Intel Intros Viiv Platform

By Suzanne Deffree -- 8/24/2005

SAN FRANCISCO -- The PC isn’t enough for Intel. The company today at its Intel Developer Forum announced a new platform, Viiv, which will target devices beyond its familiar space in the digital home.

The move was a follow-up to Tuesday’s IDF news where the company heavily stressed its involvement in multi-core processors, technology that would enable more performance at lower power for a digital home, Don MacDonald, VP and general manager, Intel Digital Home Group, told the keynote audience this morning.

MacDonald estimated that by looking beyond the PC there are more than 2 billion devices worldwide on which to implement.

“The good news is the PC industry alone is a fabulous business. … But add to that the potential of the 1 billion PC devices [consumer electronics based on the PC] and then you get to put into perspective Paul’s comments,” MacDonald said, referring to Intel CEO Paul Otillini’s keynote presentation. “10x increased performance, one-tenth the power consumption and 10x the market opportunity.”

MacDonald told the full house of IDF attendees on this second day of the forum that a growing number of those devices either are or will run on Intel architectures. “As Intel architecture moves into these new spaces two things will happen. The first is that we get to re-energize the PC category. It’s already great, but this ability to have digital and entertainment content interfacing with the PC will give it a burst of adrenaline,” he said, approximating that consumer PCs shipments will hit 86 million this year and rise to more than 100 million in the next few years. “The second thing is that the category you [developers in the audience] can develop for can be expanded to the areas of digital televisions, digital recorders, set top boxes.”

The TV-PC

Viiv silicon-based systems will come to market in a variety of form factors, from smaller consumer electronic-type designs to more traditional desktop or tower designs, Intel said.

Perhaps in a move to match it with the long-time living room mainstay the television, Intel is integrating consumer electronic features into the platform. All PCs based on Viiv will ship with a remote control, the Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition operating system and media software that lets consumers interact with their PC in the same way they operate a TV.

One TV-like function demonstrated on stage was the ability to quickly turn a PC on and off, after initial boot-up, with the touch of a button through a new platform feature called Intel Quick Resume technology. Each Intel Viiv technology-based PC will also ship with 5.1 surround sound, with optional support for up to 7.1 surround sound, for home theater-quality sound.

With an optional TV tuner card, the Viiv PC will be able to record, pause and rewind live TV programs, and store them on the hard drive for later viewing or content on demand.

Intel said Viiv also includes an integrated media server engine to reformat various digital content files so they can be viewed on a selection of devices verified by Intel to work with Viiv-based systems.

Intel said it worked with the PC, CE and content industries to set interoperability specifications so that consumers can easily move a variety of online media from room to room and between various devices in the home network.

Centrio Gets a Buddy

Viiv is the company’s second platform push from Intel, following its Centrino Wi-Fi platform. Centrino and its widely successful marketing campaign created a brand and quality-of-service measure for general users of wireless. Viiv, said MacDonald, aims to do the same for the digital home segment with an initial focus on entertainment.

“It’s really a quality of service [move] for mobile entertainment,” said Richard Doherty, director at research firm The Envisioneering Group.

Doherty believes technical people and the Hollywood studios want this to happen fast for the content revenue opportunities. “And Viiv is the first platform that might be able to let them say the quality of service is there,” he said.

Takers?

MacDonald wouldn’t name any customer names for the Viiv silicon, only saying Intel has “tremendous momentum to get OEM partners to prepare for the Viiv launch,” which is set for Q1 2006.

But The Envisioneering Group pointed to one likely candidate, Apple Computer. In June, Apple inked a chip deal with Intel for silicon starting in June 2006. The computer player also had a presence at today’s keynote, with Intel relations holding two rows of seats for attendees from the Macintosh maker close to the stage.

“Don’t rule out a year from now a Macintosh Viiv,” Doherty said. “IBM technology has been at the head of Apple technology in the past, so it’s not out of the question.”

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