: including Internet Radio from partners such as Radio Free Virgin and local radio stations from across the country and the world.
Media Recognition and Visual Interface Metadata: cover art, artists, track names, movie names, cast and crew.

Remote Media Management: Web Sync -- allows users to review and prepare music playlists remotely from any browser and synchronize lists; PC Sync –moves content from PCs to OpenGlobe-enabled entertainment devices and manages metadata, cover art and playlists through a home network.
CE-Commerce™: convenient, secure opportunities to buy media as a result of a user’s exploration into their music and movie interests.
* Movie content available Q1, 2002.

OpenGlobe Entertainment Services are designed to enhance a wide variety of consumer electronics devices. Using OpenGlobe core technologies and a TV-based interface, CD players evolve into digital audio jukeboxes, DVD players evolve into enhanced DVD players, receivers gain broadcast and Internet radio station auto-tuning, CD changers and portable MP3 jukeboxes gain a natural place in the home entertainment system.

About OpenGlobe
OpenGlobe, Inc., an affiliated company of Escient Technologies, LLC, is a leading entertainment services and media device technologies provider delivering simply powerful home entertainment. Working with world-class consumer electronics and personal computer manufacturers and core component suppliers, OpenGlobe seamlessly brings a world of entertainment capabilities into users’ home entertainment systems. Users can easily store and access their media collections, discover gaps, import and use digital media, create favorite playlists, or further access the OpenGlobe services to explore new artists or genres, get customized content, receive media recommendations, and opt into personalized CE-Commerce™ purchasing opportunities. Headquartered in Indianapolis, OpenGlobe sets the benchmark for products and services that entertain the concept of simplicity. www.OpenGlobe.NET

OpenGlobe™ Technology Powers The Compaq iPAQ™ Music Center
First Of The Next Generation Entertainment Solutions

Key User Features and Benefits:

Includes massive music storage of more than 5,000 songs (or 400 CDs).
Automatically organizes and identifies all your songs through an on-screen Visual Music Guide for creating song lists, groups or categories to sort and listen to large music collections.
OpenGlobe™ Entertainment Services power the Music Center’s Visual Music Guide, delivering customized entertainment content, music recommendations and Internet radio.
Pressing the OpenGlobe button on the remote, allows the user to access the free and ever-evolving services that can be enjoyed from the convenience of their couch.
For more information about the Compaq iPAQ Music Center please visit:
Press Release:
http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/pr/2001/pr2001061201.html
Product Info:
http://athome.compaq.com/showroom/static/ipaq/music_center.asp

ESCIENT® CONVERGENCE FIREBALL™
For much more information about FireBall and other Escient Covnergence porducts, please visit:
www.escientconvergence.com


Plays Well With Others

works with leading control and audio distribution systems through RS-232
extensive communications protocol!
mix and match different CD changer brands on the same system
FireBall Goes Multizone

daisy chain up to 5 FireBalls for 5 concurrent or independent zones of music!
Physital™

merge your physical CD collection seamlessly into your new digital world. Escient calls this "Physital"
FEATURES

Physical and non-physical music player with simple playback and control capabilities
Recognizes, manages, and displays physical audio CDs and MP3 music files and Internet Radio Stations
Automatic updated Internet Radio station list
Provides intuitive user interface - organize and select music instantly by artist, title, song, style, playlist and more
"Rips" from your CD collection stored in mega-changers, turning them into digital formats
Burns CDs form the single internal disc drive
Connects to home control systems and touch panels
Supports HPNA, cable, pots, DSL and multiple ISP connections
Three RS-232 external control ports for a combination of control systems, changers and touch panels
Controls external CD changers and can mix and match changer brands
Download to MP3 portable players such as Rio 600 from the USB port on the front of FireBall
User selectable compression rates - up to 320 KBps
Approximately 700 hours of music at 128 KBps
CDDB-enabled for music recognition
Enhanced entertainment services
Multizone capable through simple connection of multiple FireBalls
Connect multiple FireBalls to increase hard disc space
Comes with IR handheld remote and keyboard
Comes with Composite, S-Video, coax digital, phone and analog RCA audio cables

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ESCIENT® CONVERGENCE TUNEBASE® 200
For much more information about TuneBase 200 and other Escient Covnergence porducts, please visit:
www.escientconvergence.com


Plays Well With Others

works with leading control and audio distribution systems through RS-232
extensive communications protocol!
mix and match different CD changer brands on the same system
Leverage Your Existing CD Collection and 15 Year CD Investment at a Price You Won't Believe.

FEATURES

Complete CD management system
Instant access to entire music collection through a standard TV, display or touch panel
Organizes music by artist, song, style, playlist and more
Automatic updating to your collection when new discs are added or existing discs are moved or removed
Three RS-232 ports for connection to home control systems, changers and touch panels
Controls external CD changers, and can mix and match changer brands
CDDB-enabled for music recognition
Enhanced entertainment services
Complete serviceability and software upgrades via normal phone line, ISP, HPNA connection
Ethernet capable through optional USB dongle device
Embedded adapter (inside unit) for communications with Sony changers
Comes with wireless backlit IR handheld remote
Comes with Composite, S-Video and phone cables included

OpenGlobe is a leading entertainment services and platform ingredient technologies provider, harnessing the Internet to help manufacturers deliver simply powerful home entertainment to their end users. Working with world-class manufacturers -- currently Compaq, Kenwood, Escient® Convergence, Thomson Multimedia (RCA), and others -- OpenGlobe seamlessly brings a world of entertainment capabilities into users home entertainment systems

The Kenwood Sovereign Entré™ Entertainment Hub defines a new category of home entertainment product:
Has high-capacity music storage capability - consolidate your favorite music content all in one place, have the flexibility to organize, manage and access your music.
Built in CD-R/RW recorder with MP3 capability - create CD's that hold up to ten hours of music to take on the road with you (with MP3 capable car and portable audio players), create play lists for parties, transfer your music files to solid memory portable players.
Connect to the OpenGlobe gateway to access Internet radio, entertainment news, CE-Commerce.
Connect to a Kenwood Sovereign DVD mega changer and collect album art and liner notes from the OpenGlobe gateway for every disc in your collection. Entré organizes and displays this information so you can find and enjoy your favorite discs easily.
Hear your music saved on Entré's music storage system and Internet radio throughout your home with a Kenwood Axcess™ Remote Portal - fast and easy networking digitally through your existing phone lines.
Find out how the Kenwood Sovereign Entré Entertainment Hub can simplify your entertainment experience and offer you even more benefits as part of a Kenwood Sovereign home entertainment system, at:
www.kenwoodusa.com/sovereign

We'll be amused

CES underscores trend toward entertainment appliances

Maury Wright, Editor-in-Chief and Margot Suydam, Technology Editor -- CommVerge, 1/16/2002


In CommVerge, we've documented the ongoing debate between PC, residential gateway, and set-top box proponents as to whether the home network will center around the personal computer or the television. But wherever the broadband connection lives, and regardless of home LAN type, the recent CES show has established that a digital audio/video appliance will drive mainstream adoption of home networks. Whether it was the hyped all-in-one Moxi Media Center or the underlying MPEG-capable silicon engines for such devices, Internet-connected entertainment appliances took center stage in Las Vegas.

If you saw CES coverage in mainstream newspapers or trade journals, you probably know that Moxi Digital received the most hype. The brainchild of WebTV founder Steve Perlman, the Moxi Media Center brings together in one package the functionality of five products: digital cable or satellite receiver, digital music jukebox, personal video recorder (PVR), DVD/CD player, and cable/DSL modem.

Moreover, the system will feature a router/firewall and various networking options, depending on the customer. Moxi plans to sell customized implementations of the system to cable or satellite providers, who in turn will sell or lease the systems to subscribers. The first customer will be Echostar with a satellite-based offering.

While the Moxi system doesn't break new technical ground in the five subsystems, the integration of the five at the targeted price point of $475 is impressive. Still, it’s the silicon wizards that make such products possible, and the chip vendors are planning to offer many convergence product teams the tools they need to deliver connected entertainment products.

LSI Logic, for instance, debuted a single-chip DVD recorder implementation. During the recent holiday season, living-room DVD recorders sold in the $1000 range, but many expect much lower prices next year. The LSI DMN-8600, evolved from the previously announced system-on-chip Domino architecture, combines multiple RISC processors with DSP coprocessors and can perform MPEG-2 encoding with quality equal to the dedicated encoders the company has sold to professional content developers.

The chip also includes interfaces to DVD or CD drives and an IEEE 1394 link layer to connect digital camcorders. In high volumes, the chip will sell for $30. And while this chip specifically targets DVD recorders, you can see how it could enable most of the functions in the Moxi Media Center.

New entertainment appliances will also likely require MPEG-4 support in addition to MPEG-1 and –2, as the former is fast becoming the standard for video delivered via the Internet. Sigma Designs debuted its EM8470, which adds MPEG-4 to MPEG-1 and –2 capabilities. Similarly, STMicroelectronics showed its ST210 VLIW core, which handles MPEG-4. And we’d expect others to follow. In fact, given the way MPEG-4 is catching on, it’s hard to imagine a 2002 holiday-season video appliance without MPEG-4 support.

Cirrus Logic, meanwhile, touted its new CS98100 DVD chip as among the first to offer progressive output, which translates into the ability to drive high-quality displays at mass-market prices.

And it’s not just the chip guys enabling the entertainment-appliance trend. Both operating-system and middleware vendors have software stacks that convergence teams can tap to speed product development. For example, Wind River Systems, OpenGlobe, and ANT Limited combined to show a DVD-based appliance that uses the Wind River VxWorks OS, OpenGlobe’s entertainment services platform, and ANT’s Web browser, among other features. The result is Kenwood’s enhanced DVD and digital audio system.

As you may expect, the biggest OS player of them all was far from silent. In fact, Microsoft was pushing several initiatives, including its eHome alternative to products like Moxi. By year's end, Microsoft expects Windows XP PCs to perform the back-end functions required in connected entertainment appliances while requiring just a home-LAN link to the display and speakers in the living room.

Perhaps more interesting was Microsoft’s Mira demonstration. The technology centers around a tablet-like screen with thin-client functionality based on the National Semiconductor Geode microprocessor. Rather than integrating a full PC, the thin client leverages the resources of a remote PC connected via wireless LAN. Thus the device lets you do anything from slog through your taxes to play a game while roaming away from the PC. You may soon see PCs shipping with a Mira product; you'd use the flat panel as the display while at the PC, or take it for a stroll to the living room to surf while watching TV.

All these entertainment-appliance concepts share one requirement: a home network. Moxi and Microsoft may struggle to be the heart. Then again, perhaps the PVR function should be separated from the storage function, which should be separated from the broadband interface, and on and on. After all, Moxi’s $475 target price assumes a business model where the device lasts for five years. Clearly consumers won’t like using 5-year-old home-LAN technology as they try to move HDTV streams around the house. Those details will have to be hammered out. But the trend toward entertainment appliances is clear, as proven by the glassy-eyed faces of CES attendees

Hooked on pop

Broadband providers pin their hopes on entertainment.

Richard A Quinnell, Contributing Editor -- CommVerge, 1/1/2002


At the turn of the millennium the Internet ruled, broadband was hot, and residential gateways had a promising future. Now, dot-coms are more like jesters than kings, broadband has cooled, and gateways have failed to find their way into many homes.

Nonetheless, the gateway market still holds a lot of potential. What's needed is something that will give consumers a compelling reason to allow yet another piece of hardware into their homes and convince them to pay for additional services. Broadband-delivered phone services were supposed to serve as the carrot, but that revolution now seems to be on hold, leaving the industry to look elsewhere for its catalyst.

Now, broadband players seem to be seizing on an old standby to provide new momentum: entertainment. With Hollywood content serving as bait, broadband providers hope consumers will fall for their services (and in turn for residential gateways) hook, line, and sinker.

Broadband Internet service faces some severe challenges to growth. One is the high cost of building the necessary infrastructure. Cable-based broadband suppliers have had to replace simple copper cable networks with bi-directional, fiber-optic networks. DSL suppliers are paying for central-office equipment such as DSLAMs (DSL access multiplexers) and network interface cards; the cost per line can exceed $600. Both types of suppliers also must consider the cost of the customer premise equipment (CPE). Whether that CPE is a simple modem card for a PC or a full residential gateway, the ISP needs to account for, and in many cases absorb, its cost.

The cost of adding infrastructure has come down, but so has the US economy, with the result that providers are less willing to invest without a sure-fire business model. "There is still a desire for broadband in the US at the user level, but the ISPs are hampered by financials," says Steven Kawamoto, senior marketing manager for the communications business unit of chipmaker NEC Electronics. "They need to provide a return on investment."

“Entertainment over broadband is still nebulous, but clearly there is a great future there. A lot of effort is going into satisfying the needs of the average couch potato.”
David Thomasson, HomePNA

The business model that will provide that return is proving elusive. Simple broadband access is clearly not it, especially for DSL providers. "The maximum DSL providers can get for broadband access is $50 a month," says John Barr, president of the OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative) industry group. "It's not a high-profit item. DSL providers are saying that at the $50 rate for just bits, they can't survive. They need $70 to $100."

Cable-based providers have it a little better, Barr notes. "With cable, the $30 a month for data services is on top of the user's broadband cost, the cable connection itself. The television service is subsidizing the broadband." Nonetheless, service providers of both types are looking to supplement their revenue streams.

