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Feature
Network delivery
Windows-driven low-power PC-like design delivers video over the Internet, but content will gate success.
By Maury Wright, Editor at Large -- EDN, 10/27/2005
Akimbo is the first true consumer product that delivers a PVR (personal-video-recorder)-like experience, albeit with content through a broadband Internet connection (see "Video over the Internet: Services and devices move closer to living-room convenience," EDN, Sept 1, 2005, pg 35). The product performed well, but the choice of content may limit its success. This Prying Eyes focuses on what makes Akimbo go. Surprisingly, the design relies on off-the-shelf components and Windows rather than an SOC (system on chip) and low-cost embedded software.
You would think that an SOC for video decoding would lie at the heart of the Akimbo PVR. Such a chip would generally offer better performance in power per watt and potentially lower cost than a processor and chip set from the PC market. But Akimbo based its design on a 733-MHz Celeron processor and the Intel 815 core-logic chip with an embedded graphics controller. A standard PC-centric DIMM provides 64 Mbytes of memory.
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Cooling is obviously a key issue in the living-room-centric Akimbo design. Moreover, consumers don't like noisy fans in their living rooms. So, Akimbo relies primarily on large heat sinks on the Celeron processor, the graphics chip, and the Focus FS453 video-scan converter that drives the TV output. A small fan on the side of the main pc board moves air laterally through the box and across the board and heat sinks. But no fans are on the chips, as they are in PCs.
The Akimbo user interface offers no clue that Windows lurks underneath. You might expect that the device would use some royalty-free operating system, because price is a key factor in the success of a product such as Akimbo, and Microsoft isn't license-friendly. But the Akimbo carries a small "powered by Windows XP" label, and Microsoft's Web site states that the design can run either Windows CE 5.0 or Windows XP Embedded. According to Microsoft, the user interface relies on Direct Draw, and the video display relies on Direct Show. The device transmits and stores video in the MPEG-4 format with Microsoft's DRM (digital-rights-management) system, which restricts viewing of the content to only the Akimbo to which it's delivered.
Other ICs in the Akimbo design include the ITE Tech IT8712 Super I/O, the Winbond 39V040 4-Mbyte flash, the ICS 9248 clock synthesizer, the Realtek RTL8101L Fast Ethernet, the Realtek ALC850 audio codec, and the Intel 82801 I/O-controller chips. The ITE chip integrates a host of functions, such as a floppy-disk controller and parallel port, that the Akimbo design lacks. But the chip also includes an infrared remote-control interface, so that's likely why it is present. The remainder of the chips match the Akimbo feature set. Despite its PC legacy, the power needs of the Akimbo design pale in comparison to those of state-of-the-art PCs. Akimbo relies on an open-frame supply with 5 and 12V outputs.
