Replies to post #29514 on Rim Semiconductor Company (fka RSMI)

[GrooveMaster]

Spoke,

Are you shooting from the hip again?

Bill Gates is not going to sink anything into anything NVEI does. As I said before, they are a *SOFTWARE* company. They do not produce silicon. Never have, never will.

[GrooveMaster]

You maybe missed this Spoke.

The part that MWL, GrooveMaster, and others seem to fail to understand is that Microsoft has no "broadband roll-out". Microsoft is not a broadband company. They are a *SOFTWARE* company. Regarding the SBC deal, SBC chose Microsoft to provide *SOFTWARE* for the SBC broadband rollout. Microsoft did not choose SBC, or their broadband technology. Furthermore, Microsoft could care less what SBC's particular boradband technology might be. They are not, nor are they ever likely to become, a communications chipset company. Any speculation to the contrary is completely baseless, and frankly a bit ridiculous.




http://news.com.com/New+Microsoft+set-top+box+ready+to+roll/2100-1041_3-5381459.html

New Microsoft set-top box ready to roll
Published: September 24, 2004, 1:53 PM PDT
By Ina Fried
Staff Writer, CNET News.com


MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Microsoft plans to start shipping a new set-top box next week, and it's not your grandmother's WebTV.

Though MSN TV2 is the successor to the original WebTV devices, the new box is a vast departure from its predecessors.

On the outside, it's slick, with new video-playback and photo-viewing programs, and a custom version of Internet Explorer 6 designed to make Web browsing on the television a far less painful process. On the inside, it's a Windows CE-based product with a 733MHz Celeron--slow by PC standards but downright zippy in the world of set-top boxes.

Microsoft will sell the $199 device in two ways--as a dial-up product for technology newbies with $21.95 monthly service; and as an additional way for broadband homes to view the Web for $9.95 using the existing Internet connection. Newbies, who have historically been the bulk of MSN TV subscribers, are likely to be the majority of initial customers, said MSN TV General Manager Sam Klepper.

"We think over time, broadband (subscribers) will be half or more," Klepper said in an interview at Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus here.

Many of the new features are aimed at those customers, including the ability to play music or movies stored on a PC in another room. The device can connect via wired or 802.11b wireless networks, though Microsoft plans to add support for faster 802.11g wireless networking in mid-November. Customers will get 2GB of e-mail space for their primary account and 250MB for up to 11 additional accounts.

The new box, which is being made by Thomson and sold under the RCA brand, will be shipped to stores starting next week. The product has no hard drive, but it has enough flash memory to store some data, including 100 compressed photos that can be used as part of a slide show.

The release of MSN TV2 is part of the continuing transformation of the former WebTV operation into a unit that provides TV services to a variety of other Microsoft divisions, including the eHome unit, and Microsoft TV, which develops products for cable and other TV service providers.

Microsoft acquired WebTV in 1997 for several hundred million dollars. Microsoft eventually renamed the product MSN TV in 2001. In the past, Microsoft touted the fact that there were about 1 million subscribers for the service, but Klepper would not say how many there currently are.

Klepper did say the new service should be cheaper to operate than the old MSN TV, which used a proprietary browser, e-mail service and operating system.

One of the challenges for the unit, though, is that MSN TV finds itself as just one of many products Microsoft is aiming at the living room, including entertainment PCs, as well as two other set-top boxes: The Xbox game console and the Media Center Extender, a device that plays content stored on a Media Center PC in another room.

[GrooveMaster]

I think they do....

Bill Gates is not going to sink anything into anything NVEI does. As I said before, they are a *SOFTWARE* company. They do not produce silicon. Never have, never will.



http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=dev&aid=3263

TSMC signed up to provide chips for Xbox 2

Rob Fahey 13:57 07/04/2004
Another supplier deal for Xbox 2 gets set in stone

The world's largest semiconductor manufacturer, TSMC, has extended an existing relationship with Microsoft to encompass the direct provision of chipsets for the Xbox 2 console.

It's expected that TSMC will provide the graphics chips for the console, which have been designed for Microsoft by Canadian graphics chipset maker ATI - the same company that is providing graphics solutions for the GameCube and Nintendo's next console, N5.

The announcement of this deal is the latest in a series of steps which have seen the Xbox 2 edge ever closer to becoming reality. It was revealed earlier this year that Microsoft has been discussing an outline specification for the new console with several key developers.

It's expected that Microsoft will launch the Xbox 2 in late 2005 - a timeline which would probably make it the first to market of the next generation systems by a significant amount, with rival systems from Nintendo and Sony not expected to appear until 2006.

[GrooveMaster]

Now this is a tough sale.......

I don't see this happening when Microsoft has developed their own HD format as we all know so well.


Microsoft's involvement with NVEI was completely limited to their efforts to find a film that was suitable for demonstration of their Windows Media 9 *SOFTWARE*. They selected a rather cool, somewhat obscure film that had a great deal of visual impact, the rights to which could be had cheaply. That's all. Nothing else.



http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/10/05/news_6109658.html

HD-DVD association wants Xbox 2 on board

NEC and Toshiba are trying to persuade Microsoft to use their next-gen media format for the next-gen games console.
TOKYO--The HD-DVD association is attempting to persuade Microsoft to adopt its media format for use in the next Xbox console, Bloomberg Japan reported today. The news was revealed today during the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies Conference by Ryoichi Hayatsu, chief of Storage Division 1 at NEC.

"Microsoft is competing around first or second place in the North American [game] market," Hayatsu said. If the format were to be adopted for the next Xbox console, the association could "expect mass production [of HD-DVD reading units], which will lead [the format] to have a stable price from an early stage."

The HD-DVD association is competing to take the lead on the next-generation media standard against the Blu-ray Disc Founders association, which has made some major strides in recent weeks. Sony, a member of the Blu-ray Disc Founders association, announced last month that it will adopt the Blu-ray format on its next-generation game console succeeding the PlayStation 2.