Speaking out
Just a year ago, those vendors were looking at telephony as a potential supplementary service. Using VoIP (voice over Internet protocol), ISPs were to bring the cost benefits of toll-free long distance telephony to savvy consumers and reap the rewards. In theory, anyway (see the sidebar, "What ever happened to VoIP?"). "The industry did have a lot of people looking at voice, but it just didn't happen," Barr says.

Not that the idea has gone away completely. "VoIP hasn't happened yet, but it still is coming," says Patrick Vankwikelberge, director of strategic business development at chipmaker Alcatel. "But the technology isn't really mature yet, and it's still expensive." Still, VoIP is making inroads into the business world, notes David Thomasson, marketing committee chair for the HomePNA (Home Phoneline Networking Alliance). "Businesses are using VoIP to cut their phone costs," Thomasson says. Alcatel's Vankwikelberge agrees, but notes that the business market is relatively small. VoIP hasn't caught on in the larger, residential market.

Without a driving application, broadband providers could soon find sales faltering. "The greater part of new broadband subscribers in the next few years will be households currently using dial-up Internet service," says Michael Greeson, senior analyst and director of broadband research for market research firm Parks Associates. "Broadband service providers are banking on an increasing number of these subscribers becoming frustrated with dial-up service, which makes broadband seem more compelling."

“There is still a desire for broadband in the US at the user level, but the ISPs are hampered by financials. They need to provide a return on investment.”
Steven Kawamoto, NEC Electronics


However, a recent survey from Parks Associates indicates that nearly 75 percent of dial-up subscribers are satisfied with their service. "If dial-up customers remain pleased with Internet service at $15 to $25 per month, providers are going to have a tough time selling broadband at $45 to $50 per month," Greeson says.

The way to make customers dissatisfied with dial-up service is to offer something more than a fat data pipe, something customers will pay handsomely for, something that a dial-up service cannot provide. In the US, at least, vendors are starting to look at entertainment as that something extra.

"Entertainment is a large share of consumer America's wallet," says Paula Giancola, director of marketing at software company Ucentric. "Consumers from both high and low economic levels have proven they will pay, even in tough economic times." OSGi's Thomasson agrees. "Entertainment over broadband is still nebulous, but clearly there is a great future there," he says. "A lot of effort is going into satisfying the needs of the average couch potato."

Giancola points to the market reaction toward personal video recorders (PVRs), such as those from TiVo, as an example of how compelling entertainment technology can be to consumers. "With existing PVRs, we see that 65 percent of owners report watching more television, and 33 percent report purchasing a second device," she says. "Because of the Web, we want what we want, when and where we want it." Technology that gives that to consumers enjoys huge success.

Let the show begin
If entertainment over broadband can trigger a similar reaction, the market potential is enormous. Semiconductor manufacturer Tvia expects Internet-connected entertainment devices such as interactive digital televisions to reach shipping rates of up to 23 million units annually by 2004, providing a substantial outlet for entertainment services. Market estimates from Alcatel put the entertainment portion of broadband services at nearly $1 billion by 2004—revenue that broadband suppliers would love to realize.

The move to provide entertainment over broadband is proceeding on several fronts, starting with the ISPs. For cable companies, the move is a natural extension. "There's an interest in cable companies to enhance their offerings with new services," says Ucentric's Giancola. "They want to retain their best customers and maintain their lead in entertainment." DSL companies are turning to the same path, but have some catching up to do. "Companies are regrouping to figure out services," says OSGi's Barr. "They weren't prepared to put an entertainment service package together."


“DSL providers are saying that at the $50 rate for just bits, they can’t survive. They need $70 to $100.”
John Barr, OSGi


On the supply side of the equation, entertainment companies are actively exploring how to use broadband as a means of distributing their products. "Video is certainly coming to broadband, and video-on-demand trials are popping up," says Alcatel's Vankwikelberge. "Sony is talking with other studios about renting its movie properties via broadband download from its site MovieFly.com. Disney is also talking to others about video-on-demand. Studios are beginning to say, 'We don't need Blockbuster to distribute our movies.'" (For a hands-on look at Internet video efforts, see our October 2001 Inside the Digital Den article, "Cyber cinema.")

The game world is also looking at broadband opportunities. Both the Game Cube and the Xbox game consoles have Ethernet ports for connection to a broadband modem. And some companies are going even further in embracing broadband. Vankwikelberge notes that Sega has stopped development of game hardware and is working to move its game properties to online play instead.

At your service
All this movement toward broadband as an entertainment channel has a direct impact on the requirements for a residential gateway. One is that the gateway develops a need to provide network server functions, not simply to bridge PCs to the WAN. By acting as a server, the gateway can offer file storage for and distribute broadband entertainment content to digital TVs, Internet radios, and game consoles. These specialized entertainment devices provide a more compelling experience for the user than the PC.

Of course, having a network server also makes the use of the PCs more satisfying. "With consumers downloading MP3s, digital pictures, and video, the personal information content of PCs has increased," says Frederick Hunter, chief technical officer at Tethernet, a vendor of server software. "But people become bound to one PC. Having that data available to all PCs is convenient. You should be able to walk up to any of your computers and get access to your e-mail, bookmarks, and the like."

Gateways have already established themselves as the preferred choice for handling network server functions rather than the PC. "If you look at broadband subscribers, around 60 percent have multiple computers in their home," says John Marshall, president of the HomePNA. "We've seen that a gateway purchase follows a broadband purchase within a week or two." One reason is that gateways make things easier. "The stand-alone gateway is the box of preference, even if the connection is only to a single PC," says Alcatel's Vankwikelberge. "It's a matter of ease of installation. The gateway is stable, reliable, and always on. With the PC, the user needs to mess with Windows to add networking to their other applications."

Many in the industry also expect the stand-alone gateway/server to remain the platform of choice, despite talk of incorporating the networking function into another device, like the set-top box. "With some set-top boxes, all you need is a network card to have the basics of a home server, but we expect the more traditional server box will predominate," says Tethernet's Hunter. One reason is flexibility. "The extra horsepower [of a dedicated server] allows you to offer more features," says NEC's Kawamoto. "It also helps futureproof the design." He notes that the reserve capability would allow vendors to download upgrades and enhancements to home network services over the broadband link.

Floodgates open
The inclusion of network-server capability in the gateway could have a cascade effect in opening service opportunities for broadband providers. "Having the gateway be a server is just table stakes needed to be in this game," says Ucentric's Giancola. "It's a beginning, not an end." It may start with allowing users multipoint access to their entertainment content, but it doesn't stop there. "The gateway server establishes a beachhead for other Internet appliances," says Tethernet's Hunter.

When the presence of a gateway/server is assured, devices such as a digital picture frame become simpler to make and use. Rather than needing their own Internet connection, these devices can depend on the gateway to handle tasks such as protocol translation, authentication, content protection, and data formatting. "The gateway becomes an intelligent device to transform IP to specialized protocols like DECT for voice and LONworks for control," says OSGi's Barr. The result could be an ever-increasing range of applications that utilize the gateway for control and broadband access.

“Some providers are waiting for broadband to be widespread before adding entertainment content, and some providers are waiting for entertainment content to be available before promoting broadband.”
Patrick Vankwikelberge, Alcatel


Not that all of the potential applications need high bandwidth. Some simply want broadband's "always on" feature. Home control, energy monitoring, and home security are among the most prominent in this category. So prominent, in fact that they may also drive the broadband market. "In Europe, energy management and home control are bigger revenue engines than entertainment," Barr notes.

With all these applications and revenue opportunities depending on the gateway offering network services, the next logical question is what form the network should take. Here, we find a wide range of options, with many tradeoffs to consider. Ethernet is traditional, but wiring can be a problem. The HomePNA approach uses the home's existing telephone wiring, but faces a challenge in Europe, where connecting anything to the phone lines requires regulatory approval. Bluetooth is generating interest but doesn't have the bandwidth needed for video. The IEEE 802.11 wireless standards look promising, although interference with other wireless devices may be a concern. In addition to these, links such as USB, IEEE 1394, HomeRF, and powerline networking all merit consideration for connecting Internet devices in the home.

A lot of energy has gone toward picking a "winner" from among all the options, but that may not be possible. Instead, residential gateways may have to embrace several of them to meet consumer needs. "Gateways will likely have multiple LANs operating at the same time," says Ucentric's Giancola. According to HomePNA's Marshall, "Broadband and three network interfaces are the minimum a home gateway should have."

Closely following the question of what form the home network should take are the questions of who provides the gateway and how service providers interact with it. Here again, there are many possible answers. Having consumers purchase gateways through retail channels is one, but it faces many challenges. "You can't just use any gateway with any service provider," says NEC's Kawamoto. "You need to work closely with the ISP to gain network offerings." And the providers may not be willing. "Most service providers will not support a home network created from a retail purchase," says HomePNA's Marshall. "What they will support are retail networks they have certified and networks that they sell."

The broadband service provider can offer the equipment to the customer through a lease, as with cable decoder boxes, or a direct (possibly subsidized) sale, as with cellular telephones. The leasing option is looking less appealing, though, as entertainment content proliferates. "The lease won't work well with all the personal data (music files and the like) that will reside on the gateway server," says Tethernet's Hunter. "Consumers will want to keep the device."

Home alone?
As long as they're providing the equipment, the service provider could offer support services for the home network. According to Marshall, that approach is already being tried by Earthlink, which offers subsidized gateways, then charges for network support. "And we'll see this trend starting to grow," Marshall adds. "All the service providers are starting to realize that they need to set up, manage, and maintain the home network as a service they offer." HomePNA's Thomasson agrees, adding "Broadband growth will depend on service providers coming in to assist home network setup. And the vendors have a tremendous incentive to get in and control the network to maintain the quality of their service."

There's a holdup, though: money. "Service providers can't see how to amortize the cost of setting up a network in the short term," Thomasson says. This is where America's penchant for entertainment can break the broadband market open. As entertainment becomes available online, Internet customers will want broadband so they can satisfy the entertainment's bandwidth demands. They will then want gateways and networks so they can share entertainment files among the home's PCs and play them on dedicated entertainment devices. Broadband service providers can provide these gateways and networks at a fee, then offer additional services that depend upon the presence of a gateway and network. Then there's no end to the services that can be developed and marketed once the residential gateways and networks are in place.

Such is the grand plan that is starting to emerge in the broadband market. Unfortunately, it suffers from the same chicken-and-egg syndrome that has torpedoed many grand plans. "Some providers are waiting for broadband to be widespread before adding entertainment content, and some providers are waiting for entertainment content to be available before promoting broadband," says Alcatel's Vankwikelberge. Ultimately, it may be the entertainment providers themselves who break the deadlock by pursuing the Internet as a medium for expanding their distribution. While foraging for new revenue opportunities, Hollywood could save broadband.

Broadband Satellite Equipment Market To Hit $27 Billion, Claims Firm


By Mark Long -- e-inSITE, 1/17/2002


According to a newly released study by Pioneer Consulting, the total worldwide market opportunity for broadband satellite service providers will reach nearly $27 billion by 2008 with Broadband Satellite Access service comprising the largest market opportunity for a single Broadband Satellite service, soaring from $336 million in 2001 to $13.4 billion in 2008.

In Pioneer Consulting's latest report, entitled "Broadband Satellite: Analysis of Global Market Opportunities and Innovation Challenges," the research firm says that the Broadband Access sector represents the largest market opportunity for equipment manufacturers. The report is now forecasting that the aggregate market opportunity for equipment manufactures will grow from $0.6 billion in 2001 to $1.6 billion by 2008 with Broadband Access accounting for a market share worth $1.2 billion.

"The growth of broadband satellite services is expected to continue, driven by a rapidly expanding market for high-speed Internet access," said senior market analyst Mike Massey. "The major constraint to growth will be the relatively high cost of satellite capacity, which hinders broadband satellites competitive capability against alternative technologies."

The new Report report examines the industry's key players, markets and technologies, as well as the various market opportunities and challenges ahead. The three major broadband satellite service markets of Trunking and Backbone, Mediacasting and Broadband Access are also analyzed individually to identify market opportunities for broadband service providers and equipment manufacturers for the major regions of the world that are expected to emerge between now and 2008.

"Broadband access satellite services will find acceptance primarily in those cases where more cost effective alternatives, such as DSL and cable modem service, are not available," explains Paul Kellett, senior director of research at Pioneer Consulting. "Unlike other broadband access technologies satellite-based broadband connectivity provides ubiquitous coverage."

GPRS Chipset Integrates Java-based Technology Platform


By Mark Long -- e-inSITE, 1/17/2002


Kada Systems and Texas Instruments have announced that the Kada Mobile Platform will be integrated with TI's TCS2100 GPRS chipset. The effort is expected to extend enhanced Java technology-based applications into GPRS mobile phone and wireless PDA design applications, enabling GPRS mobile device customers to download and run Java 2, Micro Edition (J2ME) applications such as games, mobile commerce, business-to-business applications, e-mail and personal management software.

The Kada Mobile Platform offers a very small footprint Java Virtual Machine (JVM) that offers support for the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) specifications, which have been designed to enable the deployment and operation of Java applications in size constrained environments. In addition, the Kada Mobile Platform for J2ME integrates a toolset for enabling customers to build adjunct profiles specific to their applications needs.

"It's our aim to be the leading Java technology enabler for the wireless market by supporting J2ME technology across all of our 2.5 and 3G wireless platforms and complete chipset solutions," said TI marketing director Tom Pollard in a prepared statement. "By integrating the Kada Mobile Platform with our GPRS wireless chipset solution, wireless phone manufacturers and operators are offered an optimized Java-technology solution to support the delivery of dynamic Java technology-based applications and services."

