Philips Electronics is to offer design and manufacturing services
for a new generation of consumer electronics devices based on
Philips' Pronto++ Software for multimedia and Intel's PXA250
processors. Philips will also release its own set of products based
on the technology.
Philips' Pronto++ Software lets a consumer electronics device
provide various types of multimedia content, such as video, audio,
and games, said Sugata Sanyal, director of Philips Components. Most
consumer electronics devices provide only a single multimedia
function, such as an audio MP3 player, and lack other media
technologies such as video.
The new devices will be able to take advantage of the PXA250's low
power consumption and 32-bit embedded processing power, said Mike
Iannitti, director of Intel's extended computing division. Intel's
XScale technology has not been used in consumer electronics devices
yet, he said, although Intel has invested a lot into a new
generation of its XScale processors and will announce new products
for multimedia technology at its upcoming Intel Developer
Forum.
Entertainment devices will probably be the first products to emerge
from the combination of Philips' software and Intel processors,
Sanyal said. Examples include television guides, Web browsers,
remote controls, and Java gaming devices, he said.
Philips will either help OEMs design new products based on the
multimedia technology, or build the products for them, said Sanyal.
The company will provide reference hardware, such as sample devices
with the XScale chips, and its software to interested partners. It
will also offer consulting services and back-end technology as
required.
Pricing will be determined by how much of a relationship the OEM
wants to get into, Sanyal said. Some OEMs will prefer to save time
and design cost by simply contracting with Philips to build the
devices, while others would prefer to design their own devices and
need help implementing the Pronto++ Software with the Intel
processors, he said. The reference hardware and software is
available immediately, he said.
Philips' own multimedia consumer electronics products with PXA250
processors will be announced at its upcoming CEDIA trade show
starting 25 September in Minneapolis, USA. The companies will also
demonstrate the combined technologies at the Intel Developer Forum
in San Jose, California, from 9 September.