IBM Eyes iTV with OpenTV Port

By Jeff Michalski
iApplianceWeb
(08/22/01, 11:20:18 PM EDT)

IBM and OpenTV have ported OpenTV's interactive television (iTV) software to run on IBM's PowerPC-based set-top-boxes. This combination will provide a powerful base for next-generation STB applications.

IBM's PowerPC-based set-top-box controllers are high-end, fast single-chips. The combination of the OpenTV software and the IBM hardware allows for additional performance and programmability for emerging features in set-top-box applications. The range of PowerPC-based standard and custom chips is the engine behind a new class of information services.

OpenTV software middleware is in its third generation of set-top designs. OpenTV's iTV middleware is already deployed in more than 18.2 million set-top-boxes worldwide. It offers service providers a reliable and proven option for bringing interactive content to consumers.

IBM's STB03xxx set-top-box chip family combines a PowerPC processor, an MPEG-2 audio/video decoder, a memory interface subsystem, and a range of peripheral interfaces, all on a single piece of silicon. The chip features high-speed operation at 162 MHz with a 16KB instruction cache and an 8KB data cache, providing the performance necessary for the range of new interactive TV services.

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