The WAVE Report
Issue #0145------------------10/19/01

The WAVE Report archive is available on http://www.wave-report.com

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0145.1 Hot Topics

    e.Digital and Actel to Deliver Silicon Solution for

      Digital Music and Voice Recorder/Players

    National Semiconductor Unveils Next-generation Geode

      Processor Family

    MVNOs Will Account for Over 10% of Subscribers by 2006

    Tutorial: http://www.wave-report.com/tutorials/MVNO.htm

0145.2 Story of the Issue

    Blue Falcon and MeasureCast Offer Peer-to-Peer Metrics

0145.3 Semiconductor and Chips

    Equator Technologies Announces Digital Signal Processor

    SEMI Receives NIST Grant to Develop Internet-Based

      Security Framework For Semiconductor Manufacturing

      Productivity

    Tutorial: http://www.wave-report.com/tutorials/NIST.htm

0145.4   3D

    VIRTOOLS and Alias|Wavefront Announce Release of

      Virtools Exporter for Maya

    Fourth Annual Report on Virtual Reality Marketplace

      Released

    Advanced Rendering Technology Teams With AliasWavefront

      to Premiere PURE 3D Rendering

    NVIDIA Corporation Evans & Sutherland Strategic Alliance

0145.5 Wireless

    XM Satellite Radio Expands Rollout Across Southwest

      and Southeast U.S.

0145.6 Deals

    Samsung and Microsoft Announce Strategic Alliance to

      Collaborate on Digital Home Technologies

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0145.1 Hot Topics

***e.Digital and Actel to Deliver Silicon Solution for Digital

Music and Voice Recorder/Players

(October 16)

e.Digital, a global provider of digital product development and

designs, and Actel, a supplier of programmable logic solutions,

have announced a technology relationship that will allow

e.Digital's design to be produced within Actel's ASIC-like

(application-specific integrated circuit-like) eX field-

programmable gate array (FPGA) devices. e.Digital's solution is

designed to increase reliability and reduce the board space

required for implementation of digital voice and music

recorder/player functionality in small portable devices, such as

portable Internet music players and personal digital jukeboxes.

e.Digital's solution has potential applications in automotive

stereos, home stereo systems, laptop and handheld computers,

desktop PCs, cellular phones and dictation systems.

Actel's eX product family offers designers a low power, high

performance, low cost complex programmable logic device (CPLD)

solution. Aimed at the growing e-Appliance and communications

markets, Actel's eX family of FPGAs enables designers to use

single-chip programmable logic for their traditionally low

density ASIC requirements, eliminating the long lead times and

non-recurring engineering (NRE) charges. Actel devices are used

in digital cameras, digital film, multimedia products and smart-

card readers.

http://www.edig.com

http://www.actel.com

***National Semiconductor Unveils Next-generation Geode Processor

Family

(October 17)

National Semiconductor has unveiled the next Geode family of x86-

based, integrated processors designed for information appliances.

The introduction of the Geode GX2 family is National's latest

move to extend its involvement in the development of information

appliances such as thin clients, digital set-top boxes,

residential gateways and personal Internet access devices.

The GX2 family offers power consumption levels of less than 1

watt in typical applications and 3 watts for streaming media-

intensive applications. Designed on the 0.15-micron process

technology, the Geode GX2 processor includes the following

features: high-performance x86 CPU core with 3DNow! instructions,

16K Instruction and 16K Data caches, and architectural

enhancements for optimal streaming multimedia.

Additionally, the GX2 family integrates a SDRAM/double-data-rate

(DDR)-SDRAM memory controller, 32-bit 2D graphics controller,

PCI-66 interface, high resolution 1600x1200x24 bit display with

video scaling, CRT digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and a

unified memory architecture (UMA) DSTN/TFT controller.

At the heart of the GX2 processor is National's GeodeLink IA

system architecture, which enables low-power designs, improved

silicon design productivity and reuse of intellectual property

(IP).

The GeodeLink architecture is a single on-chip interconnect that

facilitates the integration of modules and allows use of UMA.

This architecture provides 6 GB/s on-chip bandwidth, up to 2 GB/s

memory bandwidth, diagnostics, and active hardware power

management that reduces power with architectural power-saving

techniques.

National also developed a reference design platform based on the

Geode GX2 family of processors targeting Internet access devices.

The Geode GX2 family includes on-chip support for software

debugging, enabling high-performance peripherals.

