Cyrix MPU To Power Set-Top Box For AOL TV Venture

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May 11, 1999 (1:36 PM EDT)

Cyrix MPU To Power Set-Top Box For AOL TV Venture

By Staff,

National Semiconductor announced Tuesday its Cyrix-developed MediaGX processor will be the heart of a first generation of set-top boxes designed for AOL TV, a new interactive-TV ventureformed by America Online.

The set-top boxes, manufactured by Philips Business Electronics, a division of Royal Philips Electronics of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, will be connected to AOL through built-in 56-kilobit-per-second modems over standard phone lines, and will be enabled for DSL connectivity, as well.

According to AOL, of Dulles, Va., AOL TV will make certain facets and content of the PC-based interactive service, with almost 20 million subscribers, available through the TV set. The company has not announced when the service will become available.

"This move underscores National's continuing strategy of enabling easy-to-use information appliances that are optimized for Internet access," said Brian Halla, chairman, CEO, and president of National Semiconductor, in Santa Clara, Calif.

For National, the MediaGX coup comes at a time when the company had given up on PC processors and begun focusing more on positioning the integrated Cyrix chip for just such Web-based applications.

"National's information-appliance strategy perfectly complements our ongoing strategy to extend consumers' connected interactivity beyond the desktop PC," said Anne Borsch, vice president of AOL Devices. "Their chip will allow us a full range of interactive services from a set-top box."

She said the MediaGX's integrated capabilities -- sound, graphics, and memory -- on one chip were a major factor in the selection, keeping the performance high and the cost low. The MediaGX also consumes less power, and the x86 architecture ensures compatibility with many website plug-ins and applets.

AOL is developing AOL TV through a partnership with Philips Electronics, DirecTV, Hughes Network Systems, and Network Computer. The set-top boxes for the service run software from Network Computer and are based on a hardware reference design by Boca Research.