TI's Java technology-enabled TCS2100 GPRS chipset, which includes the Kada Mobile Platform, will begin sampling in 2Q02. Consumers are expected to gain access to GPRS mobile devices and PDAs employing the combined technologies beginning in the third quarter of this year.

ACTEL'S VARICORE EPGA CORES MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE VCX TRADEFLOOR

LIVINGSTON, Scotland and SUNNYVALE, Calif., September 17, 2001 - The Virtual Component Exchange (VCX) and Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) today announced that Actel is joining the Exchange. Actel will use the VCX intellectual property (IP) supply chain software solution to market its VariCoreTM embedded programmable gate array (EPGATM) star-IP cores beginning later this month. Actel's VariCore EPGAs will enhance the VCX component listing, which passed the 100 mark earlier this year.

VCX TradeFloor tools link the engineering, procurement and legal functions of buyers and sellers with a common toolset and language via the Internet. Using industry standards, alignment of data evaluation, access and contracting protocols between buyers and sellers dramatically accelerates the speed of semiconductor IP (SIP) transactions, helping to deliver more products to market in less time.

VariCore EPGAs are SRAM-based IP cores used in application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and application specific standard product (ASSP) system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices to help speed these products to market and increase the life of those products once in the market. VariCore is a complete front-to-back-end embedded "soft hardware" reprogrammable core family available on SRAM-based 0.18-micron CMOS technology that adds tremendous flexibility and reduced design risk to ASIC and ASSP SoC designs.

"VCX's made-to-order member list of IP buyers and its special expertise in global marketing, distribution and contractual management for the semiconductor industry fit closely with Actel's needs," stated Dr. Yankin Tanurhan, senior director of Actel's embedded FPGA effort. "We are happy to partner with VCX to make VariCore more accessible to leading electronics companies around the world."

"The VCX TradeFloor Listing is expanding every day and is delivering real benefits to the industry," said Andy Travers, CEO of the Virtual Component Exchange. "Actel will add its name to an impressive list of members, IP vendors and integrators. At a time when the industry is facing severe challenges, the VCX solution is helping companies to continue to develop new products, while saving time and money in the process."

About VCX

The Virtual Component Exchange is a unique Business-to-Business (B2B) software and E-commerce organization focused on producing Internet tools for trading Intellectual Property. It has already delivered the first regulated exchange for trading Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP): the VCX TradeFloor.

Powered by VCX TransactionWare(tm), the TradeFloor tools link the Engineering, Procurement and Legal functions of both Buyers and Sellers with a common toolset and language. Alignment of data evaluation, access and contracting protocols between Buyers and Sellers, using industry standards, dramatically accelerates the speed of SIP transactions, fulfilling the common business imperative of getting more products to market in shorter time cycles.

Distributed Internet access to the VCX TradeFloor is provided through the VCX Gateway - distributing VC data and transaction agents to the web-based market, extending the reach and value for Buyers and Sellers alike.

To find out more about the VCX TradeFloor, accessing the VCX market channel, or simply to browse the VCX Public Listing, visit the web site at http://www.thevcx.com.

About Actel

Actel Corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse and flash technologies and embedded-programmable gate arrays (EPGAs) based on SRAM technology, as well as high-performance intellectual property (IP) cores, software development tools and design services. Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Actel employs approximately 500 people worldwide. The Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is located at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Actel Internet: http://www.actel.com. Additional information about VariCore is available on Actel's VariCore web site: http://varicore.actel.com.

Actel Extends International Reach of VariCore Design Alliance


12-10-01 08:01 AM EST / New Program Puts Embedded FPGA Capability in Hands of World-Leading SoC Experts Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) today announced the addition of six new members to its VariCore Design Alliance. The Alliance is a worldwide program to train, certify and support independent application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design services companies in the proficient use of Actel's VariCore(TM) embedded programmable gate array (EPGA(TM)) intellectual property (IP) cores. The program's goal is to provide SoC designers with the background and expertise necessary to integrate embedded FPGAs into complex system-level designs. Actel's VariCore Design Alliance will enable developers to deploy into customer SoC designs Actel's VariCore EPGA IP, which are complete SRAM-based embedded "soft hardware" reprogrammable cores.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001019/ACTLLOGO )

Joining Tality Corporation in the VariCore Design Alliance, the six new members give the program an international reach. The new Alliance members are Accent based in Vimercate, Italy; ASIC Design Services based in Midrand, South Africa; Faraday Technology based in Taiwan and Milpitas, Calif.; Protocol Design Services, a division of Actel, based in Mount Arlington, New Jersey; QThink based in San Diego, Calif.; and Spinnaker Systems based in Tokyo, Japan.

"The expansion of our VariCore Design Alliance program is evidence of an increasing global interest to bring the benefits of reconfigurable logic to SoCs," said John East, president and CEO, Actel Corporation. "With these six new members, Actel is demonstrating its commitment to build a well-informed, embedded FPGA technology knowledge base while also broadening worldwide access to VariCore IP. We are excited to have such a truly international representation of leading design services companies in our new program."

"Actel is at the forefront of bringing embedded FPGA technology, integration methodology and tools to SoCs," said Massimo Vanzi, general manager, Accent. "We are pleased to now be working closely with Actel to help our customers design comprehensive system-in-silicon solutions to meet their stringent product time-to-market and performance requirements."

"Our membership in this program is a natural progression for ASIC Design Services," said Tony Dal Maso, president, ASIC Design Services. "As SoC designs using embedded FPGAs become more prevalent, our FPGA and ASIC design experience can be directly applied to SoC designs integrating VariCore EPGA cores."

"Faraday's customers expect us to provide the latest advances in SoC design technology," said Kevin Yu, vice president, Faraday Technology. "As a member of Actel's program, we will have the knowledge to offer the benefits of embedded reprogrammable logic cores, allowing us to add design flexibility, risk reduction and improved design security in system-level designs."

"Through the VariCore Design Alliance, Protocol, Actel's design services arm, plans to take an active role in expanding worldwide cooperation and education regarding reconfigurable logic in SoC design," said Tony Farinaro, vice president and general manager, Protocol Design Services. "With our involvement, we hope to further the exposure of this emerging technology to the global design community."

"We are pleased that Actel recognizes QThink's skill and 'pure-play' business model will help clients make the most of leading-edge FPGA technology, such as VariCore EPGA cores," stated Eric Tobias, chief executive officer, QThink Design Services. "We see the VariCore Design Alliance as an important enabler for the SoC designer."

"Spinnaker Systems is delighted to be a part of Actel's VariCore Design Alliance program," said Tsugumi Fujitani, president, Spinnaker Systems. "Our membership in Actel's program is synergistic with the growing desire we are seeing among our customers to leverage reprogrammable logic cores in the development of next-generation SoC designs."

The VariCore Design Alliance

As part of the VariCore Design Alliance program, Actel provides member companies with comprehensive training in the use of its VariCore IP solutions, including EPGA core design and VariCore's integrated ASIC flow and methodology. Course testing and program certification will also be offered. Certified partner companies will gain access to VariCore design and emulation tools, documentation and EPGA design technical and marketing support.

For more information on VariCore EPGAs and the Design Alliance, send an email to varicore@actel.com or visit the Design Alliance section on the VariCore Web site, http://www.actel.com/varicore/alliances .

About Actel

Actel Corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse and flash technologies and embedded-programmable gate arrays (EPGAs) based on SRAM technology, as well as high-performance intellectual property (IP) cores, software development tools and design services. Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Actel employs approximately 500 people worldwide. The Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is located at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Actel Internet: http://www.actel.com . VariCore Internet: http://varicore.actel.com .

Additional information about VariCore is available on Actel's VariCore Web site: http://varicore.actel.com .

Tality goes for both 802.11 networks

By Chris Edwards
Electronics Times
(24/10/01 03:38 PM GMT)

Tality has built a media access controller (MAC) for IEEE802.11 wireless networks that is expected to go into a number of single-chip interfaces. But the company has decided not to put together a similar design for the European HiperLAN/2 system.

Tality has designed the MAC to handle both 802.11b and 11a versions of the protocol, but not the European protocol HiperLAN/2.

Michael Barkway, business manager for wireless designs at Tality, said: "There is a need for dual-mode products that will dynamically switch between the two [11a and 11b]. But this is not a 'wound-up' 11b design: it's a clean-sheet design."

The company has built its MAC design around two ARM7 processors and a set of hardware data movement and processing engines.

"One CPU runs the realtime aspects of the system, while the other deals with less time-critical tasks," said Barkway. "We also have an ARM9 variant because some customers have gone for that route. [But] you get a better bang for your bucks from two ARM7s.

"We found that a software-only design doesn't address the 11a market at all. For security, we are putting down hardware blocks as options."

He adds that a number of vital security standards needed for 802.11 wireless lans have yet to be ratified: "The two CPUs never touch data. It is all done through memory buffers and direct memory accesses. That minimises the processor load."

Although the company started with a design for the physical layer (PHY), it swapped to concentrating on the MAC at an early stage.

"We started on the PHY as we have a great deal of experience we can use," he said. "But a lot of customers had started on the designing on their own. They can differentiate on power consumption and size.

"Many of them assumed you could use a MAC off-the-shelf. But not only is there a scarcity of MAC-only chips, the launch product now has to be a single chip [that includes the MAC and PHY], so we switched our investment over to the MAC."

Tality is Anchor Member in Launch of Actel's VariCore(TM) Design Alliance
Actel Unveils Program to Accelerate Development of Complex SoC Designs Leveraging Reprogrammable Logic Cores
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- As an integral part of its VariCore(TM) strategy, Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL - news) today unveiled its VariCore Design Alliance. This program will train, certify and support independent, worldwide application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design services companies in the proficient use of Actel's VariCore embedded programmable gate array (EPGA(TM)) intellectual property (IP) cores. Tality Corporation, the world's largest independent system-on-a-chip (SoC) design services and IP provider, has signed on as the program's anchor member. As a member, Tality will enable its customers who are exploring reconfigurable logic solutions for system-level applications to smoothly deploy into their SoC designs Actel's VariCore EPGAs, which are complete SRAM-based embedded ``soft hardware'' reprogrammable cores.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001019/ACTLLOGO )
The program's goal is to provide SoC designers with the background and expertise necessary to integrate embedded FPGAs into complex system-level designs. Actel plans to announce a number of additional program members over the coming weeks.

``Tality is often at the leading edge of SoC development and sees a growing need for reconfigurable logic in next-generation system-level silicon designs,'' stated Jim Douglas, vice president of marketing at Tality. ``We are excited to be Actel's anchor member in a program that affords us new skill levels and the ability to add much greater flexibility to our customers' designs.''

``By establishing the VariCore Design Alliance, Actel is addressing the increasingly complex engineering development needs of customers as they adopt an embedded FPGA approach for their system-level designs,'' said John East, president and chief executive officer at Actel. ``Tality's extensive SoC design expertise makes them an ideal partner to work with their clients seeking to take advantage of our VariCore EPGA solutions.''

The VariCore Design Alliance

As part of the VariCore Design Alliance program, Actel provides member companies with comprehensive training in the use of its VariCore IP solutions, including EPGA core design and VariCore's integrated ASIC flow and methodology. Course testing and program certification will also be offered. Certified partner companies will gain access to VariCore design and emulation tools, documentation and EPGA design technical and marketing support.

For more information on VariCore EPGAs and the Design Alliance, send an email to varicore@actel.com or visit the Design Alliance section on the VariCore Web site, http://www.actel.com/varicore/alliances .

About Actel

Actel Corporation is a supplier of innovative programmable logic solutions, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) based on antifuse and flash technologies and embedded-programmable gate arrays (EPGAs) based on SRAM technology, as well as high-performance intellectual property (IP) cores, software development tools and design services. Founded in 1985 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Actel employs approximately 500 people worldwide. The Company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is located at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Actel Internet: http://www.actel.com . VariCore Internet: http://varicore.actel.com . Additional information about VariCore is available on Actel's VariCore Web site: http://varicore.actel.com .

About Tality

Tality Corporation, a subsidiary of Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CDN - news), is the world's largest electronic product development outsourcing provider. Leading and emerging technology companies around the globe leverage Tality's engineering services and intellectual property for the design of complex electronic systems and integrated circuits. Tality is headquartered in San Jose, California. For more information about Tality, please visit us at www.tality.com.

Editor's Note 1: VariCore and EPGA are trademarks of Actel Corporation. The Actel name and logo are registered trademarks of Actel Corporation. All other trademarks and servicemarks are the property of their respective owners.

Editor's Note 2: A number of VariCore-related photos and graphics are available to the editorial community online at: http://www.actel.com/varicore/editorsdesk/ .

Actel Embeds FPGA Core in ASICs
By Cary D. Snyder {02/26/01-03}

Actel has announced that it will provide reprogrammable SRAM gate array cores to ASIC and ASSP designers. Called the VariCore EPGA (Embedded FPGA) IP Cores, the new devices will target application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and application-specific standard product (ASSP) systems on a chip (SoCs). Development started early in the summer of 2000 with formation of the VariCore business unit. Foundation technology and expertise came from acquisitions of Prosys Technology and GateField Corporation, which Actel purchased last year.

The VariCore EPGA cores increase the flexibility of SoC designs by helping to reduce design time and overall costs. The initial EPGA blocks have been designed for 0.18µm CMOS SRAM technology; they will be followed by smaller process geometries in future device generations. Targeted customers include users from the ASSP world using independent silicon foundries and ASIC suppliers that have their own IP portfolios.

