Intel's AMR Specification Gets Boost From Rockwell

Electronic News, Sept 14, 1998

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF.--Rockwell Semiconductor Systems last week announced full support for Intel's audio/modem riser (AMR) and mobile daughter card (MDC) specifications with Rockwell's RipTide audio/modem chipset. Rockwell is believed to be the first chipset company to back the Intel specifications.

Rockwell said its RipTide chipset allows OEMs to implement audio and modem functions on a motherboard at a lower bill of materials cost while gaining the scalability of AMR. Although Rockwell claims to be the first company to support AMR, the specification is an open one and Intel said there are various large companies participating in the specification that plan to support AMR and MDC as well.

According to Russ Hampsten, audio marketing manager for Intel, the key feature of the AMR and MDC specifications is the ability to integrate multiple functions on only a few chips. Higher integration can result in up to a $5 savings for modem chipsets. This is a significant savings for companies vying for a piece of the market.

"OEMs won't want to put the AMR on the motherboard because it makes the motherboard inflexible. However, as a daughter card the riser is modular enough to enable different boards for different countries," said Mr. Hampsten. This capability comes from having the interface handled through a 46-pin connector; the main backbone of the connector is the AC'97 link.

The AMR specifications are supposed to enable OEMs to deliver integrated audio and modem offerings on the motherboard by decoupling the analog I/O portion of the modem onto a separate riser card. A specific modem or audio chip is not on the board itself, allowing easy exchange of new daughter cards for different modem specs or audio chips.

"You could have a single motherboard with 20 different riser cards for 20 different countries and not have to change the motherboard layout," said Tom Lau, senior technology develop manager for audio at Rockwell. "The cost of having to change the riser card for each individual country is minimal. This then encourages more OEMs to use country-specific riser cards that will help in the selling of PCs and not have to worry about cost."

The AMR specification also includes room for upgrade and more flexibility with the addition of xDSL functionality and Universal Serial Bus (USB) implementation. "So even today if a country or an OEM wants to include USB or DSL functionality they can do that with the AMR specification," said Mr. Hampsten. The RipTide chipset from Rockwell that includes a soft modem and soft audio functionality is priced at $15 in low volumes. The chipset has been in the market since last fall. However, it now includes the AMR and MDC specifications. u