Intel Developer Forum, San José, Sept. 9, 2002 - Intel Corporation announced an initiative that will aid distribution of digital media throughout the home. The Extended Wireless PC Initiative, the first step in delivering on the Digital Home vision, will provide key building blocks and toolkits to the developer community, allowing them to easily and seamlessly distribute PC digital media to TVs and stereos throughout the consumer's home.
"Consumers really value the power and flexibility of digital media, whether they're taking digital photos, creating MP3 music files or recording family events on digital video, and the PC has become the universal and indispensable tool for storing and editing digital media," said Louis Burns, vice president and co-general manager, Intel Desktop Platforms Group. "The goal of the Extended Wireless PC Initiative is to take consumers one step closer to the vision of Digital Home by allowing them to sit back, relax and enjoy their favorite digital media throughout their home."
Critical to the media distribution is a new PC peripheral called a digital media adapter, which creates the link between PCs, TVs, and stereos. It can receive digital media from the PC using 802.11 wireless networking and UpnP* technologies, and can connect to TVs and stereos using standard A/V cables - much like a DVD player. Consumers can purchase the digital media adapter bundled with a new PC, use a simple remote control to navigate through menus on their TV screen and select the PC digital media they want to receive. This tightly integrated approach to digital media distribution will be easy to install, perform multiple functions, and be offered at attractive consumer price points.
To accelerate the development of digital media adapters and extended wireless PC platforms by the second half of 2003, Intel is announcing the immediate availability of the following technology building blocks and toolkits for developers:
* A sample digital media adapter reference design based on the Intel® XScale(tm) microarchitecture PXA210 applications processor. This sample design provides support for JPEG, MP3, and WMA digital content, utilizes 802.11b wireless networking, and supports NTSC/PAL/S-video TV connections and AC-97 stereo connection.
* Technical specifications describing an experimental media distribution software stack utilizing industry standard UPnP technologies. This UPnP-compliant software stack provides easy access to the PC's digital content using a digital media adapter.
* Intel's toolkits for UPnP technology greatly accelerate development time for makers of devices and applications and include support for several operating system and authoring environments.
* Details on these building blocks and toolkits are available on Intel's developer website at http://developer.intel.com/technology/digitalhome. Intel and industry leaders are also demonstrating reference designs, software toolkits, and product concepts in the Technology Showcase during the Intel Developer Forum, Fall 2002.
About IDF
The Intel Developer Forum is the technology industry's premier event for hardware and software developers. Held worldwide throughout the year, IDF brings together key industry players to discuss cutting-edge technology and products for PCs, servers, communications equipment, and handheld clients. For more information on IDF and Intel technology, visit http://developer.intel.com.
Intel is 's werelds grootste chipfabrikant en een vooraanstaand producent van personal computer-, netwerk- en communicatieproducten. Meer informatie over Intel is te vinden op: http://www.intel.com/pressroom/.
Voor meer informatie:
Monogram Communication Strategies (MCS) BV, Marieke Leenhouts, telefoon +31 (0)23 562 82 08.