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BW5033 MAR 19,2003 05:31 PACIFIC 8:31 EASTERN
( BW)(CT-XEROX)(XRX) Inside Innovation at Xerox: a Periodic Glimpse at Work In Progress; Scientists Speed Personalized Printing With Video Image Chips and New Compression Technology
Business Editors/High-Tech Writers
NOTE TO MEDIA: Multimedia assets available
A photo is available at URL:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.031903/bb2
ROCHESTER, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2003--It happens on expressway on-ramps, at stadium exits, and even at printers: too many cars, or too big a crowd, or too much information arrives at the same place at the same time, and things slow down. With printers, the challenge can be assembling and printing image-rich personalized color documents at a high speed when each page requires handling tens of millions of pixels -- selecting, processing and positioning each pixel with precision.
While they can't prevent congestion on expressways, Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) scientists do have a solution that allows the company's latest digital production printers to take full advantage of their built-in speed and variable printing capabilities. It is based on a new compression technology, called Xerox MultiMode (XM2) Compression, combined with programmable high-performance video chips.
The "a-ha" moment came when a Xerox researcher asked, "How do the digital signals from my cable service get converted into high-quality video images on my TV screen so quickly?" This led a group of researchers at Xerox to experiment with chips developed for the digital television and cable industry, resulting in the development of the unique XM2 image compression scheme.
XM2 is a system that combines several of the latest industry-standard techniques to compress both the personalized images and the assembled page to a manageable size without any loss of clarity or sharpness in the pictures, graphics or images. Patents have been applied for. XM2 runs the imaging and compression algorithms on a high-performance video chip. According to Peter Crean, a researcher and Xerox Senior Fellow at the company's Webster, N.Y., research laboratories, Xerox is the first to use these chips in a variable printing application.
"The combination of XM2 and the video chip delivers the same high-quality images using one-third the bandwidth that industry-standard compression algorithms use," said Crean. "That means we can move files that contain more data in a smaller format, ultimately boosting print speeds. Customers get higher quality images at lower costs."
Compression is particularly important when printing variable content documents, which may include a combination of pictures, text, and graphics - all assembled into highly individualized documents. Available for the DocuColor 2000 series of digital color presses and the new Xerox DocuColor iGen3(TM) Digital Production Press, XM2 makes it easier for the computers used in the variable information printing workflow to handle and process all of this data in seconds. Comparable compression technology and variable image print enhancements are also available for Xerox monochrome production printers.
Xerox Corporation, one of the world's top technology innovators, spends about $1 billion on research and development annually. It operates research and technology centers in the United States, Canada and Europe that conduct work in color science, computing, digital imaging, work practices, electromechanical systems, novel materials and other disciplines connected to Xerox's expertise in printing and document management. Xerox consistently builds its inventions into business by embedding them in superior Xerox products and solutions, using them as the foundation of new businesses, or licensing or selling them to other entities. For more information, visit www.xerox.com/innovation.
NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information about Xerox, visit www.xerox.com/news. XEROX(R), The Document Company(R) and the digital X(R) are trademarks of XEROX CORPORATION.
Note: A photo is available at URL:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.031903/bb2
--30--SDG/ny*
CONTACT: Xerox Corporation Bill McKee, 585/423-4476
bill.mckee@usa.xerox.com
or
Riedman Communications
Laurie Riedman, 585/396-3100
lriedman@rochester.rr.com
KEYWORD: NEW YORK CONNECTICUT
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HARDWARE COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS PUBLISHING PHOTO
PHOTOWIRE PRODUCT
SOURCE: Xerox Corporation
PHOTO: bb2
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URL: http://www.businesswire.com
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MARKHAM, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 2003--HDIC and EIS, two Chinese digital television integrators, announced today they have developed application software and middleware for XILLEON(TM) platforms from ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY) (NASDAQ:ATYT). HDIC's Media Beacon Tower middleware is a Java-based interactive engine designed as a value-added service for content operators and end-users. EIS has implemented iPanel microbrowser for XILLEON powered set top boxes (STB) to provide a graphical user interface that is fully customizable by the network operators, as well as full web browsing functionality.
