01/05/06 ~ Converge! Network Digest

Thursday, January 5, 2006

Entropic Raises $25 Million for Coax Networking Silicon

Thursday, January 05, 2006 TTP

Entropic Communications, a start-up based in San Diego, raised $25 million in Series C financing for its "c.LINK" home networking digital entertainment chipset. This brings total investment in the company to $78 million. Previous investors Anthem Venture Partners, Cisco, CMEA Ventures, Comcast Interactive Capital, Dow Employees' Pension Plan, EchoStar, Intel, Mission Ventures, Motorola, Panasonic, Redpoint Ventures, Time Warner and YAS Broadband Ventures also participated in the round.Entropic is a member of the Multimedia over Coax Alliance...

Amino to Port IPTV Software Stack for ST's STB Platform

Thursday, January 05, 2006 TTP

Amino will port its software stack for IPTV set-top boxes to STMicroelectronics's ST7100 family of semiconductors. Integration of Amino's software creates a ready for use IPTV set-top box blueprint for manufacturers. The combined platform permits set-top box manufacturers to remove a large proportion of the software research and development cycle and enables them to create reliable, high-performance products in the shortest possible time frame.http://www.aminocom....

Freescale Offers Low-Power CMOS Broadband Silicon Tuner for STBs

Thursday, January 05, 2006 Silicon

Freescale Semiconductor introduced a 3.3V single-chip CMOS broadband silicon tuner designed for the growing set-top box (STB) and analog/digital TV tuner markets. The MC44S803 tuner supports flexible power-consumption modes, enabling power to be adjusted from less than 700mW to 900mW to meet various system performance requirements. The broadband tuner is based on an innovative double-conversion architecture that simplifies STB and TV tuner designs and streamlines the manufacturing process. Single-conversion tuners require multiple tracking filters,...

DivX to Work with Google Video

Thursday, January 05, 2006 Service Providers

DivX and Google agreed to make the DivX video codec work with Google Video, enabling consumers to bring video content to other consumer electronics devices.More than 50 million DivX Certified devices are estimated to be available from major manufacturers.http://www.divx.comhttp://video.google....

CES Tops 150,000 Attendees

Thursday, January 05, 2006 Service Providers

The 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas topped 150,000 attendees and more than 2,500 exhibitors from 110 countries, living up to its billing as the world's largest technology tradeshow. http://www.CESweb.org...

ITC^DeltaCom Offers MPLS

Thursday, January 05, 2006 Service Providers

ITC^DeltaCom announced the availability of its MPLS Service to its customers in the southeastern United States. ITC^DeltaCom has enabled this service over their existing Frame, ATM and Private IP network.ITC^DeltaCom has a fiber optic network spanning approximately 14,500 route miles, including more than 10,900 route miles of owned fiber. The company operates approximately 29 voice switches and 74 data switches, and is one of the largest competitive telecommunications providers in its primary eight-state region. ITC^DeltaCom has interconnection...

Comcast Hires AOL Exec to Head National Engineering Operations

Thursday, January 05, 2006 Financial

Comcast Cable announced that John D. Schanz will join the company as Executive Vice President, National Engineering and Technical Operations, where he will oversee the deployment of new communications products and services. Schanz most recently served as Executive Vice President of Network and Data Center Operations for America Online, with responsibility for architecture, planning, design and operation of AOL's global network infrastructure. He previously held senior management, operations, and engineering positions with leading technology and...

Yahoo! Go TV, Go Mobile Makes CES Debut

Thursday, January 05, 2006 TTP

At CES in Las Vegas, Yahoo! Chairman and CEO Terry Semel introduced Yahoo! Go TV, promising to bring the power and depth of the Internet to the PC-connected television screen.Yahoo! Go TV, which is expected to launch in a few months as a free application, integrates Internet services, including video search and photos, into the television. The local client would run on a PC, such as the new Intel Viiv platforms. Key features will include:Yahoo! Video Search -- quickly search, find and view Internet videos Yahoo! Photos and FlickrMy Yahoo!Yahoo!...

CBS Leads List of Google Video Providers

Thursday, January 05, 2006 TTP

At the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Google announced plans to open a video marketplace, enabling consumers "to buy and rent a wide range of video content from a major television network, a professional sports league, cable programmers, independent producers and film makers." Launched early last year, Google Video initially provided only free videos uploaded by end-users. CBS is Google's first major video content producer to sign-up for the service. CBS's current primetime hits will include CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, Survivor...

Verizon and MCI Close Merger, Creating a Stronger Competitor and Closing a Chapter in Telecom History

Thursday, January 05, 2006 Service Providers

Verizon Communications completed its acquisition of MCI, bring to a close a long history for MCI as one the fiercest and most colorful competitors in the telcom industry. MCI traced its lineage to Microwave Communications of America Inc., which was founded by Jack Goeken in 1963. In 1968, the company was joined by Bill McGowan, who led the regulatory fight to challenge AT&T in long distance communications, eventually leading to the break-up of AT&T in 1984.In 1998, WorldCom acquired MCI in a deal valued at $37 billion at the time of its...