By Mark LaPedus ,
There's good news and bad news for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and integrated circuit makers: Analysts say Intel may be one step away from eliminating the audio-chip business, but it is also opening the door for a new class of communication-based chips, modules, and other products for the PC.
Hoping to integrate soft modems, digital subscriber line (DSL), home-networking, and other new communication protocols into the PC platform, a slew of companies next week will throw their weight behind the two Intel-developed specifications that could bring these new features onto the desktop and mobile platforms by using standard, low-cost motherboard designs and input/output (I/O) cards.
Analog Devices, 3Com, Cirrus Logic, Compaq, Creative, Dell, Diamond Multimedia, ESS Technology, Fujitsu, PC-Tel, Lucent, Motorola, Rockwell, Yamaha, and others will endorse or announce products that support these specifications from Intel, dubbed the Audio/Modem Riser (AMR) and Mobile Daughter Card (MDC).
Originally released on Intel's website in July and scheduled to be explored more deeply at the Intel Developer's Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., the week of Sept. 14th, AMR and MDC could lower overall systems costs by eliminating certain components and the proprietary board and riser-card designs used in today's PC platforms.
AMR attempts to integrate the audio/modem functions onto the motherboard for a desktop PC by separating the analog I/O functions of the modem onto a standard riser-card, while leaving the audio functions on the board. MDC is basically the same concept for a mobile system. Some chip companies have already announced combination audio/modem products that will be geared for the riser-card itself, however.
Both the AMR and MDC technologies are a corollary to the AC-97 audio codec specification, also developed by Intel, which splits audio and communications functions into a digital controller and an analog codec.
According to Intel customers, the digital controller will be absorbed into the forthcoming Camino chip set, leaving analysts to believe these functions will move more into software.
"It's been obvious this would happen for some time," said Dean McCarron, principal at Mercury Research, in Scottsdale, Ariz. "Ultimately, AC-97 is one step closer in eliminating the audio chip." But AMR still allows the audio on board without wiping out the vendors in the audio-chip business, he said.
Stopping short of saying it is eliminating the hardware-based audio chips on the platform, Intel officials said AMR and MCD will advance the PC and gives OEMs more flexibility. "You can put audio on the motherboard, or audio and a modem on the riser card," said Russ Hampsten, audio marketing manager at Intel, in Santa Clara, Calif. The 46-pin connector between the motherboard and daughtercard also reserves five pins for future DSL-specific codecs.
Most of these protocols are being deployed in a PC via an add-on card or stand-alone hardware, but Intel said it hopes to bring them inside the PC. Intel and others are aggressively supporting an emerging asymmetrical DSL standard called G.Lite, a technology that promises downstream bandwidths of up to 1.5 megabits per second of data via an internal modem; and a standard to link two or more PCs in home via a 1/10-Mbps Ethernet connection.
Next week, Rockwell Semiconductor Systems, in Newport Beach, Calif., will be the first company to announce support for these standards. Rockwell has reported its previously announced RipTide line of audio/modem chip sets are compatible with Intel's technology.
Not to be outdone, PC-Tel, the leading supplier of soft-modem technology, will also endorse the technology next week, announcing a line of products based on its patented host-signal processing products, a spokesman for the Milpitas, Calif.-based company said.
Another soft-modem supplier, Fremont, Calif.-based ESS Technology, will have a similar announcement.
A spokesman for the Microelectronics Group for Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent declined to comment on future products.
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