The Geode GX2 reference platform includes CRT/TFT output, DDR-

SDRAM and SDRAM support, universal serial bus (USB) support, 4

PCI slots for development and additional boards for increased

functionality: flash support, super I/O and touch screen

controller. It also comes with firmware and drivers to support

such operating systems as Microsoft Windows XP, Windows XP

Embedded and Windows CE; Lineo; Tuxia; RedHat; Century Software

and other versions of Linux. The JTAG interface on silicon

ensures fast software development.

Packaged in a 368-pin enhanced ball grid array (EBGA), National

Semiconductor's Geode GX2 processor, together with a companion

chip, is priced below US$50 each in high volume. Production is

expected in the first half of 2002.

http://www.national.com

***MVNOs Will Account for Over 10% of Subscribers by 2006

(October 18)

Subscribers to MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) services

will increase dramatically over the next five years, accounting

for 195 million of the world's 1,895m mobile subscribers by end

2006, according to a study from ARC Group. This means that by the

end of 2006 just over 10% of all mobile subscribers will be

served by virtual network operators. ARC Group expects a 127%

Annual Average Growth Rate (AAGR) of subscribers to virtual

operators between 2001 and 2006, compared to a 17% AAGR for

mobile subscribers as a whole.

Worldwide Subscribers to MVNOs, 2001-2006

(Millions)

2001   2002   2003    2004     2005    2006

Total MVNO subs

3.22   15.37  32.60   62.72    109.97   195.44

% of total subs

0.4%   1.5%    2.7%    4.4%     6.6%    10.3%

According to the study, the incidence of MVNOs varies between

regions, so there is disparity of MVNO subscribers as a

proportion of total subscribers in various regions. MVNOs will be

ten times as successful in Western Europe as in Japan by 2006.

The study also points out that in the Asia-Pacific region, there

will be a fast take-up of virtual operators in the most advanced

economies with a migration to third-generation services, and then

a further take-off of virtual operators as the larger

territories, like China, open their markets to MVNO entrants. In

Japan, the dominance of DoCoMo and the speedy uptake of 3G

services without the involvement of MVNOs or service providers,

suggests that MVNO prevalence in Japan will stay low.

For the US, the mix of cellular technologies across the country

makes it more difficult for a non-telecommunications company to

make impact on the market. However, the relatively low

penetration of mobile, particularly amongst the younger

generation, holds an attraction for strong-brand entrants to

gather future market share.

In the Rest of the World, it is expected that the richer

territories in the region, such as Canada, Brazil and Poland,

will see a rise in MVNO partnering in the next 5 years. However,

the relatively poorer countries will not have mobile markets that

are sufficiently mature or liberalized to tempt external players

to enter their markets.

The study covers:

*  Migration to 2.5G and 3G issues for MVNOs

*  Market entry strategies

*  Market forecasts by region and technology to 2006

*  Strategic rationales for partner and host

*  MVNO positioning along the value chain

http://www.arcgroup.com

What is an MVNO? Find additional information at:

http://www.wave-report.com/tutorials/MVNO.htm

0145.2 Story of the Issue

***Blue Falcon and MeasureCast Offer Peer-to-Peer Metrics

By James Sneeringer

On October 9, Blue Falcon Networks, a peer-to-peer streaming

media delivery solutions provider, announced a strategic

partnership with MeasureCast, a third-party streaming audience

measurement company with more than 1,000 customer stations. Blue

Falcon will incorporate the MeasureCast Streaming Audience

Measurement Service into its streaming delivery technology to

offer to its Internet broadcasting customers.

The partnership enables Blue Falcon to offer its streaming

customers access to third-party audience measurement services

from an established company. At the same time, MeasureCast hopes

the partnership will position it to capture a large percentage of

any online broadcasters who decide to adopt peer-to-peer

streaming content delivery. Blue Falcon customer Radio Free

Virgin is the first to deploy the combined solution. The WAVE

Report spoke with Blue Falcon President and CEO Jay Haynes to get

the details of the deal, and his take on the peer-to-peer market.

Why Peer to Peer Webcasting?

In a traditional webcast, all client connections are long haul:

every person who wants to download the webcast must connect

through directly to the webcast server, which has a finite

bandwidth and number of connections. According to Haynes, this

has two consequences. First, the more popular a piece of content

becomes, the less likely it is that it will be available to a

user desiring to see it. Second, bandwidth is by far the largest

cost component of webcasting. And as Haynes pointed out, the

vagaries of broadcasting almost guarantee that the bandwidth

bought will either be too much or too little.

