Digital media adapters, which will allow users to share music,
images and video files stored on their PCs with consumer-electronic
devices such as TVs and stereos, are set to hit the market from
several leading hardware vendors in 2003, according to Intel.
Companies that are set to launch digital media adapters next year
include Dell Computer, Legend Group, Mitac International and
Gateway. The adapters will use Universal Plug and Play (UPnP)
technology to connect PCs with consumer-electronic devices, said
Louis Burns, vice-president and co-general manager of Intel's
Desktop Platforms Group, at the Intel Developer Forum in
California.
"Those platforms will come out in a variety of flavours," Burns
said. Low-end models will connect over wired Ethernet networks
while more sophisticated models will incorporate wireless
networking technologies, such as 802.11b.
The digital media adapter, which is based on a reference design
developed by Intel, is part of a wider initiative to connect the PC
with other electronic devices inside the home. Part of that effort
includes working with Sony and Microsoft to develop
standards.
"None of this can happen with a single company driving its own
proprietary view of how it will work," Burns said.
Even though the first generation of digital media adapters will hit
the market next year, there is still a lot of work to be done.
While standards exist for device discovery and control (UPnP),
network protocols such as IP and the physical network (Ethernet
over wired or wireless networks), work still needs to be done in
areas such as media formats and data exchange, digital rights
management, and applications and services, Burns said.
"Once these standards are established, the ability for this vision
[of connecting the PC with other devices in the home] to become
true is very, very real," he said.