Wedding bells for Intel and Nvidia?

[Jason Eaton]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://blogs.zdnet.com:80/BTL/?p=3728&tag=nl.e622' target='_blank'>http://blogs.zdnet.com:80/BTL/?p=3728&tag=nl.e622</a><br /><br /></div><i>“It's going to happen. Computers as we know them have been and will continue to give way to what the geeks call embedded systems or "appliances" but what consumers call TiVo (just one example).The winners in that market will be the ones who can provide innovative appliance makers with the best ingredients. What are the best ingredients? The kind that minimize the amount of system level customization and R&amp;D that must be done (by appliance makers). The kind that offer world-class performance. The kind that are bottom-line friendly. For example, take another very relevant-to-this-news appliance example: xBox (or any of its competitors). These gaming systems just scratch the surface of the sorts of specialized compute-enabled appliances that are going to become a part of our everyday lives. Sure. Maybe the competition between the major gaming players justifies the R&amp;D that goes into a solution that's custom-built from head to toe.”</i><br /><br />The article starts off with some conjecture about Intel and Nvidia joining together before moving on to what I think is the real story going on in the PC industry. No longer are major players focused solely on desktop computers but instead are looking to leverage their strengths into other markets. Maybe one day when your DVR starts up the Intel jingle will play.

[Felix Torres]

For my money, the big story for 07 isn't going to be the blue laser format wars; it is going to be the far bigger STB wars.

With the cablecard inplementation deadline coming by mid-year, I expect everybody and their uncle to get into the Set-top Box business and try to add value based on their core competence.

Already we have Scientific Atlanta (the 800-pound gorilla of the business), Motorola, RCA, Microsoft (with no less than 3 entries), Sony, Moxi, Dish, DirecTV, and Disney lining up at the starting line. Apple's iTV vaporware pre-announcement may also tie into this.

Plus, we have the big Asian CE compaies putting cablecard and internet connectivity into their TVs, all looking to completely by-pass the STBs by integrating DVRs and streamers into their TVs.

Going to get bloody.

Anybody out willing to handicap this race? ;-)
Any early favorites?
Why wait until CES 07 when we can start speculating today? :twisted:

[Felix Torres]

This one is kinda interesting:

http://www.akimbo.com/landing_rca_new.html