Actel claims its VariCore EPGA technology has the smallest on-chip reprogrammable SoC die area available and a better performance/die-area ratio than standard FPGAs. The cores use standard ASIC design methodology and flow. Several major independent silicon foundries support the process. Proven VariCore programmable logic silicon has been completed at UMC and TSMC in Taiwan and at Chartered Semiconductor in Singapore.

In related news, Actel announced that it is joining UMC's Gold IP program with its VariCore embedded programmable gate array (EPGA) IP cores. Actel has taped out a VariCore EPGA IP test chip in UMC's 0.18-micron fab in Taiwan. UMC is adding VariCore embedded programmable logic cores to its Gold IP Program library.

Actel's new IP core fulfills the industry's current need for reconfigurable SoC ASIC/ASSP designs. The need is driven by the requirement to simplify adaptation to rapidly changing standards. At the same time, customers are asking for the flexibility to create multiple products from a single SoC device. VariCore EPGA blocks are, in essence, reprogrammable "soft hardware" core tiles.

The EPGA cores are based on a three-input LUT (look-up table) structure. Each PEG (primary embedded gate) block has 2,500 ASIC gates, with PEG blocks being scalable and configurable from a 2 x 1 EPGA of 5,000 ASIC gates up to a 4 x 4 EPGA core of 40,000 ASIC gates. In addition, the family's 4 x 4 and 4 x 2 members offer eight optional, cascadable RAM modules configuration of 1K x 9 or 512 x 18.

VariCore EPGA cores can handle system clock speeds of up to 100MHz, covering 75% of the reconfigurable requirements expected for ASIC and ASSP designs during 2001. In a 4 x 4 EPGA core utilized at 80%, VariCore EPGA cores reach the levels of performance noted above while maintaining 100-200mW power consumption, depending on core performance.

VariCore place and route is performed by the high-speed VariCore Compiler design tool and other third-party design entry, verification, and test tools. The VariCore Compiler supports VHDL or Verilog design entry in RTL-based design flows. Synthesis support is provided by Synopsys Design. Front-end design verification supports VHDL, Verilog, and Vital simulations and is also compatible with the Synopsys PrimeTime and PrimePower performance- and power- simulation tools. File output is in hard GDSII IP format that is compatible with Cadence's Virtuoso and Avant's Apollo. Physical design verification, layout versus schematic (LVS), and design rule checks (DRCs) are supported by Cadence's Dracula and Avant's Hercules II.

The production version of VariCore Compiler is now shipping. Pricing for VariCore EPGA cores will vary and will follow an IP sliding scale model of license plus royalties. Actel's Web site is at http://varicore.actel.com.

ARM and Texas Instruments Announce License Agreement For New ARMv6 Architecture Implementation
Two-Year Collaboration Between ARM and TI Enables Seamless Integration Between ARMv6 Architecture and TI's High-Performance, Low-Power DSP Technology
CAMBRIDGE, U.K. and DALLAS (July 30, 2001) - ARM [(LSE: ARM) (Nasdaq: ARMHY)] and Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE:TXN) (TI) today announced that TI has signed an agreement to license and develop enhanced solutions based on the new ARMv6 architecture. This advanced architecture, which has resulted from a two-year collaboration between the two companies, will enable TI to be the first to deliver increased system performance and battery life for next-generation (2.5 and 3G) wireless handsets by seamlessly connecting its programmable digital signal processors (DSPs) with the new ARM(r) architecture.

"TI, as a driving partner of ARM for more than seven years, has been and continues to be a key contributor to enabling ARM technical excellence. Their innovation and expertise in many markets and especially the wireless marketplace has helped us shape the ARM microprocessor roadmap, enabling us to better meet the growing demands for higher performance with lower power in the embedded space," said Robin Saxby, chairman and CEO, ARM. "We expect that the combination of TI's industry-leading DSP technology with the ARMv6 microprocessor architecture will enhance TI's OMAP™ architecture offering as an important standard for next-generation wireless multimedia devices."

The ARMv6 architecture enables high levels of integration between TI's leading DSP technology and ARM's advanced microcontroller architecture. The two year-long collaboration between ARM and TI led to the incorporation of several new features in the next-generation architecture to improve data synchronization, shared memory management, and the efficient operation of advanced operating systems (OS). These new features, along with others, will offer the increased performance and low-power consumption required to run real-time audio and video applications.

Full technical details of the ARMv6 architecture will be introduced at Microprocessor Forum 2001 in October. Product implementations of this new architecture will be available from ARM, as licensable intellectual property (IP) cores for implementation within its silicon and systems partners' ASIC or ASSP designs.

"For more than seven years, TI's dual-core digital baseband, based on TI's DSP technology and an enhanced ARM microprocessor core, has been the standard for delivering the best power and performance required to drive today's wireless handsets," said Gilles Delfassy, senior vice president, general manager, Texas Instruments Wireless Business Unit. "By seamlessly combining TI's next-generation DSP technology with the first microprocessor core based on the ARMv6 architecture, we will extend this standard in 2.5 and 3G wireless devices including TI's OMAP architecture, established as the de facto standard for next-generation wireless handsets and advance mobile information devices."

Unveiled in May 1999, TI's OMAP architecture delivers advanced wireless Internet and multimedia functionality, without compromising battery life essential to wireless communications devices. Today, handset manufacturers including Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, HTC and Sendo have chosen the OMAP architecture as well as software and OS developers including Symbian, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.

In a separate agreement, TI has licensed the ARM9E™ Jazelle™ extensions. These extensions enable enhanced performance of Java technology-based multimedia applications used in 2.5 and 3G wireless appliances.

TI and ARM have a long history of collaboration in the wireless space including the licensing of cores from the ARM7™, ARM9™ and ARM10™ microprocessor families. This relationship has enabled both companies to enjoy significant success in the wireless market.


# # #
TRADEMARKS
ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. ARM7, ARM9, ARM9E, ARM10 and Jazelle are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM, INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan.

murgirl:job opening-wonder what company this could be!!??--LOL
Engineering - ASIC Engineer (OMAP - Chip)
Apply for this position!
Our client has established a major wireless technology center in San Diego through the acquisition of an upstart company, who is a leader in the development of CDMA systems. This acquisition greatly enhances our clients capabilities in the 3G marketplace, allowing them to participate in all 2.5G and 3G worldwide standards. This center will focus on developing advanced, feature-rich 3G CDMA platforms that support the growing convergence of wireless voice and data.

Over 80 percent of all digital wireless phones currently use our clients’ DSP or analog chips. The wireless centers are further integrating these technologies across all major 2.5 and 3G wireless standards, and building a comprehensive, open platform that provides total wireless multimedia solutions.


Slated for very rapid expansion, the San Diego wireless center currently has 8 openings for ASIC design engineers.


About Our client. They are a global semiconductor company and the world's leading designer and supplier of digital signal processors and analog integrated circuits, the engines driving the digitization of electronics. These two types of semiconductor products work together in digital electronic devices such as digital cellular phones.They are also a world leader in the design and manufacturing of other semiconductor products. These include standard logic, application-specific integrated circuits, reduced instruction-set computing microprocessors, microcontrollers and digital imaging devices.


Position requires the following:
Technical: a minimum of three years experience in synopsys, modelism, and VHDL ASIC design. Working knowledge of CDMA and knowledge of imbedded DSP architecture or embedded CPU architecture and peripherals strongly preferred.


Non-technical: Ability to work on a team, good communication skills, and willingness and ability to work toward aggressive schedules. High expectation of self. Depending on caliber of school, GPA of 3.5 or above strongly desired. MSEE preferred. Local candidates strongly desired.


ASIC Engineer (OMAP - Chip)
Duties:
IS-2000 ASIC Engineering.
Chip-level integration of OMAP into IS-2000 chip.
OMAP issue tracking and interface to OMAP design team.
Top-level chip simulation of OMAP.
OMAP related production test vector generation.


Specialized knowledge and skills:
Specific knowledge of Lead2 or Lead3 architecture.


BACK TO TOP

January 17, 2002 Firewire Keychain - Small Storage, Speedy Delivery
By Jay Lyman,
Computer storage continues to get smaller and more mobile, but a small Kansas company with backing from Apple Computer (Nasdaq: AAPL - news) and Oxford Semiconductor says it has made small storage better.

WiebeTech of Wichita, Kansas, says its Firewire Keychain, introduced recently with a series of micro storage devices, uses a faster firewire interface and more rugged flash memory to improve universal storage you can put in your pocket.

"I came up with a way to merge flash memory technology and firewire technology into one tiny box," company president James Wiebe told TechExtreme.

Universal, Small Speed

Wiebe said his company will be announcing the price of the Firewire Keychain on January 23rd. The small cube-shaped storage solution, which connects to Mac or Windows PC, will be expandable to 1GB of storage.

Wiebe touted the firewire interface as a speedy alternative to USB, which has been the conventional interface for small storage.

"It's not USB and the reason that's important is USB is slow," Wiebe said, adding that the keychain is comparable in transfer speeds to a 4200-RPM firewire notebook drive.

Wiebe said the device, using Oxford Semiconductor FireWire bridge technology, transfers data at speeds of 3.3MB per second or higher, up to 5 MB on a PC.

"You have the ability to play higher-speed video clips, play Quicktime movies or anything where you need to have that kind of transfer speed," he said.

Tiny Tough

Wiebe also touted the toughness of the Firewire Keychain, which features nonvolatile flash storage with no moving parts.

"The nonvolatile flash memory is rugged," Wiebe said. "That means you can, with confidence, put it in your pocket or drop it on your desk."

Wiebe said the flash memory also cuts down on power consumption, allowing the Firewire Keychain to be powered by its connection to a PC or Mac.

User Upgradeable?

WiebeTech originally planned on releasing the Firewire Keychain, which will come bundled with a 9-inch firewire cable, with various memory capacities from 64MB up to the full 1GB.

However, Wiebe told TechExtreme he is "strongly considering" making the device user-upgradeable.

"That would give the user the flexibility of putting in any size of modules they want," he said, referring to compact flash modules used for digital cameras, MP3 players and other devices. "This thing is going to be designed to use the most common memory form factor."

January 17, 2002 Online Music Market Is Uncertain
By RON HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The heads of the leading online music subscription services, still looking for a smooth segue into the pocketbooks of music fans, said Thursday it will take time before their businesses fully tap into the nascent market.

Analysts already have scaled back growth projections for the digital music market.

MusicNet and pressplay each launched last month, later than analysts had expected and with download restrictions that turned off many music fans accustomed to free MP3s online.

Andy Schuon, president and chief executive of pressplay, said luring subscribers would be easier once the file-sharing networks offering unauthorized content, such as Gnutella (news - web sites) and Morpheus, are stamped out.

``We think one of the ways that we can get fast adoption is for anyone who has a copyright to do what they can to take on the illegitimate pirate services, the peer-to peer services, because we think faster adoption will come when people can't get it for free,'' Schuon said in a conference call.

Alan McGlade, president and chief executive of MusicNet, said his company would need millions of subscribers for his service to succeed - a target number he said MusicNet likely won't reach until 2003.

One popular song-swapping service, Amsterdam-based KaZaA, temporarily suspended its service this week pending a Dutch court decision on a copyright suit filed against it.

Schuon said the same young people he hopes to sell his service to also are to blame for much of the industry's online piracy problems.

Schuon and McGlade spoke as part of a roundtable discussion on digital music hosted by Jupiter Media Metrix.

Analysts pointed out there would be no overnight success in store for the subscription services, and that digital downloads are not yet poised to overtake the compact disc format.

``We believe that the market for digital services and a la carte downloads, it will be a complementary service and not a replacement of CDs themselves,'' said Jupiter senior analyst Mark Mooradian.

Jupiter revised its projections for the online music market after the late launch of MusicNet and pressplay last month and the economic downturn in late 2001.

In July, Jupiter predicted the online music market would grow to $6.2 billion by 2006. The research firm now projects the market to be worth $5.5 billion in 2006.

-

What Is DSP?

Digital signal processing is a method of processing real world signals (represented by a sequence of numbers) using mathematical techniques to perform transformations or extract information.

You don't speak in a digital signal. A digital signal is a language of 1s and 0s that can be processed by mathematics. We speak in real-world, analog signals. Analog signals are real world signals that you and I experience everyday - sound, light, temperature, pressure. A digital signal is a numerical representation of the analog signal. It may be easier and more cost effective to process these signals in the digital world. In the real world, we can convert these signals into digital signals through our analog-to-digital conversion process, process the signals, and if needed, bring the signals back out to the analog world through the digital-to-analog converter.
Which technology should I use?
How can I learn more about DSP?

Which technology should I use for digital signal processing?
If a universal microprocessor solution existed with which every design could be realized, the electronics industry wouldn't be a very competitive place. However, typically in most electronic designs, more than one processor technology can be used to implement the required functions. The trick is, of course, to choose the one that best delivers the performance, size, power consumption, features, software and tools to get the job done fast - without breaking the budget. After almost two decades of development, digital signal processors continue to take the place of competitive processors. Digital signal processors are, after all, at the center of signal processing.

