Intel is offering new industry building blocks that bring the vision of the Digital Home closer to reality. Announced at the Intel Developer Forum in February, immediately available are Digital Home reference and concept platforms, and 10 powerful 'UPnP' tools that underscore Intel's support of the Digital Home vision.
"We know that consumers are readily anticipating the day when PCs and consumer electronics work together easily and reliably," said Louis Burns, vice president and co-general manager, Intel Desktop Platforms Group. "People want to be able to move their digital media content effortlessly between PCs and CE devices for maximum flexibility and enjoyment. And they are looking to Intel to make it happen. By providing the developer community with these enabling tools, developers will be able to design and build PCs that easily and seamlessly distribute digital media throughout the home."
The 'Statesboro' reference platform will assist OEMs and motherboard makers to develop new PC systems this year that broadcast digital photos and music to TVs and stereos throughout the consumer's home. Statesboro is an implementation tool designed for developers that showcases the 2003 Digital Home vision. The reference platform is a complete, validated system solution featuring key technologies in support of the Digital Home usage models, as described in the Desktop Platform Vision Guide for 2003.
The new concept platform, codenamed 'Powersville', showcases additional levels of Digital Home experiences, such as wireless streaming video and personal video recording, which consumers can expect as included PC features in the 2004 time frame.
Last year Intel showcased a new PC peripheral, called a digital media adapter, that creates the link between PC and CE devices. 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.
UPnP technology tools greatly reduce development time for makers of devices and applications. They include support for several operating system and authoring environments: Device Spy, Device Sniffer, Service Author, DeviceValidator, Device Relay, Network Light, AV Media Controller, AV Wizard, AV Media Server and AV Renderer. These are available at www.intel.com/labs/connectivity/upnp.
Additional details can be seen on Intel's developer website at http://developer.intel.com/technology/digitalhome.
For more information contact Fathima Haniff, Intel SA, 011 806 4542, [email protected]
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