The XILLEON 220 integrates a high speed MIPS(R) CPU (central processing unit), graphics, video, audio, conditional access, USB (universal serial bus), EIDE (enhanced integrated drive electronics), PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), memory controller, and a host of other I/O capabilities into one device. To complete the design of many consumer devices, the only components that need to be added are tuners, demodulators, modems, and memory.
"ATI's XILLEON 220 provides the most versatile feature set for digital TV (DTV), high-definition TV (HDTV) and STBs," said Ryan Xu, CEO, EIS. "EIS is delighted to provide our iPanel microbrowser on such a powerful platform to deliver a new level of Internet browsing and multimedia experience for customers on traditional TVs or DTVs. Coupling the iPanel browser available with XILLEON empowers manufacturers to enable remote education and digital image viewing on their devices including an easily customizable user interface to fit their customers' needs."
EIS has created the iPanel microbrowser to be fully compliant with all major Internet browser standards that support a wide variety of image formats and multimedia Internet applications. Designed to be fully customizable, iPanel microbrowser is highly portable to work with industry standard operating systems. The microbrowser is also optimized for TV displays with built-in anti-flickering algorithms for graphics rendering and anti-aliasing fonts.
"HDIC, cooperating with XOCECO, is delighted to port our middleware onto ATI's powerful and flexible XILLEON 220. The combination of ATI's XILLEON with an embedded Linux OS powerful graphics and CPU abilities makes the work of porting to a variety of products very easy," said Mr. Yi Li, VP of HDIC. "With HDIC's MBT, XILLEON based STBs will provide users with a totally new outlook on DTV."
HDIC's MBT is a solution for digital television middleware system and is compatible with the future Chinese DTV middleware standard. Working closely with the National Middleware Standard Group, HDIC is leading the way in creating the current and future compliant solutions for DTV and STB manufacturers. With advanced architecture and powerful functions, MBT also supports online upgrading and customization.
"Dedicated development is key to the future of HDTV," said Yujing Wei, Greater China manager, marketing and business development, DTV/Consumer Products Group, ATI Technologies Inc. "ATI is proud to be working with system integrators such as HDIC and EIS to enable the progress of DTV in the consumer marketplace, and we're glad to see more and more application level software design for use with the XILLEON platform. This increase in cooperative efforts means more choice to service providers and manufacturers."
ATI Technologies will exhibit its DTV technologies on March 21-23 at China Cable Broadcasting Network 2003 at booth #3606 in Hall 3 of the China International Exhibition Center, Beijing, China.
About EIS
Embedded Internet Solutions, Inc is a leading embedded software provider for set-top boxes, digital TV, smartphones and PDAs. Its flagship product, iPanel microbrowser, provides a full-feature HTML rendering engine with low system requirements. Additional information, about is EIS is available at http://www.ipanel.com.cn or http://www.embisoft.com
About HDIC
Shanghai High Definition Digital Innovation Center, HDIC, is a leading design house of DTV broadcasting and consumer electronic software and hardware. Its flagship DTV software solution is MBT middleware system, which offers the hardware-independence, openness and flexibility to their interactive customers.
About ATI Technologies
ATI Technologies Inc. is a world leader in the design and manufacture of innovative 3D graphics and digital media silicon solutions. An industry pioneer since 1985, ATI is the world's foremost visual processor unit (VPU) provider and is dedicated to deliver leading-edge performance solutions for the full range of PC and Mac desktop and notebook platforms, workstation, set-top and digital television, game console and handheld markets. With 2002 revenues in excess of US $1 billion, ATI has more than 1,900 employees in the Americas, Europe and Asia. ATI common shares trade on NASDAQ (ATYT) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (ATY).
Copyright 2003 ATI Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. ATI and ATI product and product feature names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ATI Technologies Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Features, pricing, availability and specifications are subject to change without notice.
