Granite Microsystems And NetTV Combine Efforts To Bring Consumers The Ultimate Home Entertainment Solution
Granite Microsystems, a leading engineering-based designer and manufacturer of USB and IEEE 1394 high-speed serial bus products, has announced that they have been working with NetTV to create a versatile and multi-functional home entertainment system by utilizing Device Bay technology. NetTV will integrate Granite Microsystemsís Device Bay technology into their entertainment systems in order to offer consumers a wider range of entertainment and educational options. The NetTV box will have three bays that will allow an individual to add or remove a peripheral device as easily as inserting or ejecting a tape from a VCR. Two of the bays will be in the back of the box and can be used for OpenCable TV receiver modules and modems and/or an additional hard drive. The front bay can be used for things like watching videos or playing games using a DVD or for a CD-R drive. The entire family in the comfort of their living room can now enjoy technology that was once confined to a desktop computer. ""NetTV is excited to be working with Granite Microsystems in the implementations of Device Bay technology. This alliance allows us to build an amazing new modular entertainment system,"" said NetTV President Ron Perkes. ""Consumers will love Device Bay in our Extreme DVD Digital Entertainment Center because it is easy to use and upgrade due to its plug-in component architecture. We can now give the customer a flexible modular system that can be easily tailored to meet their needs. We think this is an absolute breakthrough in digital entertainment. ""We are very pleased to see the Device Bay expandability being incorporated into PC-architected entertainment appliance,"" said Dave Marsh, the Technical Evangelist for Television and Video at Microsoft Corp. ""Device Bay provides for easy incremental purchasing of such appliances and provides a secure enclosure for the Conditional Access systems used by television service providers."" Device Bay is an electrical and mechanical form factor that supports both USB and IEEE 1394 high-speed serial busses. This industry standard allows hot-swappable, plug-and-play expansion and substitution of computer peripherals such as cable modems, TV tuners, Recordable DVD drives, and additional hard drives. It also provides the ability to port ISA and PCI designs to the Device Bay standard. These designs include applications in the OEM industrial, telecom, medical and data acquisition markets. Device Bay remote enclosures, commonly referred to as ""condos"" and ""decks"" are designed to allow remote peripheral expansion of desktop, entertainment, industrial, and embedded PCís. This architecture dramatically increases flexible and serviceability because peripherals can be quickly added or removed from a computer system without opening the enclosure, powering down or rebooting. About Granite Microsystems Headquartered in Mequon, Wisconsin, Granite Microsystems is a leading engineering-based designer and manufacturer of custom integrated computers and high-speed serial bus products, incorporating USB and 1394 standards. Granite has been at the forefront of Device Bay technology and has a live of 2000 Device Bay ""remote"" enclosures in addition to their peripheral devices. They also offer their expertise to OEMs is the development of Device Bay products in order to bring the technology to the market faster. For more information of Granite Microsystems, contact the company by phone at 800/822-2983, or visit the companyís web page at www.granitemicrosystems.com. About NetTV NetTV is a leader in defining and building innovative digital entertainment systems that combine progressive scan video with the highest quality audio. NetTVís ExtremeDVD digital entertainment set-top, DTV Series digital televisions-29, 34 and 38 inches-and our new 42-inch wide-screen plasma television combines to produce superior digital entertainment. Each component is produced for the discriminating home-entertainment enthusiast. NetTV Products are distributed through authorized distributors and resellers worldwide. NetTV headquarters are at 7 Mark Drive, San Rafael, California 94903. Telephone is 800 440 6388. To learn more about NetTV, visit the Web site at www.net-tv.net.