Blue Falcon's services seek to make use of the wasted bandwidth

during a webcast, by linking client computers directly to each

other. Haynes stated that with Blue Falcon's software in place, a

computer downloading a stream of media could also serve that

stream to other local computers. As a result, the majority of

computers on a Blue Falcon webcast are downloading from other

client computers, rather than the webcast server. The hardware

and bandwidth requirements for the primary webcast server are

greatly reduced, which in turn reduces costs. In addition,

receiving streams from local machines rather than distant servers

uses local bandwidth as efficiently as possible, and reduces

problems such as packet loss.

Haynes explained that the technology behind Blue Falcon's peer-

to-peer services is somewhere between Napster's fully centralized

server directory, and Gnutella's completely distributed system.

The user downloads the Blue Falcon plug-in for their media player

- a process Haynes likened to getting the Flash player - clicks

on the link for the webcast, and begins watching or listening. A

centralized Blue Falcon server maintains a directory of clients

downloading the stream, while the software on each client

computer both manages the incoming stream, and serves it to

additional users. The client software constantly monitors the

streams, and switches sources as needed to maintain quality

standards. According to Haynes, this maintains or improves the

streaming quality as compared to traditional webcasting.

A disadvantage to distributed webcasts such as Blue Falcon's

media, has been the difficulty of obtaining accurate metrics,

such as the size of the audience, entry and exit point, and

duration of stay. Haynes stated that after 3 years of working on

their software, Blue Falcon is finally able to collect data,

based on the server portion of the service. The goal of their

partnership with MeasureCast will complete this work by

facilitating an audit system, which will take Blue Falcon's raw

data, validate it, and then present it to customers in a non-

biased fashion.

The Peer-to-Peer Industry

The Internet bubble has burst - how many times have we heard

this. Yet Haynes pointed to statistics that still show explosive

growth in streaming media. An October report from MeasureCast,

for instance, shows that Internet radio listening has increased

191% since January.

(http://www.measurecast.com/news/pr/2001/pr20011016.html) At the

same time, though, the patience of investors awaiting returns is

very short. Profitability is key, and one component of that is

cost reduction. He stated that peer-to-peer computing, in his

opinion, is the key to cost reduction and scalability in the

delivery of streaming content across the Internet.

Only peer-to-peer delivery, he stated, was demand-driven. He drew

this contrast: in traditional streaming, the content is served

from a single source, and gets more expensive to provide and

harder to get as it gets more popular. In peer-to-peer streaming,

users serve each other - the more users on the system, the more

streams become available to serve new users, increasing the

availability, and using inexpensive, local bandwidth rather than

long-haul.

Two sociological hurdles, according to Haynes, stand in the way

of peer-to-peer streaming. One, the perceived risk of adopting

such a new technology, which he hoped would be alleviated as Blue

Falcon and other companies signed deals such as the one with

Radio Free Virgin, and demonstrated the viability of their

service. The other risk is the perceived security risk of serving

content from a personal computer. This concern he addressed

directly. He started by pointing out that every time a person

clicks on a URL, they are sending information from their computer

across the Internet. He emphasized that Blue Falcon's peer-to-

peer streaming was really no different.

Live streams, he stated, were not stored on the hard drive, and

stricken from the memory upon any interruption. He also stated

that while Blue Falcon's streaming on demand service does use the

hard drive for storage, it only stores fragments of files - never

complete streams. According to Haynes, the user has no access to

the data, and the data has no read or write capability to the

computer or the user, and therefore remains secure. He also

pointed out that Blue Falcon is designed to work well with

firewalls.

Overall, he said, it was an exciting time to be in the streaming

media industry. There is no longer a question of whether media

content will be delivered over the Internet - it already is. The

question now, according to Haynes, is one of quality - of how it

will be delivered, and how it will affect our lives.

http://www.bluefalcon.com

http://www.measurecast.com

0145.3 Semiconductor and Chips

***Equator Technologies Announces Digital Signal Processor

(October 15)

Equator Technologies, provider of broadband digital

communications and media processing engines and systems, has

announced its MAP-BSP-15 Broadband Signal Processor (BSP) chip.

