Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[CombJelly]

bobs10, the computer in the closet....

Well, the last piece has fallen into place. Cradle Technologies has introduced their CT3616. This can encode 16 realtime MPEG4 channels. Given that adequate video streams can be supported across 802.11g links, the CIC would have a board with one of these chips, some memory and several tuners. The CIC would also have several 802.11g interfaces to serve the household with the option of having wired ethernet. 802.11g is pretty cheap these days, the bill of materials is under $15 per interface, so there is no reason why 4 or even 8 could be in a system. If Linux is used, all of the needed software is in place. The system would be a closed box and condfiguired with web pages so that the details of the Linux systems are hidden.

At a guess, something could be brought to market in under a year. Even 6 months could be doable with a good team and if many of the needed contacts for manufacturing and marketing were already in place.