For media or industry analyst support, visit our Web site at http://www.ati.com
--30--KT/na*
CONTACT: ATI Technologies Inc. John Swinimer, 905/882-2600, Ext. 8456
swinimer@ati.com
or
BenchMark Porter Novelli
Pedro Cabezuelo, 416/422-7164
pcabezuelo@bmporternovelli.com
or
ATI Technologies Inc.
Janet Craig, 905/882-2600, Ext. 2631
jcraig@ati.com
or
EIS
Ms. Li Ying, +86 (755) 8355 1234 ext 8028
liying@ipanel.com.cn
or
HDIC
Mr. Philip Wang, +86 (21) 6282 1020 ext 8030
yaowang@cdtv.org.cn
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Verizon announced that it intends to increase it's Broadband DSL coverage by 10 million homes [up 28%] from 36 million homes to 46 million by the end of 2003, giving it Broadband coverage of ~80% of homes in its service area. They also announced that
- "The company will put DSL equipment in more than 3,000 neighborhood terminals that are connected to the Verizon network with fiber-optic cables, and it will put DSL equipment in approximately 1,000 additional neighborhood switching centers."
- "Verizon is exploring ways to advance its broadband deployment in 2004, including deploying fiber into neighborhoods and even bringing fiber to the premises of an initial set of customers."
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Business 2.0 article about the idea of producing media that actually builds a (sympathetic) story around an advertisers brand.
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PlayJam is a television gaming channel that offers a constantly changing selection of games including play-along quiz, casino and arcade style games using OpenTV (Wink) technology. It claims distribution to over 10 million homes in the U.K., France and the U.S. The PlayJam channel is scheduled to debut a new multiplayer game format on The BSkyB digital satellite television platform in May, 2003, including Multiplayer Darts, Multiplayer Football and Multiplayer Poker.
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At NAB, TANDBERG Television is pitching something they call iTTV [basically a digital headend for interactive television delivery with ATM/IP delivery, transport stream descrambling, high-quality encoding and bit-rate changing, etc. ] aimed at commercial xDSL and FTTH (fiber to the home) deployments. They claim design wins at FastWeb [Italy's largest telecommunications company} and Lyse a power utility company offering video, voice and data via FTTH. They also announced the launch a dedicated real-time hardware-based encoding platform for Windows Media 9.
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A FTTH Council press release today announced the results of a study on FTTH by Render Vanderslice & Associates. Here's an exerpt...
WASHINGTON – March 18, 2003 – The Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council has updated its running list of “U.S. Optical Fiber Communities” with 20 new communities, bringing the current total to 70 communities in 20 states. The list, which was prepared by Render, Vanderslice and Associates of Tulsa, Okla. and first released in August 2002, tracks communities nationwide that are meeting growing consumer demand for broadband through FTTH solutions.
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For more information, contact:
Jill Ullman
Public Relations for Viadux
678.461.0916
jullman@bellsouth.net
VIADUX Delivers Strategic Broadband Technology
to Open Up Full Potential of Business Market to Cable Operators
Time Warner-San Diego Deploys VIADUX Platform in Cable Market
San Diego – MARCH 18, 2003 – VIADUX, a leading provider of broadband access solutions for Local Business Neighborhoods, today announced the availability of its strategic broadband technology to cable operators, enabling multiple systems operators (MSOs) to build profitable multi-access platforms today that are assured of a solid return on investment (ROI) in their cable infrastructure. In the cable market, the VIADUX platform is already being deployed at Time Warner Cable – San Diego with the implementation of a multi-tenant building access solution.
The small and medium business segment represents current and future growth opportunities for cable operators. According to In-Stat/MDR, worldwide multi-tenant (MTU) service revenues total approximately $13.6 billion --- with a 104 percent average growth rate expected from 2003 to 2006.
“Today’s cable executives are looking for ways to grow their top-line revenue,” said Vicki Marion, VIADUX’s President and CEO. ”With tight capital markets, they require minimal capital investments that will pay for themselves within one year. The small and medium business market, which resides largely in multi-tenant buildings, offers a clear, near-term revenue opportunity to an underserved market. The VIADUX platform provides cable operators with a scalable and affordable solution for rapid deployment --- allowing them to market to customers they could not otherwise reach with a pay-as-you-grow strategy.”