Equator's next-generation chip, which will be manufactured by

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (TSMC), enhances

Equator's BSP family of chips by introducing a low power

consumption, more flexible and cost-effective universal media

processor to the market. Operating at 333 MHz, the MAP-BSP-15

chip will use 0.15-micron fabrication technology and will deliver

33 GOPs (billion operations per second).

The low-voltage, software-programmable, MAP-BSP-15 chip enables

Equator to strengthen its established position in the head-end,

set-top box, video conferencing, video security and surveillance,

and imaging markets. Equator's latest chip is targeted at

wireless, handheld applications, digital cameras, telematics

(including aviation, shipping and automotive), remote security,

low bit-rate media streaming and HDTV-compliant set-top box

applications.

The MAP-BSP-15 chip enables simultaneous high-quality video

encoding streams at various bit rates, supporting all standard

and non-standard compression algorithms. This is achieved by

using only 1.2 volts and 2.5 watts, less than half the power of

its predecessor, allowing applications to run more quickly. In

addition, the smaller chip will be capable of handling more

applications, making it a functionally cost-effective solution.

Equator will work closely with TSMC to ensure that future

versions of its BSP chip will map to TSMC's technology.

Building on Equator's high-level C-programmable, system-on-a-chip

solution, which is based on VLIW/SIMD architecture, the MAP-BSP-

15 chip can unify the host processor with the image processing

capabilities, SDRAM and PCI interfaces, and a flexible multimedia

I/O system to allow a single external bank of DRAM to support a

range of product functions. Features and functions include:

* Digital RGB – enables usage of and drives digital display

panels

* Additional support for SDRAM – provides customers with the

flexibility to choose from various types of memory, helping to

reduce overall system cost

* Data port that is fully compliant with PCI specifications –

eases the adoption of any peripherals

* Merged Video DSP and MPU – a fusion of general-purpose RISC

processor architecture and high performance DSP architecture

seamlessly integrated into a VLIW architecture framework

* Partitioned, compiler managed, register sets – provides full

support of a 100% C programming environment for digital signal

and video image processing applications

* Task-optimized functional units – allow DSP computational power

through support of both instruction and data level parallelism,

providing optimized hardware resources

* Throughput-optimized Dcache – allows the Data Cache to be used

without any need for software control, but alternatively, under

software control, it can be used as a buffer memory. Efficient

pre-loading of the Data Cache is also possible, using the on-chip

DataStreamer DMA processor

* Continued support for software tools and OS support

Equator's iMMediaTools suite, which includes a parallelizing C

compiler, linker, source level debugger, simulators and standard

libraries, will support the MAP-BSP-15 processor. The chip will

be integrated into Equator's development boards and reference

design platforms, including its Shark, StingRay, and EagleRay

Development Boards, as well as the Dolphin and Orca Reference

Design Platforms.

Engineering samples of the MAP-BSP-15 chip will be available in

Q1 2002, with production in Q2, 2002.

http://www.tsmc.com

http://www.equator.com

***SEMI Receives NIST Grant to Develop Internet-Based Security

Framework For Semiconductor Manufacturing Productivity

(October 16)

Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), a

global industry association, has announced that it has been

awarded $5 million from the National Institute for Standards and

Technology (NIST) through the Advanced Technology Program (ATP)

to develop, prototype and validate a security framework for

electronic collaboration via the Internet as a means of enhancing

semiconductor manufacturing productivity.

SEMI, serving as the project administrator for the cost-shared

project that encompasses an approximately $10.1 million budget,

will collaborate in a joint venture development partnership that

includes Advanced Micro Devices, domainLogix, ILS Technology and

Oceana Sensor Technologies. The joint venture aims to create

within three years a security framework for electronic

collaboration that will allow semiconductor manufacturers and

equipment suppliers to share information while protecting

proprietary information on both sides.

The project team will validate its approach by building

eDiagnostics and eManufacturing applications, demonstrating that

they resolve security problems and offer improvements in factory

effectiveness, and feeding back this direct experience to improve

the security framework. The vendor- and party-neutral framework

will be developed as an open standard. It will permit multiple

parties to collaborate simultaneously on issues that involve

interactions between multiple pieces of equipment.

A security reference model will be created, allowing a firm to

specify a formal security policy that describes under what

conditions partner firms can access data. The model will reflect

the way the customer really makes decisions about granting or

denying access rather than the traditional procedural approach to

security.

The project aims to create a flexible firewall, a novel

distributed architecture that can protect any accessible device

(from a factory server down to an embedded sensor) and that

enforces the security policies of the fab and the equipment

suppliers.

