IDF, Fall 2004: Intel introduces Entertainment PCs to the Digital Home

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 9 Sep 2004 at 02:45

The role of Entertainment PCs in the 'Digital Home' were highlighted in a keynote from Bill Siu, general manager of Intel's Desktop Platforms Group. Emphasising the way that the Internet and wireless computing has changed the general computing environment, he stated that major new initiatives could no longer involve a single element of hardware or software or a single service, but would rely on their combination.

'Digital home is an example of a broad-based collaborative effort encompassing not only the computing industry, but also the communications, consumer electronics and content industries,' said Siu. 'We've not only made great progress in putting common industry specifications in place, but also in developing a broad ecosystem and new products to deliver the digital home vision to consumers.'

In particular, he highlighted what Intel dubs Entertainment PCs (EPCs), which are more generalised versions of Microsoft's Media Center, being more closely aligned with specifications agreed by consumer electronics bodies. Based on high-end processors with Hyper-Threading Technology and the 915 Express Chipset family, the EPC is intended to be a PC fit for your living room, combining powerful enough to serve digital multimedia content around the home from a slim form factor. They are designed to work with a '10 foot interface', ie viewed from the sofa with a remote control driving the functionality.

The demo on stage featured an EPC from the Taiwanese company Tatung, which will be available for the Christmas market. It was running a dual-core processor, but beyond that fact Intel guarded the spec.

Intel has also published a new version of its device guidelines. Intel Networked Media Product Requirements (NMPR) version 2, which in turn builds on Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) Interoperability Guidelines v1.0 and DCTP/IP for supporting the remote control of premium - i.e. protected - digital content. Confused by all these standards? Intel is hoping its work in agreeing such standard with consumer electronics giants such as Philips and Sony will eventually lead to a wider acceptance of the Entertainment PC concept. We shall see, by as early as this Christmas, how the consumer responds.

To complete the Entertainment PC picture, Intel has also published a set of guidelines in the form of Intel Software and Services Product Recommendations (SSPR). An example of how these could affect applications involved Photo Editing. Imagine, we were told, an alternative to searching for 'all pictures' on a PC. Currently, the whole hard-drive may be searched and lots of irrelevant pictures retrieved. The new service recommendations, by contrast, include the specification of databases to hold information about multimedia items that will subsequently help with their organized retrieval, i.e. pictures created through Adobe applications or sub-directories created by uploads from digital cameras, as well as the Windows's My Pictures folder.

Products implanting ideas within SSPR are expected to appear in 2005.
Finally, there is the arrival of Enhanced SpeedStep Technology for Desktop PCs. SpeedStep enables a CPU to adjust core voltage and frequency based on the computing demand it faces. Whereas for notebooks - for which the technique was developed - it is aimed at reducing power requirements to extend battery life, the goal for the desktop equivalent is to reduce acoustics to make the PXC more acceptable in the living room. The benchmark, according to Intel, is for Entertainment PCs to operate as quietly as a VCR. Processors with this capability should be appearing before the end of the year.