With the roll-out of the cable industry’s standardized advanced services broadband infrastructure, the MCU market is a promising source for higher returns on cable’s capital investment. In financial modeling projects undertaken by VIADUX customers, the return on investment for the VIADUX platform reached a positive internal rate of return (IRR), or payback for capital expenditure, in less than one year. VIADUX assists broadband providers by identifying the Local Business Neighborhoods that will turn a profit. The flexible VIADUX platform enables cable operators to maximize the take-rate from their sales effort and deploy a variety of access topologies besides coax to reach the small and medium business customer, including fiber, wire-line, satellite and fixed wireless. It has the security and quality of service features that are required for business applications and it can be managed and provisioned remotely.
Time Warner Cable Adds Revenue-Producing Flexibility to Commercial Operation
The VIADUX platform brings versatility to evolving network architectures and applications at Time Warner Cable’s commercial services operations in San Diego. The VIADUX platform is in operation at three office buildings in the San Diego area where rapid turnover of clients and a variety of networking requirements in multi-tenant clusters present challenges that would be hard to meet using a traditional coaxial cable infrastructure.
“The VIADUX 8000 has worked flawlessly so far,” said Philippe Heller, account executive for Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner Business Class Service group. “It’s an ideal solution for our customers because it provides a quick turnaround for installing each tenant in an environment where there’s a lot of short-term occupancy.”
In addition to service flexibility, the VIADUX platform has given Time Warner Cable the means to overcome difficult distribution requirements inside buildings. It also makes it easier to use various network extension options to deliver broadband service to buildings -- including fixed wireless access and wire-line access modes.
In order to succeed in the MCU services arena, cable operators require dynamic host configuration protocol, bandwidth management capabilities, service prioritization and variable approaches to IP addressing and routing. The heart of the VIADUX system is the 8000 Broadband GatewayTM, an in-building access concentrator that can operate at Layer 2 or Layer 3 in several transport modes, including DOCSIS, T1/E1, 10/100 Ethernet and Frame Relay. It provides a means of dynamically managing and distributing bandwidth at high speeds symmetrically over any type of existing copper pair wiring, including in-use POTS (plain old telephone service) lines. VIADUX’s patent-pending AnyPairÒ technology enables the delivery of signals over in-use voice lines, even if a free pair is not available. It also can be used with VIADUX’s patent-pending LongReach® Ethernet technology to deploy wireless last-mile data, voice and video services without any repeaters.
VIADUX’s platform is readily available to cable and telecommunications operators and enterprises.
About VIADUX
Founded in 1997, VIADUX is a leading provider of broadband access solutions. The San Diego-based company partners with broadband providers to deliver high-speed data, video and voice services to business customers in local business neighborhoods that include multi-tenant units, small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs), hospitality and residential customers. VIADUX’s family of broadband gateways, fixed wireless radios and patented technology use existing twisted-pair copper telephone wiring to make systems installations quick, easy and cost-effective. As a result, VIADUX connects broadband providers to new revenue sources with affordable equipment costs and rapid deployments for fast ROI. For more information, visit www.viadux.com.
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LA Times reporter Michael Hiltzik writes about DVR adoption problems.
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Business Week reports on something like a stampeed by major companies to jump on the WiFi bandwagon.
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Fortune's Peter Lewis takes another shot at the failure of "convergence" concluding basically that its a solution in search of a problem.
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NYT reporting on a report that IDC released which claims that Microsoft is shifting its MSN strategy.
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Cisco acquired Lyncsys [for $500 million in stock]. Lyncsys is the largest player in the high-growth market for consumer/SOHO networking equipment, a market which Cisco expects to grow "from $3.7 billion in 2002 to $7.5 billion in 2006 worldwide."
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© Copyright 2003 Douglas L Ross.
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