ATP provides cost-shared funding to industry, non-profits and

universities to help advance particularly challenging, high-risk

research and development projects that have the potential to

spark important, broad-based economic or social benefits for the

United States. The program supports projects that industry cannot

fully fund on its own because of significant technical risks or

limited resources.

http://www.atp.nist.gov

http://www.semi.org

http://www.amd.com

http://www.domainlogix.com

http://www.ilstechnology.com

Find out more information on NIST and their ATP program at:

http://www.wave-report.com/tutorials/NIST.htm

0145.4   3D

***VIRTOOLS and Alias|Wavefront Announce Release of Virtools

Exporter for Maya

(October 15)

Virtools, provider of interactive 3D development solutions, has

announced the release of the Virtools Exporter for Maya. The

Exporter combines Maya's 3D modeling and animation software with

Virtools Dev 2.0's behavioral features to bring interactivity to

3D content. The Virtools Exporter for Maya enables the export of

3D models, lights, cameras, materials, textures and animations

into Virtools Dev 2.0. Maya' s bones, skin, and vertex colors

features are also supported.

Users can also drag and drop interactive behaviors from the

Virtools behavior library (more than 400 building blocks) onto

exported 3D objects to create interactive 3D applications for e-

learning, e-marketing or games, on the web or CD-ROM.

Virtools' technology allows users to create interactive

applications by graphically assembling "behaviors" in Dev 2.0's

intuitive interface. Virtools' reusable "behavior building

blocks" accelerate the production cycle and reduce production

costs, maximizing return on investment.

MAYA is Alias|Wavefront's 3D animation and visual effects

software for film, broadcast television, video, game development

and location based entertainment markets. With an integrated,

single environment that is customizable, Maya is optimized for

maximum productivity.

http://www.virtools.com

http://www.aliaswavefront.com

***Fourth Annual Report on Virtual Reality Marketplace Released

(October 15)

Virtual Reality (VR), also known as Visual Simulation (VizSim),

is a large and maturing market, according to a market study by

CyberEdge Information Services (CEIS). The report, titled, The

Market for Visual Simulation/Virtual Reality Systems, Fourth

Edition (ISBN: 1-929696-05-1), is the latest report from an

ongoing study started by CyberEdge in 1997. The report shows the

VizSim Industry contracting around 17% under worldwide economic

pressure, but still valued at more than $22 billion. VizSim

systems are used for applications as diverse as medical training,

virtual prototyping, entertainment, cultural preservation, and

architecture.

The report offers findings in Financial, Demographic, and

Technology Sections. The report also includes overall

satisfaction ratings for 99 companies involved in VizSim/VR. The

ratings are comprised of individual ratings for Hardware,

Software, and Service satisfaction, and show nVidia, a graphics

card manufacturer, leading the pack in overall customer

satisfaction.

Also featured again in this year’s report is the Opportunity

Index, CyberEdge’s tool for determining how to best leverage the

results of the study for a business advantage. The Opportunity

Index provides insight into nine component areas, and suggests

areas where changes will provide the maximum marketing leverage.

Also included is the VizSim Supplement, which includes the

VizSim/VR Company Directory and Glossary of Terms.

Some report findings in The Market for Visual Simulation/Virtual

Reality Systems:

*The VizSim market is valued at $22 billion in 2001

*8,512 organizations are involved in the industry worldwide

*The average VizSim system costs $92,000

*Top business applications of VizSim are Virtual prototyping,

Museum/Exhibition, and Design evaluation

*18.5% of systems use the Internet to deliver content

The Market for Visual Simulation/Virtual Reality Systems, Third

Edition is available now for $2,500. The VizSim Supplement is

priced at $250 separately, or $175 when purchased with the

Report.

http://www.cyberedge.com

***Advanced Rendering Technology Teams With AliasWavefront to

Premiere PURE 3D Rendering

(October 9)

Advanced Rendering Technology (ART) has premiered their PURE 3D

rendering card on AliasWavefront's Booth at the Computer Arts

Live 2001 exhibition. PURE is ART's low-cost, small form-factor

3D rendering solution that renders images up to 16X faster than

software-based ray tracing and can simultaneously deliver high

quality images through its silicon chip accelerated ray tracing

architecture. Installed within a windows-compatible graphics

workstation, PURE brings the power of a render farm onto a

designer's desktop.

PURE integrates with Maya through ART's RenderPipe for Maya plug-

in interface. This provides seamless operation of PURE,

leveraging the existing Maya rendering environment and adding

ART's rendering features including physically based materials and

physically accurate camera and lens effects.

