Intel who are desperate to resurrect their tarnished image in the consumer electronics market after their failed Viiv initiative is now cuddling up to the likes of TiVo and set top box manufacturers in an effort to have them adopt their Blu-ray, Tru2way and other IPTV technologies in forthcoming products.
Already several major TV brands have said that they are reluctant to incorporate Intel technology into TV’s and associated wireless and content boxes because they do not want their devices. SmartHouse and ChannelNews have been told that future TiVo set top boxes will have Intel processors onboard.
Late last year Intel formed a 14-member Intel Consumer Electronics Network to develop new platforms of interactive applications and CE “Widgets.” Most of the Companies are unhears of in Australia they include Giga-Byte Technology, Hsin-Tien, Tatung, Unihan Corporation, Bei-Tou, Taipei, Taiwan, 3DiJoy Digital Technology, Pudong, Alticast, Beijing Tiplay Networking, Calsoft Labs, Chennai of India and Futarque a Danish Company.
Missing from the network are brands like Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Toshiba all mainstream consumer electronics Companies who are reluctant to let Intel get a toehold into the consumer electronics market. However some of these brands such as Samsung are working with Intel CE Network partners.
According to TWICE Magazine Intel’s so-called Widget Channel in TVs, Blu-ray players and other set-top devices revolves around a connectivity middleware framework that blends the typical linear broadcast viewing experience with a Widget-based Internet services experience. The two are blended together in an easy to use navigation interface.
Another big issue for Intel is their failed Viiv strategy which saw the processor Company partner with PC Companies and Microsoft in an effort to have the Microsoft Media centre software adopted as a key content platform for the home.
A senior Sony executive said at the recent CES show in Las Vegas “The problem for Intel is that they launched their Viiv program around PC and Microsoft products that constantly failed”.
“Today a consumer wants to switch on a device and instantly get access to content or a content management system, a PC which is powered by Intel processors and in particular Microsoft’s Media Centre offering which Intel aligned themselves with when launching Viiv does not allow this because it is wrapped up round a PC architecture that relies on Intel and Microsoft technology. Unlike technology from consumer electronics Companies this technology constantly fails or needs rebooting”.
Services that will be made available through the new Intel powered Widget Channel include movie downloads, news, weather, finance, sports, etc. Most of the types of services available are presented to the end user through some form of video, so that someone watching sports, news or finance programs on TV, for example, could pull up ancillary data on screen from the Internet while the broadcast continues.
At a press conference this week in the USA Intel said that their CE Network partners are currently focused on bringing platform solutions to market which include hardware, software and services based on the new Intel platform.
As an example Intel said that Alticast and Videon Central were able to quickly turn around a Blu-ray reference design after Intel announced its CE3100 system on a chip last year, said Kevin Hattendorf Intel Consumer Electronics digital home group platform marketing director.
Hattendorf said that the Intel Network is looking to lead the industry’s move into the CE 3.0 phase, where interactivity becomes an integral component of the consumer electronics experience.
To illustrate the direction, Hattendorf pointed to independent studies showing that in 2011 160 million households worldwide will be watching video from the Internet, and in May 2008 more than 115 million users in the U.S. alone were watching Internet video, he said.
What makes that important to Intel, he said, is research that shows that consumers still use their TV sets five times more than they use the Internet, making a merger of the technologies inevitable.
To help harness the Internet in CE devices, the CE3100 was Intel’s first system on chip (SoC) designed specifically for consumer electronics, targeting digital televisions, set-top boxes and Blu-ray Disc players.
The chip included an Intel architecture core with additional CE components including a strong graphics engine, high-definition video processing, and high fidelity audio.
Currently Intel is working on a next-generation CE SoC codenamed “Sodaville,” which will use Intel’s Atom core and 45nm technology.
with further details to be announced later.
For more on this story see www.TWICE.Com