Digital Signal Processors
A digital signal processor (DSP) is a type of microprocessor - one that is incredibly fast and powerful. A DSP is unique because it processes data in real time. This real-time capability makes a DSP perfect for applications that cannot tolerate any delays. For example, did you ever talk on a cell phone where two people couldn't talk at once? You had to wait until the other person finished talking. If you both spoke simultaneously, the signal was cut--you didn't hear the other person. With today's digital cell phones, which use DSP, you can talk normally. The DSP processors inside cell phones process sounds so rapidly you hear them as quickly as you can speak - in real time. Here are just some of the advantages of designing with DSPs over other microprocessors:
single-cycle multiply-accumulate operations
Real-time performance, simulation and emulation
Flexibility
Reliability
Increased system performance
Reduced system cost
Here is a look at some of the other alternatives available for digital signal processing and how they compare to DSPs:

The FPGA Alternative
Field-Programmable Gate Arrays have the capability of being reconfigurable within a system, which can be a big advantage in applications that need multiple trial versions within development, offering reasonably fast time to market. They also offer greater raw performance per specific operation because of the resulting dedicated logic circuit. However, FPGAs are significantly more expensive and typically have much higher power dissipation than DSPs with similar functionality. As such, even when FPGAs are the chosen performance technology in designs such as wireless infrastructure, DSPs are typically used in conjunction with FPGAs to provide greater flexibility, better price/performance ratios, and lower system power.

The ASIC Alternative
Application-specific ICs can be tailored to perform specific functions extremely well, and can be made quite power efficient. However, since ASICS are not field-programmable, their functionality cannot be iteratively changed or updated while in product development. As such, every new version of the product requires a redesign and trips through the foundry, an expensive proposition, and an impediment to rapid time-to- market.Programmable DSPs, on the other hand, can be updated without changing the silicon, merely change the software program, greatly reducing development costs, and availing aftermarket feature enhancements with mere code downloads. Consequently, more often than not, when you see ASICs in real time signal processing applications, they are typically employed as bus interfaces, glue logic, and/or functional accelerators for a programmable DSP-based system.

The GPP Alternative
In contrast to ASICs that are optimized for specific functions, general-purpose microprocessors (GPPs) are best suited for performing a broad array of tasks. However, for applications in which the end product must process answers in real time, or must do so while powered by consumer batteries, GPPs comparatively poor real time performance and high power consumption all but rules them out. More and more, these processors are being seen as the dinosaurs of the industry, too encumbered with PC compatibility and desktop features to adapt to the changing real time market place. As the world embraces tiny hand-held wireless-enabled products that require power dissipation measured in milliwatts-not the watts that these processors consume - DSPs are the programmable technology of choice. That trend is bound to continue as digital Internet appliances get smaller, faster and more portable.

For a more in-depth discussion on the key features differentiating general purpose processors from DSPs, refer to An Intuitive Approach to DSP. Located below is a graphical representation of digital signal processing carried out with a digital signal processor.


{see URL for graphics}


The result is crystal clear sound, with no annoying echoes. That's a basic explanation of what a DSP does. It takes a digital signal and processes it to improve the signal. The improvement may be clearer sound, sharper images, or faster data. And that ability to improve signals is making new breakthroughs such as Internet music and broadband to the home possible.
These real-time processors make up the fastest-growing segment of the semiconductor market and are particularly well suited to handle the demands of processing information, whether as the engine of communications applications, by providing the processing platform for the convergence of the internet and wireless applications, or by enabling breakthroughs in medical imaging or performance audio.

How Can I Learn More About DSP?
TI realizes that many customers may not be familiar with digital signal processors and the technology that drives them. This is why TI offers a host of opportunities for learning, both online and offline, to help speed the design and development process. Just access DSP Learning Resources.

http://dspvillage.ti.com/docs/catalog/dspintro/dspintro.jhtml?

thanks todd: Wireless Infrastructure: Software-defined radio infrastructure taps DSP
By Argy Krikelis, Chief Technology Officer, Azibananye Mengot, Application Engineer for Wireless Technology, Aspex Technology Ltd., Uxbridge, U.K.
EE Times
November 22, 2001 (9:12 a.m. EST)

The announced delays in the rollout of third-generation (3G) wireless communication infrastructure and services, and the increased need to update the existing wireless infrastructure with General Packet Radio Service, Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution and other intermediate solutions are underscoring the need for a flexible basestation architecture.

The most promising approach to upgrading existing basestation equipment as well as introducing new equipment is in the use of software-defined radio, where software can be used to change parameters quickly, even instantaneously, according to traffic, transmission standards and air interference conditions. That approach, in effect, makes the basestation whatever the wireless operator wants it to be.

The flexibility of a software-defined radio system resides in its capability to operate in multiservice environments without being constrained to a particular standard. In theory, software-defined radio should be able to offer services for any already standardized system or future ones on any radio frequency band. The most attractive property of a software-defined radio system is its ability to adapt itself according to environmental conditions and traffic requirements, especially in the support of multimedia traffic. For example, a mobile operator would have the opportunity to configure the network to support the video, data or voice traffic streams that will maximize its income.

Software-defined radio implies that the boundary between the analog and digital world in basestations moves as much as possible toward radio frequency, by adopting analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog wideband conversion as close as possible to the antenna; and the replacement of fixed-function dedicated hardware with technologies that can support as many radio functions as possible in software.

Since the late '90s, mobile communication networks are increasingly deploying the code-division multiple access (CDMA) system with spread-spectrum and wideband receiver techniques. The spread-spectrum approach is ideal for secure communications. Since the signal is spread over a wide band, it is difficult to intercept or jam. Its inherent immunity to interference is also useful for commercial wireless systems that are often subject to noise from external sources. Good noise immunity ensures maximum system performance. Spread-spectrum radio systems, however require extremely high processing rates (several billion operations per second) and data throughput requirements.

The receiver de-spreads each radio channel in a way that depends on the air interference conditions. Inside the the receiver a number of multipaths, or receiver "fingers," recover separate elements of the original signal. These elements include signals delayed by reflections of the RF signal in the transmission path. This type of receiver is often referred to as a Rake receiver because of its ability to track multiple paths. Within the fingers, data is convoluted with a bank of filters, where each filter then maps the data to the transmission path of a separate multipath. This function forms the basis of the de-spreading process. The individual elements of the signal are re-assembled, maintaining maximum energy and thus signal integrity.



Unlike a fixed-circuit switched network, any wireless system is an unreliable network that is subject to transmission loss and/or interruptions. For that reason, error correction is a key element within wireless systems. Forward error correction plays a large part in the signal recovery process and, not surprisingly, can be a huge processing burden, since it potentially requires several billions of operations per second per channel.

Software-defined radio systems are expected to support turbo coding for data, Viterbi for voice, and possibly both turbo and Viterbi coding for video information. Generating codes for data error correction is extremely processor intensive and data dependent (where the sequence of operations cannot be determined in advance), with turbo coding being the most demanding.

Prior to connecting to a network, the digital signal needs to be coded again in an operation that is often referred to as transcoding. In data-rich environments where software-defined radio systems are expected to operate, the requirement is to accommodate many alternative network formats for inclusion of Internet Protocol (IP), video, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) or other packet-switched networks.

Depending on the flexibility, future-proofing requirements and principle reasons for the transition to 3G, a number of options exist. If the radio system is configured by the operator for subscriber capacity reasons, as is the case of the current 3G wireless trials in Japan, then voice may be the primary traffic. In this case, the transcode task may only need to link to the PSTN. Alternatively, the radio system may be configured as a multimedia gateway providing a dynamically reconfigurable resource with links to ATM, IP, PSTN or alternative packet networks as required. One thing is certain: Software-defined radio systems will need to support transmission over a packet-based network for data traffic as well as for routing voice calls over IP to reduce call costs and, therefore, to increase margins for the service providers.

A number of enabling technologies can be used in the development of platforms for software-defined radio systems. One of the most challenging requirements to those technologies is the support for scalable systems.

Scalability in software-defined radio systems defines the ability to independently vary the number and size of resources (memory, processing and I/O bandwidth) that is used to support the radio infrastructure. Scalable high performance is an intrinsic characteristic of software-defined radio: the ability to scale the architectural components to meet evolving standard, traffic and service requirements, without the need to introduce new architectural components or changing the underlying infrastructure.

Those requirements call for a modular approach comprising a number of identical "processing channels." In such an architecture, each channel supports its own external I/O, which can be implemented to support any standardized or customized external interface. If a single-channel interface can cope with the external data bandwidth required by the media-processing application, then there is no requirement for additional processing channels. However, if a single interface is not adequate, then an appropriate number of processing channels can be included in the system to help balance the data bandwidth by evenly distributing the data stream amongst the channels.

Each processing channel comprises storage and processing power in the forms of storage module and processing module, respectively. The storage module in each processing channel is used to store media data for processing or results of media-related processing. The processing module implementation needs to support software-programmable, high-performance processing, which can linearly scale to match the continuously processing requirements of basestations used in software-defined radio infrastructure.

The combination of the high performance required for CDMA processing, the need to support hundreds of users per basestation and the lack of software-programmable devices that can support tens of billion of operations per second led to the extensive use of ASIC components in the early implementations of 2.5G and 3G infrastructure. Such components perform such fixed functions as correlation for rake receiver applications and Viterbi decoding for forward error correction.

Although an approach based on the use of ASICs seems to be a simple and direct one for solving the performance and power consumption concerns of software-define radio systems, it has serious inherent problems. As the performance and function support requirements of the infrastructure scale, the number of ASIC components increases linearly. This results in large silicon area; costs that include time-to-market associated with the development and debugging of new software; and power consumption difficulties.

An ASIC-based approach also is limited in its ability to support systems that need to adapt to air interfaces and traffic requirements while in the field. In general, an ASIC-based infrastructure for software-defined radio demands significant resources for development and support

The potential use of reconfigurable logic like FPGAs in wireless infrastructure is an alternative to the use of ASICs.

FPGAs usually are used for fast ASIC prototyping. In addition to the traditional logic blocks and interconnection resources, some new FPGA devices, like XtremeDSP by Xilinx Inc., integrate fixed-function units like multipliers. By designing systems to use the full capability of dynamically reconfigurable FPGAs, it is possible to create systems where silicon area is no longer a function of the number of modes supported in a basestation, while providing high flexibility in the field.

Configuration of FPGAs is typically performed when the system power is turned on. During operation the FPGA configuration is usually fixed, so the FPGAs do a fixed operation until the system power is turned off. However, recent FPGAs allow dynamic reconfiguration, where a portion or the entire device is configured on the fly while it performs processing functions. The FPGAs appear to be better suited than ASICs for software-defined radio since they support upgrades to future requirements much more efficiently. They take seconds to reconfigure, however - a very long time for wireless infrastructure, which is likely to need reconfiguration times on the order of a few tens of miliseconds.

Finally, problems associated with the costs of using FPGAs have limited their use mostly to system prototyping. Among these costs are very high device costs; lack of efficient tools or knowledgeable personnel to accelerate engineering development; and intellectual-property concerns where efficient hardware block implementations are patented and their use results in royalty payments.

The deficiencies of software-defined wireless infrastructure solutions based on pure ASICs or FPGAs led to a hybrid system architecture, where ASICs and/or FPGAs are used in combination with software-programmable, high-performance digital signal processors. The high-performance operations with regular throughput rates, such as filtering, are handled by ASIC or FPGA devices, while DSPs handle algorithms characterized by irregular throughput rates.

The modern DSP architectures, available from traditional DSP manufacturers such as Agere, Analog Devices, Motorola and Texas Instruments, are relying on high clock speeds (predicted to reach 1 GHz in the next two to three years) and parallel processing in the form of either very long instruction word (VLIW) or single-instruction, multiple data (SIMD) approaches, where a small number of large-grain, rather powerful processing units (up to eight in current implementations) are integrated on a single device.

Both the wireless-infrastructure industry and the manufacturers of DSP devices are beginning to acknowledge that such devices cannot address the requirements of software-defined radio infrastructure. The degree of parallelism that is offered in DSP devices is neither adequate to deliver the high performance nor usable in nondeterministic types of operations characterized by frequent conditional execution and irregular control flow.

A problem associated with large-grain, multiprocessing systems is the overhead associated with keeping the units coordinated. This leads to a very low-level program development if the application needs to be implemented efficiently. However, there are not enough programmers who are confident with programming in such a low level, and it is very hard to debug. In addition, the temporal approach (very high frequency) that current DSP designs are using for high performance cannot address the processing requirements needed in applying long filtering operations very common in CDMA systems.

The hybrid approach of software-pr-ogrammable DSP chips and ASIC/FPGA devices results in a heterogeneous system architecture, which is very complex, difficult to scale and difficult to maintain and upgrade. In an attempt to address some of these issues, some DSP manufacturers are introducing programmable DSP cores and fixed-function units on the same device. This is the case of the latest TMS320C6416 device announced by TI. In addition to the programmable VLIW core, it also integrates Viterbi and turbo decoding blocks. This type of approach was first introduced by Lucent with its 16xx series DSP that also integrated a Viterbi decoding block. Such integration only decreases the number of components, rather than addressing the most important issues of scalability and adaptability.

Finally, there is always a key question associated with the traditional high-performance programmable DSP architectures: future proofing. Traditional DSP companies introduce new architectures every three to four years at a great research and development expense, which in many cases is in excess of $100 million. These new architectures often have little resemblance to their previous versions. As a result, long-term development is becoming obsolete and systems that are employed for some time, as is the case of software-defined radio infrastructure, will require expensive upgrades.

Another type of a hybrid approach is the integration of a reconfigurable interconnection fabric that is based on the same principle as the FPGA reconfiguration, with arithmetic units that are interconnected using the interconnection fabric. The principle of this approach is that the interconnection can be programmed on the fly to interconnect the arithmetic units according to the processing requirements. The CS2112 device by Chameleon Systems is an example of this approach. Despite the potential high performance of such devices, achieved by the density of arithmetic units that can be integrated on a single device, their main disadvantage is the reconfiguration overhead.

