 | July 1, 2000 |
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STANDARDS: Even more support for IEEE 1394 designs
Despite a cold shoulder from Intel, IEEE 1394, also known as Firewire, continues to grow in popularity, especially in digital-video applications. Most analysts expect the number of 1394-equipped PCs to hit or exceed 30 million by year’s end. Moreover, the DTV industry is poised to begin shipping 1394-ready TVs and VCRs to complement the nearly 10 million 1394-equipped camcorders already sold.
To help this proliferation, Texas Instruments continues to be the only IC supplier offering products for both ends of the 1394 cable. The company’s latest offerings should reduce the cost of supporting 1394 in both PCs and consumer products.
For PCs, the best news would be core-logic 1394 support from Intel, but given that company’s inexplicable decision to ignore the consumer, TI is offering the next best thing with its TSB43AA22. The IC combines both the so-called link and physical layers that comprise the 1394 interface. Each layer has previously required a separate chip and additional discrete components. The integrated design will allow motherboard manufacturers to provision for 1394 support on every motherboard, yet only populate the motherboard with the 1394 chip based on demand. The total impact on the cost of the motherboard should drop below $20.
In consumer-electronic applications, TI still believes separate physical- and link-layer ICs make the most sense. Instead of integrating the separate functions, TI has added video and encryption features to its new TBS43AA4 link chip. The IC automatically formats video streams for DirecTV and DV (digital video) applications. Moreover, the IC includes the 5C copy-protection scheme, which should appease the movie industry’s concerns about exposing its content in a pristine unprotected format.
—Maury Wright
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