Intel's home entertainment chip takes a bow

By STAFF REPORTERS

Your next home entertainment system could have Intel inside, as the US chip giant pushes an integrated product code-named "Kessler" that forms the centre of the company's Digital Home vision.

Kessler is built on Intel's Pentium 4 processor and is meant to replace traditional, multi-unit home entertainment systems. Apart from high-fidelity sound for music playback, Kessler home entertainment PCs can display high-resolution digital video from DVDs and free-to-air/cable/satellite television sources.

Kessler PCs can also record music and video on to hard disk and DVDs and come with wireless networking to connect to home computers. Internet access is also built-in, with additional services such as video conferencing and voice telephony.

In Taipei for the Asia-Pacific Intel Developer's Forum, Louis Burns, vice president of the company's desktop platforms group, said Kessler PCs would be quiet despite using the hot-running Prescott Pentium 4 processor that requires fan cooling.

He also said that Intel was working with "large names in Hollywood" for its Digital Home strategy, to ensure that content would not be hampered by distribution restrictions such as staggered releases in different world "zones" as is now the norm.

Claiming that music industry organisations such as the Recording Industry Association of America, which was aggressively pursuing perceived copyright violators, simply "don't get it", Burns said Intel was campaigning for the right to fair use of music and video while protecting the artists' intellectual property rights.

To deliver content to the Digital Home, Intel is banking on its long-range WiMAX wireless broadband technology which has a theoretical maximum speed of 70Mb to 100Mb in both directions.

Intel does not believe it is cost-effective for internet and content providers to install fixed lines for delivery to Digital Home customers and that WiMAX will provide an affordable alternative as it can reach about 50km.

However, although WiMAX was announced late last year and first-generation products are expected this year, the wireless technology isn't likely to appear until sometime next year, according to Intel, which denied that it was delayed.

The company also released a range of processors aimed at handheld devices and mobile phones.

Code-named "Bulverde", the Intel PXA270x processors use the company's Xscale technology.

Large electronics manufacturers such as ASUStek, Benq, LG and Acer showed products based on the PXA270x, with some also using the 2700G multimedia accelerator, also launched at the Taiwan forum.

Journalists were shown demos of the new processor running graphics intensive applications such as 3D games, and Mpeg-4 and Windows Media content playback at 30 frames a second or better.

Sean Maloney, Intel's executive vice president and general manager of its communications group, also demonstrated digital watermarks.

Developed by Digimarc Corporation in Oregon, United States, digital watermarks can be embedded in pictures in printed media as well as moving images. They are invisible to the eye, but recognisable by handheld devices with scanning capability.

Digital watermarks are already in use in South Korea, according to Intel.

Maloney showed how the digital watermark directed a camera phone scanning in an image from a newspaper to an advertiser's website.

Asked if the technology could be used for digital rights management to stop copying as well as tracking advertising effectiveness, Maloney did not deny the possibility but seemed surprised at the Orwellian connotations.

* The Herald attended the Intel Developers Forum as a guest of Intel.