Although downloading the reconfiguration information can be overlapped with data processing, updating the interconnection fabric requires a few tens of miliseconds, which is too long for wireless-infrastructure applications where the frame time is 10 to 20 ms. Furthermore, the reconfiguration information for the interconnection fabric needs to be known well in advance in order to compute the required vectors. That goes against the concept of software-defined radio, where air interface and traffic conditions are expected to be dynamically (and unpredictably) changed.

Aspex Technology Ltd. has developed a completely software-programmable technology that is most appropriate for the high-performance, scalable requirements of software-defined radio infrastructure. Aspex's Associative String Processor (ASP) architecture comprises an SIMD parallel-processor core incorporating a string of identical processing units, a reconfigurable intercommunication network and a vector data buffer for fully overlapped data input-output.

The ASP architecture is different from mainstream high-performance architectures in its use of a fine-grain, bit-serial implementation for each processing unit, and the interconnection, which is reconfigurable through application software rather than through previously determined information.

In addition, each processing unit can perform logical and relational operations by employing associative processing techniques, also known as content-addressable processing. Most important, the support for associative processing offers deterministic performance for data dependent processing, a feature that is unique to ASP amongst the high-performance processing architectures. Although each processing unit is only capable of performing bit-serial operations, they are very simple to implement, requiring approximately 2,500 transistors each. Consequently, thousands of them can be implemented on a single device, thus providing very high performance.

The latest implementation of the ASP architecture, called Linedancer, implements 4,000 processing units that can deliver in excess of 100 Giga operations per second, operating at 266 MHz. The ASP's SIMD structure makes it suitable for supporting processing for software-defined radio infrastructures, since the available processing resources can be used to process either long filter sequences or long bit sequences of data decoding for one or more users simultaneously. Indeed, ASP implementations like the Linedancer device can deliver processing power that is typically associated with ASICs and performance flexibility that is characteristic of microprocessors. A single Linedancer device is capable of processing in true software-programmable fashion tens of CDMA users simultaneously.

here is a URL to a very interesting article re wireless digital audio from September 2001:

http://www.cecs.pdx.edu/Systems/wireless/Tech%20Articles/WSD_sep01_Audio.pdf

would very much appreciate if someone could post text version here for me; thanks

Samsung pushes deeper into digital audio with new SoC series
By Semiconductor Business News
Dec 26, 2001 (8:32 AM)
URL: http://www.siliconstrategies.com/story/OEG20011226S0008


SEOUL -- Aiming to increase its presence in next-generation digital audio applications, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. this week announced development of a system-on-chip IC with integrated 16-bit microcontroller, 24-bit digital signal processor, 96-kilobyte cache SRAM, and other peripherals functions for handheld devices.

The SoC chip, designated S3CC410X, is scheduled to move into mass production in January, said Samsung officials, who announced the part on Monday. The integrated circuit incorporates Samsung's CalmRISC, which has both a 16-bit controller core and 24-bit DSP coprocessor.

Other on-chip functions include a controller for liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and Universal Serial Bus (USB), Samsung said. The product can decompress 10-color CIS (CMOS Image Sensor) JPEG images per second, while the built-in LCD controller will display those images on a display, the company said. As a result, users can view notes or lyrics while listening to music, according to Samsung.

The chip is aimed at serving digital audio systems, which are expected to grow from 4.3 million units in 2001 to 6.5 million in 2002, said Samsung, citing a forecast from Dataquest Inc. These systems range from handheld MP3 players to personal digital assistants (PDAs) with audio functions.

Samsung said it has installed DSP software that enables the playback of music files in various formats such as MP3, Advanced Audio Coding (ACC) or Windows Media Audio (WMA). The device can also compress audio data into MP3 format and be used to support MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) or sound effects.

The Korean chip maker said it plans to introduce an enhanced version of the digital audio chip with a 32-bit microcontroller core in the first half of 2002. Product pricing was not released.

in light of the # of TI dsps and Actel FPGAs used in MP3 players, i think it is fair to say their paths must cross
[especially since Actel bought TI's FPGA business]

Actel Milestones


1985
Actel incorporates in Sunnyvale, California

1988
Actel pioneers first commercial antifuse FPGA with ACT 1 family

1991
ACT 2 Family Enters FPGA Market
The 1280 takes over programmable device density leadership

1993
ACT 3 family debuts as programmable device leader in performance

1994
Actel announces 1200XL family

1995
Actel introduces the 3200DX family of high-capacity FPGAs
Actel introduces Designer Series FPGA toolset
Actel acquires Texas Instruments' FPGA business

1996
Actel announces availability of the first Rad-Hard, non-volatile, FPGA, 8,000-gate RH1280
Actel ships first HDL-PCI-compliant FPGA design kits

1997
Actel introduces the MX family of gate array replacement FPGAs
Actel introduces Designer Lite, first no-cost FPGA development software downloadable over the Internet

1998
Actel introduces the SX family of high-performance FPGAs
Actel acquires an electronics design center in Mt. Arlington, NJ
Actel acquires exclusive marketing/sales rights to Flash-based ProASIC devices

1999
Actel introduces the Actel DeskTOP, first free integrated suite of tools for programmable logic design
Actel MX ships two million units in its first 18 months
Actel introduces, ProASIC, the world's only Flash-based family of reprogrammable, non-volatile, single-chip gate arrays
Actel introduces SX-A antifuse family-world's fastest FPGAs

2000
Actel MX ships million units in Q1
Actel MX reaches milestone of one million units shipped to MP3 applications
Actel introduces comprehensive embedded FPGA IP solution
Actel announces Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) technology for use in Aerospace applications requiring very high radiation tolerance
Actel introduces the eX family of low power, CPLD equivalent devices, targeting the e-Appliance market
Actel purchased Prosys Technology, innovators of dense embeddable SRAM FPGA cores.
Actel purchased GateField Corporation, a flash pioneer with both standalone and embedded FPGA technologies.

MP3 anf FPGAs: ACTEL IS DOMINANT FPGA SUPPLIER TO THE MP3 DIGITAL AUDIO MARKET

Volume Shipments to MP3 Player/Recorder Applications Surpasses One-Million Units and Demonstrates Actel's Leadership in Emerging Consumer Internet e-Appliance Segment

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 1, 2000 -- Actel Corporation (Nasdaq: ACTL) announced that, as of the end of Q1 2000, it has shipped more than one million field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for use in MP3 Internet digital audio player/recorder applications. With InStat Research estimating that 750,000 MP3 player/recorders were sold in 1999, the volume of Actel shipments substantiates the claim that Actel FPGAs today are included in the majority of MP3 Internet audio player/recorder products in the hands of consumers worldwide.

According to published statistics from Dataquest, digital versatile disc (DVD) players reached the level of one million units in sales in just under one year. Sales of MP3 players have grown at a similar rate. MX, Actel's fastest ramping FPGA product family, has been used in both the Rio 300 and Rio 500 digital audio MP3 models from S3 Corporation's Diamond Multimedia division, the world sales leader in MP3 player/recorders. In addition, Actel FPGA families have been designed into more than 20 MP3 player applications around the world, which are either in production today or are now being made ready for production.

MP3 is an abbreviation of the Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) industry organization's Layer 3 third-generation audio/video standard. MP3 player/recorders are small, battery powered devices that digitally record high quality music and audio off of the Internet and allow users to play it back much as they would with a portable CD player.

"Actel's FPGA technologies are ideally suited for use in MP3 players and other e-Appliance products," said Carl Burrow, vice president of marketing at Actel. "Because of this, we are seeing a very strong demand for Actel devices in a large number of high-volume, Internet-related consumer applications. This demand is moving Actel into an undisputed leadership position as the FPGA provider of choice in the e-Appliance market."

With increasing frequency, Actel's FPGA families are being designed into high-volume, consumer e-Appliance applications instead of ASICs (application specific integrated circuits), which until recently were the only choice for these products. These applications include not only MP3 players, but also digital cameras, personal digital assistants, digital set-top boxes and Internet access devices such as cable modems and xDSL modems. (See "Actel Ships Over One Million MX FPGAs for Second Consecutive Quarter," April 11.)

Actel FPGAs are clearly differentiated in this market. Their popularity is based on the combination of several benefits that make them attractive for use in consumer/e-Appliance applications. They include low power; low price; a small, single-chip footprint; nonvolatility; design security; and ease of design and verification, enabling faster time to market.

About Actel

Actel designs, develops, and markets FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) and associated design and development software and programming hardware. FPGAs are used by designers of communications, computer, consumer/e-Appliance, industrial, military/aerospace, and other electronic systems to differentiate their products and get them to market faster. Actel is the leading supplier of FPGAs based on antifuse technology and has introduced the ProASIC family of reprogrammable FPGAs based on flash technology. The company also offers system-level design, prototyping, and consulting services through its Protocol Design Services Group. Actel's strategy is to be The Programmable ASIC Solutions Company, a complete solution provider for programmable ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) systems. The company is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol ACTL and is located at 955 East Arques Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, 94086-4533. Telephone: 888-99-ACTEL (992-2835). Internet: http://www.actel.com.


# # #

tin-- under edig/Dataplay agreement, edig will collect royalties from OEM customers:

e.Digital Corp. (OTC:EDIG - news), a global provider of comprehensive digital product development and designs, and DataPlay Inc., developer of the universal media format for all things digital, today announced a broad strategic alliance and agreement to develop and deliver portable products uniting DataPlay's digital media, micro-optical engine and ContentKey(TM) technology with e.Digital's patented technology and design integration services.

The agreement specifies that e.Digital will provide engineering and technology development, enabling worldwide application of DataPlay's digital media in a variety of portable products. DataPlay will also refer OEM customers to e.Digital for product design, technology integration and application development around DataPlay's removable digital media and micro-optical engine. In addition to NRE (non-recurring engineering) fees for design and development efforts, e.Digital will collect royalties from OEM customers on certain DataPlay-enabled products.

Universal, Toyota in pact to promote movies/music
Reuters

NEW YORK, July 31 -- Universal Studios plans to announce a global
marketing alliance with Toyota Motor Corp. that will integrate Toyota
with the promotion of Universal theme parks, movies and music, the
Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition.

The newspaper said the deal, expected to be announced sometime
Tuesday, will result in Toyota sponsoring theme-park rides, placing
its cars in Universal movies and distributing, via Toyota
dealerships, special promotional CDs filled with Universal music.

The three-year deal, with an option to extend for two additional
years, calls for Toyota to pay a fee described by Universal as "tens
of millions" of dollars for the right to link its brand to
Universal's products across the board, the paper said.

Toyota also will spend $50-80 million on advertising to support the
joint promotions, the report said.

A Universal spokeswoman told the newspaper the cornerstone of the
deal is promotions involving the Universal theme parks in California,
Florida, Japan and Spain, through which Toyota will sponsor several
attractions, including "Back to the Future -- The Ride" at Universal
Studios Hollywood and "Adventures of Spider-Man" at Islands of
Adventure in Orlando, Fla.

In the film arena, Toyota will have a "first look" deal to place cars
in Universal films, meaning it will have the right to claim
such "product placements" before other auto makers, the newspaper
said.

On the television front, Toyota will sponsor certain programs on
Universal's cable and satellite channels in Europe and Latin America,
the report said, also receiving a 30 percent discount on advertising
it purchases on those channels.

GM, Toyota Study In-Car Information Systems in Japan (Update1)
By Kae Inoue


Tokyo, Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., the largest
automaker, and Toyota Motor Corp. said they will jointly study the
use of in-car information systems in Japan, which may lead to further
cooperation in providing such services.

The Detroit-based automaker and Toyota, the third-biggest carmaker,
said the study, which will run for eight months, will determine
whether they can use each other's expertise in auto information
systems, such as digital maps and communications with roadside help
services, the companies said in a statement.

``We hope that this study will lead to a form of joint venture or
some other kind of format,'' said General Motors Vice President Mark
Hogan at a press conference. ``We could become a very important force
in Japan.''

The so-called telematics industry is forecast to grow sixfold to $24
billion worldwide by 2005 and to $47 billion by 2010, from about $4
billion now, according to a UBS Warburg LLC report. The system uses
global-positioning satellite technology and lets subscribers call for
roadside help, access directions and travel information, and track a
stolen vehicle.

The companies will discuss jointly using Toyota's Gazoo e- commerce
terminals, digital network technology, infrastructure and the
services that Gazoo offers to customers, the statement said. They
will share service contracts with telecommunications providers,
content development and settlement of payments.

``There will be a strong demand for more convenient cars with
information, but whether people can buy those cars will depend on the
price,'' said Koji Endo, a senior analyst at Credit Suisse First
Boston Japan Inc., before the announcement.

GM-Toyota

``Toyota will be in charge of development and offering infrastructure
in Japan, while Toyota uses GM's infrastructure in the U.S.,'' said
Toyota Director Akio Toyoda at the briefing.

General Motors will send staff to work with Toyota on the project,
said Matthew Mitchell, country manager for General Motors' e-GM e-
commerce unit.

Toyota already offers General Motors' OnStar system as an option in
the Lexus LS 430 sedan in the U.S. Toyota was the second rival
automaker to sign up for General Motors' system after Honda Motor
Co., Japan's No. 2 automaker, last year started to equip U.S.
versions of its Acura sedans with OnStar.

Toyota Executive Vice President Susumu Miyoshi said the companies
chose each other as partners based on past business relations. The
automakers have a joint production plant in Fremont, California,
called New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.

The companies have also formed an alliance to study fuel cells,
hybrid engines and other low-emission technologies. Toyota also
joined Covisint, an Internet auto parts exchange formed by General
Motors, Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG.

