Texas Instruments Offers CD-Quality Sound From Your PC
In a new era where DVD players, online radio and CDs are reshaping the music and entertainment industries, Texas Instruments introduced its digital speaker technology that allows consumers to enjoy CD-like sound quality from their personal computer speakers and communication headsets. Imagine sitting at a computer while listening to your favorite song or watching a movie. With TI's digital speaker technology, the audio quality would seem like you were attending a live concert or sitting in a movie theatre. With the introduction of its first four devices, TI can provide speaker manufacturers and PC original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with the industry's first complete digital speaker solution that addresses all of the audio subsystem needs. By using TI's digital signal processor (DSP) technology, audio speakers will produce a crisper, clearer and richer sound than analog speakers - allowing PC users and PC gaming enthusiasts to enjoy a superior audio experience. ""TI's expertise and leadership in DSP and analog technologies is allowing us to enter uncharted markets and make real technological advances for several industries such as audio, imaging and communications,"" said Jay Srage, strategic marketing manager for TI's digital speaker products. ""By leveraging the performance and functionality of TI's digital speakers technology, speaker manufacturers and PC OEMs can provide audio speakers that produce a crisp and clear sound at a more cost-effective price than today's analog solutions."" According to market research firm Forward Concepts, the PC and audio industries are moving away from analog speakers and replacing them with digital speakers. In fact, the firm predicts 65 percent of PC and consumer speakers will have digital speaker technology by 2003. Plantronics is working with Texas Instruments on the development of digital computer headsets. ""Plantronics' relationship with Texas Instruments demonstrates a continued commitment to provide our customers with the latest advances in audio and voice technologies. Through technology alliances such as this, we're able to work together to deliver better levels of digital audio performance and make significant improvements to the computing experience. Plantronics products will take advantage of Texas Instruments leadership in digital signal processing (DSP). We are very pleased to be working with Texas Instruments,"" said Neil Snyder, President of the Computer Audio Systems Division at Plantronics. Source: Texas Instruments, http://www.ti.com/sc/digitalspeakers Sigma Designs REALmagic STB-2000 Set-Top Box Platform At TeleCon West ë99 Silicon Graphics and Minerva Systems will be demonstrating Sigma Designs REALmagic STB-2000 set-top box development platform at this week's TeleCon West '99 conference in Anaheim. The companies have previously collaborated on the delivery of high-end streaming video applications to PC clients, using REALmagic NetStream 2 cards to decode streams of high-quality MPEG-2 video. At TeleCon, STB-2000 will be showcased as a cost-effective alternative to the PC client for decoding video streams. The demonstration will once again incorporate the robust SGI MediaBase software running on the SGI Origin 200 server as well as Minerva's Video Networking Platform to provide precise video encoding. ""Minerva, Sigma, and SGI are clearly demonstrating that robust IP solutions are available for distance learning, corporate communications, and technical training applications,"" said Reed Majors, Director of Video Networking Products for Minerva. ""The complementary technologies provide an unprecedented integrated environment for building broadband IP solutions."" Source: Minerva Systems, http://www.minervasys.com