6/1/99
BILL FERSTER’S VIDEOGRAPHICS NEWSWIRE
ISSUE 99-18
ABOUT THIS NEWSWIRE
Bill Ferster’s VideoGraphics NewsWire is published weekly and summarizes the important events in the convergent worlds of multimedia, video, animation, chips, mass storage and computers.
Please feel free to forward this NewsWire to someone who might appreciate an item, or heaven forbid, might want to subscribe to it. Please refrain, however, from continually mailing it to others on a regular basis. You can visit my website for more information, as well as read and search past issues of this NewsWire, at http://www.stagetools.com/bill.
NEWSWIRE BACK TO BI-WEEKLY
It was a grand experiment, but due to the uneven consistency of the news, coupled with the added overhead, I've decided to retreat back to publishing on a bi-weekly basis. The original intention for going weekly was to keep new from getting stale awaiting distribution. I will send out "Hot Flashes" for really pressing news instead.
Business
---> Adobe Predicts Better Earnings
Adobe Systems (http://www.adobe.com) predicted that its earnings will be better than previously estimated. They are continuing to "restructure," a euphemism for heaving 250 employees, primarily by closing its European office in Scotland.
---> Scanner / Digital Camera Use to Grow in Europe
InfoTrends Research Group (http://www.infotrends-rgi.com) released a report that predicted a 43% growth in the use of digital input devices in Europe this year to reach 9M units. Scanners represent 90% of this number, but camera use is growing.
----> Autodesk Reports Lower Sales
Autodesk (http://www.autodesk.com) seems to be struggling under the weight of its acquisition of Discreet Logic by reporting a $17M loss on sales of $195M this quarter, as compared with last year's sales of $223M. The company attributed $21M to write off acquisition costs of Discreet.
---> SGI Makes XFS to Open Source
SGI (http://www.sgi.com) will contribute its journaled file system technology, XFS, to the open source community. XFS is a key component of SGI's IRIX OS, provides full 64-bit file capabilities that will allow Linux to scale to handle file systems as large as 18 million terabytes of data and file sizes as large as 9 million terabytes.
CHIPS
---> Seiko Makes TPC/IP Chip
Apparently believing that even toasters will soon be plugged into the Internet, Seiko Instruments USA and iReady have created a simple, inexpensive chip that handles the relatively complex decoding and handshaking protocols. The "iChip S7600A" features an interface to a low cost processor and an internal TCP/IP stack.
---> Intel Reveals I-64 Instruction Set
Intel (http://developer.intel.com/design/ia64/index.htm) finally released details on what the instruction set to its IA-64 (code name: "Merced") microprocessor. The IA-64 uses
explicit information about instruction grouping, pre-fetching, predication and speculative execution to help overcome the limitations of RISC architectures. It has 128 integer and 128 floating point registers and is optimized for cryptography, video encoding and will support for Intel's MMX and Internet streaming SIMD Extensions.
AUDIO / MP3
---> Be Adds Audio Functions
The distant-third operating system, BeOS (http://www.be.com) has added new drivers to its audio system by a partnership with Echo Corporation to support their multiple input and output digital and analog audio peripherals. Echo's products support 20 and 24-bit sampling.
---> AOL Buys Up MP3/RA Pioneering Products
If you had any doubts about MP3's status as a format, AOL's (http://www.aol.com) has permanently shelved them with their acquisition of NullSoft and Spinner.com.
Nullsoft (http://www.nullsoft.com) is the maker of Winamp, the most popular MP3 player; Spinner.com (http://www.spinner.com) is a RealAudio-based web-based music server.
---> Zoran Puts MP3 Decoder in DVD Chips
One of the leading makers of DVD decoding chips, Zoran (http://www.zoran.com) is adding the ability to decode MP3 audio streams in its next generation Vaddis IV (ZR36730) DVD
decoder chip. The chip sells for $17 in volume.
MEDIA
---> Borders to Print Books on Demand
Leading book vendor Borders (http://www.borders.com) has hit on an interesting play against the Amazon.com's of the world by installing machines that can print high-quality paperbacks on demand in 15 minutes. They are using $40K machines from Sprout that will enable them to carry even the most obscure titles, served over the wire from Sprouts server. Only 1,300 titles are available now, mainly technical, but expect that number to grow rapidly.
---> Excaliber Releases Screening Room 2.0
Leading digital assets management software maker Excaliber (http://www.excalib.com/products/video/screen.html)has released v2.0 of Screening Room, a product designed to help the process of access, store and repurpose video assets. It makes them accessible and searchable over the Internet and Intranets. You can create full EDLs in industry formats from visual storyboards without the need for using an expensive nonlinear editing system.
MASS STORAGE
---> Medea Lowers RAID Prices
A maker of SCSI Disk Arrays or PC's Mac's and SGI's, Medea (http://www.medeacorp.com) has lowed the price of their VideoRAID Arrays. Prices range for $200-1000 in sizes from 13-100GB.
---> Digital VCR Software
MGI (http://www.mgisoft.com) announced a new software package to will turn a Pentium III PC into a digital VCR without requiring specialized chips. Their new "PURE DIVA" package offers DVD player/recorder (not the drive, of course) with time shifting capabilities.
###
CYA DISCLAIMER: The preceding NewsWire represents my best efforts to gather the facts and the offering of my opinions. Although I try to describe the world as it appears me, I make no representations as to the accuracy of the reports within, which are gleaned from press releases, print and online magazines and the Inquisit Information Service.