OnStar System

General Motors aims to equip its vehicles in Japan and those of
Japanese affiliates Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., Suzuki Motor Corp.,
and Isuzu Motors Ltd. with the OnStar satellite navigation and data
service next year, Terry Johnsson, general director of General
Motors' Internet business arm in Asia, said earlier.

Hogan today said whether the OnStar system will retain its name is
still undecided.

The maker of Chevrolet and Cadillac cars is pressing ahead with
expansion in Asia even as it combats shrinking market share and
weakening consumer confidence at home after U.S. terrorist attacks
last month. General Motors aims to be among the top three automakers
in Asia-Pacific with a 10 percent market share, including its
alliance partners.

General Motors has said it would like to participate in Toyota's
Gazoo e-commerce site to market its vehicles and services in Japan
via the Internet.

Toyota rose 0.9 percent to close at 3,400 yen. General Motors shares
fell 3.5 percent to close at $41.21 yesterday.

someone mentioned fujitsu ten and dvd, please note:

Panasonic Chooses Texas Instruments' DSP to Enable Digital Audio in its New DVD Player
Customer Support From Panasonic Marks TI's First Venture of Bringing Digital Audio to DVD Marketplace
LAS VEGAS (Jan. 8, 2002) -- The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) continues to be the tradeshow to unveil the latest and greatest consumer electronics products, and this year is no exception. Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) will showcase the Panasonic DVD player (DVD-RV32) at its semiconductor booth (#13737) this week at CES in Las Vegas. The new DVD player supports Windows Media Audio (WMA) file playback, which is enabled by TI's power-efficient digital signal processor (DSP). Leveraging its success in the Internet audio industry, TI is expanding its reach into the spinning disk market by adding compressed audio functionality to DVD products.
"TI is looking to bring its DSP expertise to high growth markets to enable advanced capabilities and unmatched features," said Fred Cohen, worldwide manager of Digital Audio at TI. "Adding audio to DVD applications extends the long list of markets that can benefit from TI DSPs, including stand alone digital audio players, CD players, cell phones, PDAs, Internet appliances, home stereos and car audio systems."

The Panasonic DVD-RV32 will play DVD-R*1, CD-R/RW*2 and MP3*3 playback, allowing all kinds of digital content to be played on one single device. Using TI's low-power TMS320DA105 DSP, consumers will also be able to listen to WMA discs with over 22 hours of CD-quality music.

TI provides high-performance, programmable DSP and analog-based solutions for many digital audio segments. TI offers a broad range of audio products with the performance headroom and flexibility in a low power solution for a wide range of product designs. TI's award-winning DSP technology is designed into more than 90 Internet Audio devices, including products from nine of the top 10 consumer electronics manufacturers.

*1 This unit can play back Panasonic DVD-R discs recorded and finalized with a Panasonic DVD video recorder DMR-E20. It may not be able to be played back depending on the DVD-R disc and the recording condition.

*2 This unit can play CD-DA format audio CD-R and CD-RW. It may not be able to play some CD-R or CD-RW due to condition of the recording.

*3 For contents recorded on CD-R/RW media for CDs for your personal use. Playability may vary on contents and discs.

DA250 Internet Audio Module

The TMS320DA250 Internet Audio Module gives users a convenient means of evaluating the features of the TMS320DA250 Digital Signal Processor from Texas Instruments. The DA250 IAM comes with a wide range of onboard peripherals and interfaces to allow the development of a variety of applications.

Hardware features include stereo codec, USB interface, I2C interface/ROM, 4Mx16 DRAM and NAND Flash memory.

Kane Computing also supply a range of emulators for use with this product which operate with TI's Code Composer Studio software.

http://www.kanecomputing.com/newsautumndsp.htm.

Texas Instruments Takes the Lead in Programmable Internet Audio DSP Shipments, Surpassing Three Million
Superior Performance and Flexibility Make TI DSPs the Overwhelming Choice for Internet Audio Among Consumer Electronics Manufacturers
DALLAS (July 18, 2001) -- Exerting its strength in the digital music market, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced that shipments of its Internet Audio digital signal processors (DSPs) surpassed three million in June of 2001, more than any other programmable semiconductor manufacturer. In addition, TI announced new design-wins with Compaq Computer Corporation, Clarion, Olympus, Pioneer and Pontis, as well as additional products from current customers Thomson multimedia and Digisette LLC. Over the past year, TI's programmable DSP has become the overwhelming choice for Internet Audio-enabled products from leading consumer electronics manufacturers due to its flexible, high performance and low power system solution. (See http://www.ti.com/sc/internetaudio.)

"In today's digital audio hardware market, growth remains strong as consumers continue to spend on high-quality products," said Mike Paxton, senior analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group. "TI remains on the leading edge of this market due to their consistent technological advances, key partnerships with industry leaders and a growing number of successful design-wins."

"Consumer electronics manufacturers have recognized TI as the leading provider of DSPs for Internet audio devices by selecting TI's chips for their next-generation products," said Chris Schairbaum, worldwide marketing manager of Internet Audio at Texas Instruments. "We expect to see increasingly strong consumer demand for a variety of devices featuring Internet audio capabilities as some begin hitting the shelves later this year, including cell phones, PDAs, Internet appliances, home stereos and car audio players. As the market evolves, TI will continue to anticipate the needs of this industry and offer manufacturers the most advanced, feature-rich DSPs available."

In addition to shipping three million DSPs into the Internet Audio industry, more than any other programmable semiconductor manufacturer, TI's Internet Audio business had several new design-wins and industry accolades in the second quarter, including:

April - EDN magazine named TI the winner of its 2000 "Innovation of the Year" award. TI's power-efficient TMS320C5510 DSP, which is the core used in TI's Internet Audio solution, the TMS320DA250, received the award for the "Digital Signal Processors" category. EDN's exclusive awards program is dedicated to honoring truly outstanding and innovative engineering products in the electronics industry each year.

April - TI added two additional products to its stable of design-wins this month. Digisette LLC, the award-winning company that created the DUO Digital Audio E-Cassette players, is now using TI DSPs in their entire product line, including the AR100 and AR300. The Digisette players are the only players to function as a portable stand-alone player and a cassette emulation device, requiring no adapters or accessories to playback digital audio in virtually any cassette deck. The Digisette DUO won the 2001 Innovations CES Award for Best in Show - Audio.

May - Once again Thomson multimedia has chosen TI DSPs to power their newest Internet Audio product line. Not only does TI power RCA's LYRA and LYRA2 Internet audio players, but its new compact k@zoo!™ player as well. The k@zoo! offers CD-quality sound in a cool mini-size player that fits in the palm of the hand and weighs less than two ounces. It has an LCD display and 32MB of built-in flash memory, which can be expanded through the use of an additional external memory card.

May - Olympus' new digital voice recorder/MP3 player, the DM-1 is powered by TI power-efficient DSPs. TI programmable DSPs provide a multi-format decoder system enabling the Olympus DM-1 to support both MP3 and Windows Media Audio (WMA) playback, as well as recording and playback of the Digital Speech Standard (DSS) voice codec format. TI DSPs also support Microsoft's Digital Rights Management and SRS Labs' eXpressDSP™-compliant WOW™ technology.

May - Pioneer selected TI programmable DSPs to enhance its new HDD CYBER NAVI, a car navigation system with the industry's first "Music Server" feature. TI's DSP enables MP3 recording and playback, creating a music library in the car. The HDD CYBER NAVI has a built-in 10GB hard disk drive (HDD), dedicating 2GB to audio storage and holding 20 CDs' worth of music. Its audio memory also can be expanded by adding a 10GB HDD, storing a total of 150 CDs. In addition to CDs, it is able to record audio from a radio, TV, VCR and mini-disc player.

May - Clarion chose TI's advanced DSP technology to drive the audio capabilities in the Joyride™ car multimedia entertainment and navigation system. With TI DSPs "under the hood," Clarion's Joyride is the only product that combines advanced audio and video capabilities with next-generation navigation applications. Clarion's Joyride packs a comprehensive set of digital music features supporting DVD video, DVD-Rom, CD Audio, CD-Rom, Windows Media Audio (WMA) and MP3 formats, as well as Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround sound, AM/FM radio, voice-activated control capabilities and the ability to add a large screen display for navigation and rear seat video monitors.

May - TI DSPs will power Pontis' new SP600 MP3 portable player. Pontis' SDMI-compliant player supports the leading digital audio formats including MP3, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), Windows Media Audio (WMA) and RealAudio®. The SP600 is the first audio player to accommodate multiple memory cards. Its two memory card slots support MultiMedia Cards, SD (Secure Digital) Cards, ROScards and CompactFlash Cards offering more than 4GB of memory.

June - Compaq Computer Corporation selected TI's industry-leading DSP technology to enable audio encoding and decoding in the Compaq iPAQ Music Center, a digital audio device that serves as Compaq's first home entertainment system. The iPAQ Music Center, the first TI-enabled product that allows users to digitally record music from almost any source, will store and organize up to 400 CDs or 5,000 songs without the use of a PC.
Some of the publicly announced customers and partners utilizing the power of TI's DSPs include: Clarion, Compaq Computer Corporation, Digisette LLC, Fraunhofer IIS, Intertrust, LG Electronics, Liquid Audio, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Olympus, Pioneer, Pontis, RealNetworks, Richfield Innovations Pte Ltd., Sanyo, Sony Corporation and Thomson multimedia (RCA).

TI rolls fourth-generation DSP-based Internet audio device
By Margaret Quan
EE Times
(10/02/00, 3:59 p.m. EST)


NEW YORK — Texas Instruments Inc. has introduced its fourth-generation chip set for Internet audio applications, featuring higher integration, greater performance and lower power consumption than earlier versions to help OEMs reduce end system costs and time-to-market, the company said.

The programmable DSP-based TMS320DA250 chip features TI's patented power management circuitry, and can enable up to 70 hours of audio playtime on on a digital audio player powered by two AA batteries. The chip also integrates USB 1.1, Sony Memory Stick and Secure Digital Memory Card interfaces to eliminate the need for additional chips and reduce costs, the company said.

The chip will sample in January and be available to OEMs for use in devices for the Christmas 2001 shopping season.

TI has established a position in the Internet audio market with its earlier chip sets, which have earned 60 design-ins, the company said. TI expects to ship over 2 million DSPs to this market by the end of 2000.

The new chip set is based on TI's TMS320C55X core and will be produced in a 0.15-micron process in early 2001, moving to a 0.13-micron process in late 2001, which will reduce its power consumption another 50 percent.

With advanced process technology and voltage scaling, TI has reduced the power consumption of the DA250 to 17 milliwatts, which will enable Internet audio devices with total power requirements of 50 mW. That's a significant reduction from the current-generation DA150, which consumes 38 mW and enables systems with a total power consumption of 150 mW, the company said.

The DA250 also represents a few firsts for the Internet audio market, in the form of a dual multiply and accumulate (MAC), its integrated USB 1.1 and on-chip memory storage interfaces, the company said. The dual MAC architecture on the DSP creates a high-performance, efficient design, the company said.

The new chip supports a wide range of memory storage technologies, audio compression formats and Digital Rights Management algorithms. The DA250 is SDMI-compliant (Secure Digital Music Initiative), and also possesses a 64-bit secure device ID. Each chip has a unique laser burned-in value that binds music to it if there is no external flash memory. With this feature, music from one Internet audio player cannot be played on another, TI said.

The DA250 also has 128 kilobytes of on-chip memory, so audio players can be developed without any external memory.

Future generations


TI said the C55X DSP core still has a lot of headroom to support additional capabilities, such as JPEG and MPEG-4 video. Engineers at TI are now working on a fifth-generation Internet audio solution based on the C55X for release in 2002. That solution will operate at 400 MHz — twice the clock speed of the initial DA250 — and provide 800 million instructions per second (Mips) performance. The future chip set will consume 10 mW and enable systems with overall power consumption of 25 mW. This fifth-generation part will be initially produced in a 0.13-micron process and feature an integrated amplifier, D/A converter, and several interfaces, according to Randy Cole, chief technologist of TI's Internet Audio Business.

Cole said TI is also working on an ultra-low-power Internet audio chip based on the C55X that will be produced in a 0.05-micron process and operate on less than 1 volt to deliver approximately 140 Mips. No time schedule has been set for the release of this chip, Cole said.

Samples of the DA250 will be available in January, and volume shipments expected in the second quarter of 2001. The initial version of the DA250, produced in 0.15-micron process, will have a clock speed of 160 MHz and deliver 320 Mips, while the version delivered in late 2001 will run at 200 MHz and deliver 400 Mips.

The DA250 will be available in 12 x 12-mm or 10 x 10-mm package sizes, and will cost $10 each in quantities of 250,000.

Development software for the DA250 is available now. Evaluation module development boards will be available in January.

TI ANNOUNCES TWO NEW PROGRAMMABLE TMS320C54X DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSORS (DSPS)
17 Jan 2002 02:05 GMT
(Ybreo Newswire) - Enabling designers of high-volume, cost-sensitive applications to eliminate external memory and expensive on-chip random access memory (RAM), Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) announced production of two new programmable TMS320C54x(tm) digital signal processors (DSPs) that incorporate seven times more on-chip read-only memory (ROM). Code compatible with all 19 devices in the TMS320C5000(tm) DSP platform, the two new DSPs allow customers to reduce overall system cost, size and power for applications including consumer digital audio, feature phones, cellular hands-free kits, speech recognition command and control, handheld gaming, toys and advanced headsets. For more information, visit http://www.dspvillage.ti.com/c540xdsps.

