Upgrade Your Home Theater
By Darshan Somashekar - 08/28/00
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Extreme DiGital Entertainment Media Appliance Concept - Sensory Science Corporation 7835 East McClain Drive Scottsdale, AZ 85260 - www.sensoryscience.com
My living room, like many others, is cluttered with tons of electronic junk. Our old, never used since 1990 cassette deck still sits collecting dust in the center of our entertainment center. The VHS, getting more obselete as the minutes pass, sits atop of it. And on top of those machines, several more generic plastic black boxes are stacked, each performing some obscure duty. If there was only a way to combine them all...
Previewed at the Intel Developer Forum Conference, the EDGE (which stands for Extreme DiGital Entertainment) may be a new step in entertainment center and home theater convergence. It's a new Intel and Linux-based media appliance concept that promises to be the upgradeable centerpiece of living rooms everywhere.
Using an Intel processor and the Linux operating system, the EDGE will be able to be fully reprogrammed using different CODECs and GUIs, meaning that any new type of encoding will be able to be added to the EDGE's database of functions. Instead of having dedicated hardware performing specific tasks, like a sound system used solely to pump out Dolby Digital beats, the EDGE will store the coding in software, making the replacement of old software modules with new ones an easy process. So in case a new version of Dolby Digital comes out, the EDGE will be able to upgrade to it, without you having to buy another whole sound system.
Not only will the EDGE provide upgradeable support, it will also be equipped with modem and ethernet connections, making it a candidate for receiving broadband HDTV, satellite, and cable video feeds.
Applications for the EDGE will range from DVD players, to MP3 players, to personal video recorders, to a game console, to Internet access, and even radio broadcasts. Although not produced yet, the EDGE may be coming soon.
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