PURE comprises software and PCI card hardware based on the

company's ray traced rendering 3D graphics chips, which

automatically perform the geometry and shading operations of the

ray tracing algorithm. PURE's toolset includes a host of features

that allow users to integrate effects such as accurate real-world

lighting, physically-based materials, motion blur, and depth of

field to create images. Application plug-in interfaces to PURE

are available for 3dsmax, 3D Studio VIZ, Maya, and the generic

RenderMan language. PURE is available for PC's and workstations

running Windows NT and Windows 2000.

http://www.art-render.com

***NVIDIA Corporation Evans & Sutherland Strategic Alliance

(October 17)

NVIDIA Corporation and Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation

have announced the creation of a broad strategic alliance, which

includes three elements: (1) NVIDIA licensed its Shader

Technology to E&S; (2) the companies agreed to a broad cross-

license of technology; and (3) NVIDIA acquired 3D graphics

patents from E&S.

The NVIDIA Shader Technology is a collection of 3D technologies

enabling the creation of interactive, cinematic-quality realism

through the use of programmable processing elements. It is the

foundation of NVIDIA's family of programmable graphics processor

units (GPUs), starting with the GeForce3 GPU. Several basic

components of the NVIDIA Shader Technology, particularly the

first-generation programmable vertex and pixel shader, were

earlier licensed to Microsoft for incorporation in the DirectX 8

Application Programming Interface (API) and established as an

industry standard.

Evans & Sutherland produces professional hardware and software to

create realistic visual images for simulation, training,

engineering, and other applications. E&S visual systems are used

in both military and commercial systems, as well as in

planetariums and interactive theaters.

http://www.es.com

http://www.nvidia.com

0145.5 Wireless

***XM Satellite Radio Expands Rollout Across Southwest and

Southeast U.S.

(October 18)

XM Satellite Radio has officially expanded the launch of its U.S.

digital satellite radio service across the entire southern half

of the United States, including cities such as Los Angeles,

Denver, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta and Miami, covering a

combined 136 million people. XM radios are available now in the

Southwest and are arriving in the Southeast over the next two

weeks at electronics retailers including Best Buy, Circuit City,

Tweeter, participating RadioShack Dealers and Franchisees, Sears,

Crutchfield, Good Guys, CarToys, Audio Express, Ultimate and

Sound Advice.

XM's programming lineup features 100 coast-to-coast digital

channels: 71 music channels, more than 30 of them commercial-

free; and 29 channels of sports, talk, children's and

entertainment including 13 premiere news channels covering

national, world and financial developments like CNBC, CNN

Headline News, CNNfn, FOX News, ABC News & Talk, USA Today,

Bloomberg, BBC World Service, C-SPAN and its own XM News.

Manufacturers such as Sony, Alpine and Pioneer will offer 24

models of XM radios, including universal models that will enable

any existing car stereo system to receive XM service, and new

AM/FM/XM systems offering other features. Delphi-Delco systems

will roll out initially in Cadillac DeVille and Seville models

beginning in November, expanding to more than 20 GM models next

year.

XM has also announced that it has reached agreement on the basic

terms of a $66 million funding package, including $35 million in

new debt financing with Boeing Capital Services Corporation and

$31 million in restructured obligations with Boeing Satellite

Systems International. The company expects to close these

transactions later this month.

http://www.xmradio.com

0145.6 Deals

***Samsung and Microsoft Announce Strategic Alliance to

Collaborate on Digital Home Technologies

(October 17)

Microsoft and Samsung Electronics have announced an agreement to

collaborate on consumer PCs and consumer electronics products for

the digital home. The two companies intend to work together to

develop and market products based on Samsung hardware and

Microsoft Windows software including support for Windows Media

Technologies. The joint effort is the first strategic alliance

for Microsoft's eHome Division, a business unit formed earlier

this year with the mission of developing technologies that bring

simplified whole-home entertainment, communications and control

experiences to everyday consumers.

As part of the agreement, Samsung Electronics will support a

variety of products and technology areas related to Microsoft's

desktop and embedded Windows products including Windows Media

Technologies, the Microsoft .NET Platform and upcoming eHome

initiatives. For example, Samsung will expand on its Windows CE

investments to develop a range of smart digital appliances as

part of the Samsung Digital Platforms vision.

http://samsungelectronics.com/

 

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