Enhanced Peripherals Greatly Reduce System Cost The two new devices, the TMS320C5404 DSP and TMS320C5407 DSP, feature cost and power saving peripherals. They are the first C54x devices to offer a hardware-based universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) to simplify interfacing to microcontrollers or wireless communication sub-systems such as TI's BNS60xx/TRF6001 Bluetooth chipset. Three high-speed multi-channel buffered serial ports (McBSP's) are provided for additional serial connection to multiple codecs or telecom interfaces which are useful in applications such as consumer 5.1 audio products or to interface directly to T1/E1 data rates. The devices also offer a large zero wait-state ROM and generous zero wait-state RAM, which greatly reduce both development and production costs for manufacturers.


The C5407 DSP delivers 120 megahertz (MHz) of performance with 40K words of RAM and 120K words of ROM, providing more than seven times the amount offered by the nearest competitor. The C5404 DSP delivers 120 MHz of performance with 16K words of RAM and 64K words of ROM. Both devices are available today.


In addition to the hardware UART and three McBSPs (full 128-channel), each DSP features a six-channel DMA, an 8/16 -bit host port interface (HPI) and 23 general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins. Both DSPs operate at less than 50 mW of power dissipation at 120 MHz with 1.5-volt (V) core and a 3.3V I/O. They also feature three power-management modes for further system power savings.


"Designers requiring large amounts of external memory or on-chip RAM will find these two devices very attractive. The fact that they are code compatible with other TMS320C5000 DSPs is the icing on the cake," said Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts. "TI's commitment to code compatibility is unmatched in the DSP industry, ensuring its customers that their earlier software investment can provide a foundation for future products."


Texas Instruments Continues to Enhance the TMS320C54x Generation


The C54x DSP generation now consists of 17 devices that are code compatible with all C5000 DSPs including upward compatibility with the new TMS320C55x DSP generation. The C54x generation includes:


The TMS320C5401 DSP, priced at $3.87, is the entry point into the broad C5000 DSP platform, and is perfectly suited for low cost end equipments such as toys and consumer electronic items.


The TMS320C5402 DSP, with millions of units shipped, offers the perfect balance of performance, low power and price, with performance to 160MHz in the recently announced C5402A DSP.


The TMS320C5410 and TMS320C5409 DSPs provide an unmatched level of integration, opening the door for new space-constrained DSP applications such as digital radios and global positioning systems.


The TMS320C5416 DSP offers 128K words of synchronous random access memory (SRAM) and 160 millions of instructions per second (MIPS) performance, enabling greater system flexibility for mid-range telecommunication applications such as voice over IP, fax and voice mail servers and PBX add-ons.

"TI continues to expand and innovate within the C54x DSP generation," said Marlon Marshall, C54x product marketing manager, TI. "These two new programmable DSPs are the result of our customers' ever pressing need to provide more system performance and functionality at lower cost. Because we are committed to a code compatible roadmap, our customers can immediately begin to leverage the industry's largest installed base of DSP third parties and existing code for the world's most popular DSP platform. Our customers can confidently invest in the platform knowing they can easily migrate to meet their future performance and cost requirements."


Pricing and Availability


The C5407 DSP will be priced at $14.50 and the C5404 DSP at $8.57 in 10,000 unit quantities and are available today. Starter kits and evaluation modules are available from Texas Instruments and licensed distributors, and foundation software can be accessed through TI's chip support library (CSL). eXpressDSPÔ development tools and software, including the easy-to-use Code Composer Studio IDE, DSP/BIOS real-time kernel and a C/C++ compiler, assembler and linker are also available now. For more information, visit http://www.dspvillage.ti.com/v5.

Evolution's video player [do i correctly understand edig not involved in it?]

Power in the palm of your hand
By David Carnoy, Colin Duwe, and Darren Gladstone
(1/10/02)

Microsoft introduces three new Pocket PC units with cellular functionality, while Sharp woos the open-source crowd by unveiling a Linux-powered handheld. And more hardware turns up for DataPlay's dirt-cheap 500MB storage discs.




1. Microsoft's Pocket PC 2002 line
At this year's show, in a somewhat expected move, Microsoft unveiled three Pocket PC devices that incorporate cell-phone functionality. Following the lead of Palm-powered phones, Pocket PC 2002 will power wireless handhelds from HP, Audiovox, and HTC (the company that makes iPaq PDAs for Compaq). Microsoft wouldn't say exactly when the devices would arrive in the United States, but all three devices are scheduled to make their overseas debuts by mid-2002.

We got a look at the devices and were generally impressed by what we saw. The HP and HTC handhelds run on GSM/GPRS networks (Cingular, AT&T, and VoiceStream), while the Toshiba-made Audiovox device runs on CDMA networks (Sprint PCS, Verizon) and is 3G compatible. The three devices aren't much bigger than their nonwireless counterparts, and all offer expansion slots for adding memory cards. As far as specs go, expect to see ROM and RAM configurations that are similar to those of existing Pocket PC 2002 PDAs, with 32MB of RAM being the base configuration.

At the show, Microsoft also announced that its cell-phone operating system--formerly known as Stinger--has been officially named Smartphone 2002. Though the company gave no new details about Smartphone 2002, Microsoft representatives said that devices based on the OS would be released by the spring of this year.
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2. Sharp Zaurus SL-5500
Sharp's Linux-powered Zaurus SL-5500 handheld looks like it's shaping up to be an excellent competitor to Palm and Pocket PC. Its hardware specs are comparable to those of Pocket PCs, including an Intel StrongARM processor, 32MB of ROM, and 64MB of RAM, and it has a very nice, 16-bit, reflective LCD. But unlike its rivals, this model has a built-in thumb keyboard hidden beneath the sliding directional pad below the screen. And unlike other companies in the Linux-PDA arena, Sharp appears to have motivated quite a few software developers to create consumer-friendly applications for the hardware. In addition to the usual address book, calendar, and sync features, we were able to use a Microsoft Word-compatible text editor, an Excel-compatible editor, and a PowerPoint viewer. We also watched very smooth video on the Zaurus using a Java-based video player. The Zaurus will be available in the United States within the next three months for around $550.
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Sharp Zaurus SL-5500

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3. Now Evolution video player
If James Bond were looking for a quick way to catch a flick midmission, he'd likely go with Now Evolution's new video player, which lets you enjoy Web-quality video on a device that's roughly the size of a StarTAC cell phone. Powered by Windows CE 3.0, the Now Evolution Motion Picture Player can play back MP3s, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, and Windows Media files. The slim design accommodates an MMC/SD card slot, but the real potential comes from the clip-on DataPlay drive. Imagine being able to buy a 500MB DataPlay disc for $5 or $6 and listen to music or watch movie clips on the small but relatively sharp, 2.5-inch LCD. It will come with 64MB or 128MB of internal memory, and its built-in microphone will let it double as an voice recorder for audio memos. It is set to come out by mid-2002, and though the price point hasn't been firmly nailed down yet, it may cost around $800.

DnC Develops MP3 Encoding Chipset [btw, if you dn notice, dnc has a TI bent--but not many companies in this area don't]

A Korean venture company has developed a new technology that creates digital music files from ordinary audio devices. DnC Tech said its new MP3-encoding chip enables consumers to use MP3 players as easily as other household appliances.

"This new chip will bring about a big change to the MP3 market. It makes MP3 players available to those who are not familiar with computers and the Internet," company president Park Han-suh said.

"Electronics firms around the world have endeavored to develop an MP3 player with an encoding function," Park said.

However, most failed because they were not able to keep the size of the player relatively small or could not maintain the necessary low-electricity structure, he added. One exception is Japanese firm Sharp, which has recently developed an MP3 player for recording music from computers.

DnC Tech, however, is the world's first to invent a technology that converts music from ordinary audio devices into MP3 files, Park said. It also is capable of recording voice and other sounds as MP3 files with CD-quality sound.

The company introduced its new MP3 player at Comdex '99, the world's largest computer technology exposition, held in Las Vegas last month. Park said its product has drawn keen attention from foreign buyers including Texas Instruments and Microsoft.

Negotiations for technology supply contracts are under way with major Japanese firms and the company plans to sign deals with 10 companies worldwide to provide the technology. DnC Tech is a forerunner in developing Internet-based multimedia solutions and chip design technology in Korea and it signed a chipset design agreement with Texas Instruments in June. (THE KOREA HERALD)

Korean based dnc technology was an sdmi member with a branch office in SD [not surprising since it is into wireless in a big way] and its goal is:

Real-time Multimedia Solution On the Wireless Telecommunication and Internet

The company was incorporated in January 1998 pursuant to the Commercial Code of Korea to design, develop, manufacture and sell multimedia products. Since the establishment, the Company has been trying to be a leading engineering company in the multimedia industry. This objective is being pursued by software and hardware experts of a same mind who have been assembled in early 1997 as a non-corporate joint-venture team to create the client-oriented product and well-performing service in the international multimedia market. And the Company has gradually adapted itself to the changes in the multimedia industry. The Company is now capable of providing customers with the real products which are actually required and used in the multimedia environments, and creates a greater demand from end users for its products. As a result of the Company's effort, several companies made a license agreement from the Company or to purchase the Company's products for their end products. The Company's goal is to continue to serve customers' need for the Real-time Multimedia Solution on the Wireless Telecommunication and Internet through the Company's philosophy of i) accelerating the development of technology, and ii) enhancing manpower effectiveness.


Company Profile
 Company Name : DnC Tech., Inc.
 CEO & President : Hans Park
 Foundation : January 8, 1998
 Address
- Main office : 5FL., Pyungwhan B/D,
1579-6, Seocho-Dong, Seocho-Gu,
Seoul, 137-070, Korea
- U.S.A. office : 5965 Pacific Center Blvd. Suite # 705,
San Diego, Ca 92121



Paid-in Capital : USD 3,627,863
(Based on spot rate KRW1,300/USD1)

Employee : 45 (oS/W Engineers (25), H/W Engineers (7)
Sales & Marketing(7), Administration (6)

Major Products :
Portable MP3 Encoder / Decoder solution (Low-power)
Portable WMA Encoder / Decoder solution (Low-power)
Total PD(Portable Device) Solution like Digital Audio Player
IBS (Internet Broadcast System)
MPEG 4(WMV) Video Solution (Low-power)

@
@

Leading Company in Integrated Multimedia Solution Business.

There are not that many individuals who know that MP3 player, recently appeared and being spotlighted as the portable audio player of the next generation, is developed by technicians within our country.

MP3 player makes sending/downloading music simple and makes easy to carry it around of its small size, smaller than a palm, and offers high quality of sound, as good as CDs. That is why it is being spotlighted as a new audio player in the generation of digital.

In the middle of the revolution MP3 has brought, DNC Tech is standing to upgrade MP3 with new techniques. In the time of which bubble arguments about internet company's profit model and rumors about .com company's collapse being brought up, the reason DNC Tech is being spotlighted is that the source of techniques developed from concentrated investment on R&D part and the possession of one profitable model developed based on their own techniques. DNC Tech is ventures company which aiming at multimedia solution development. In addition, DNC Tech was spotlighted because of inventing MP3 Encoding Chip for the very first time in the world.

The reason, MP3 Encoding Chip is being spotlighted as a next generation technique, is because it has overcome existing Decoding Mp3's demerit which downloading music only through computer, and just like a walkman it supports real time downloading voices and music in the form of MP3, and also it changes analogue tone quality to clean high tone quality. Also it is designed in a super lightweight and miniature size of 50g cigarette pack, and one battery can last up to 8 hours, and by overcoming ordinary CD player's demerit which bounds by shock, it is strong by shock. MP3 Encoding Chip warns a huge change in portable audio player market.

With these techniques, DNC Tech exports MP3 Encoding kits to AIWA in Japan and AIWA will exhibit MP3 encoding players, that have DNC Tech's encoding chip in it, from this June. Therefore, it will bring a huge sensation in world's electronic business. World's MP3 Player market amount to 10 millions at present and two years later it will increase by geometric progression amount to 250 millions. Yet because of short supply, smooth supply is impossible. With this tendency, international companies, such as SONY, PANASONIC, SHARP, PHILLIPS, and so on, are joining in the market and each company is competing in developing new techniques and products.

On this, DNC Tech has 80% research assistants of all employees in developing new techniques and in last December, made a contract about developing an Encoding/Decoding techniques and license with Microsoft and WMA (Window Media Audio). At this point, the research is almost completed.

Besides, as the result of intending to develop digital multimedia solution, we have developed, and supply Internet broadcasting solution, called Dream Net Cast. And also, produce Dream Player, a integrated multimedia player that enables to play audio files, video files, streaming files, audio CDs, and DVDs. DNC Tech's ultimate goal is to develop integrated multimedia solution and as a part of the program, DNC Tech is developing a system that removes 10 seconds delays on Internet broadcasting. When this system's development is over, with existing streaming service techniques and multimedia player, it is expected to bring a huge sensation in explosive expanding market of digital entertainment and Internet broadcasting integrated solution.

Because DNC Tech is reinvesting most of their sales, DNC Tech is not making big profits. However, with exports to AIWA and completion of technique development with MS in June, explosive increases in profits are expected. With this, we are sure that DNC Tech will reborn as the new strong in multimedia solution market which electric home appliances and media solution are combined. In addition, when DNC Tech is listed on K.O.S.D.A.Q in 2001, it is expected to be the royal stock.

2000.06 Sinyong Economics
Written by reporter Woo, YoungDal