IBM Micro plans outlays as merchant revs rise

Electronic News, March 27, 1995 by Walter Andrews

SAN FRANCISCO - Intel's CPU-centric strategy for native signaling processing (NSP) last week received a lukewarm endorsement from Microsoft, here, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHWC) amid other signs that Intel is refashioning its NSP strategy because of OEM concern over moving too many functions, too fast, to the host processor.

WinHEC was dominated by technical issues related to revamping the PC architecture for telephony and emerging multimedia applications. Intel and Microsoft last week floated differing guidelines, for example, on integrating improved audio into system designs.

However, audio is just one of a myriad of system partitioning issues now facing PC OEMS, add-in board makers and other hardware and software vendors. As applications such as telephony, remote gaming, 3D graphics and others are targeted by OEMS in order to keep PC unit shipments healthy - the industry's biggest issue is how much host-based processing they will support.

Intel last week stuck by its story that NSP would be the least-expensive way for PC makers and OEMs to support emerging applications and add new functions on motherboards. The "baseline capability" envisioned under the NSP reference platform would also make independent software vendors (ISVs) more secure in developing applications, according to Intel.

However, Intel also publicly softened its tone considerably against digital signal processors, which its CEO Andrew Grove has repeatedly said could be eliminated if system vendors adopt the NSP strategy. Craig Kinnie, head of the Intel Architecture Lab (IAL), told a WinHEC audience the NSP strategy "has been getting a bad rap in the industry. We're not trying to put anybody out of business," he said, adding that independent hardware vendors (IHVs) can add to the base-line capabilities outlined in Intel's NSP reference platform.

Intel officials said there was still room for "signal processing accelerators" such as DSPs to be packaged in higher-performing systems. A design guide for Intel's NSP reference platform is due out next month (EN, March 20), but Intel was treading carefully last week in outlining its content.

Intel also demurred on how OEMs would position "NSP ready" PCs - as either "value, performance, or premium" systems; other industry sources, though, said Intel is focusing on initially supporting NSP-ready systems in the $2,000 to $2,500 price range. That would not leave too much headroom for DSP-like upgrades. Meanwhile, Intel backed off last week on wether "NSP-ready" will be a standard logo that well be supported by PC OEMs.

Intel officials also privately acknowledged the company is still laying the infrastructure for moving more functions and applications to the Pentium and follow-up MPUs, which would perform tasks in software without additional hardware acceleration. David Schuler, IAL's marketing manager, said "It's a multi-year program as processors get faster. We're building the infrastructure."

At WinHEC. Interl's revealed more details about its NSP strategy - beginning with audio compression/decompression compression and modem control. Intel has apparently backed off performing more math-intensive V.34 data-pump functions with its Pentium; its initial NSP reference platform recommends performing only modem controller functions with host-based processing.

Mr. Schuler, though, noted that follow-on MPUs may be able to perform all modem functions. On a long-range basis, Intel plans to upgrade the NSP reference platform for performing continuous speech recognition, for example. But Intel's strategy requires carefully off-loading certain tasks - for which its MPUS may not be particularly adept at - to audio codecs and other devices such as graphics controllers.

As outlined by Intel and its NSP allies such as analog Devices and Crystal Semiconductor last week, Pentium host CPUS will initially perform functions such as modem controller, wavetable synthesis for audio, and Truespeech speech compression. Intel's NSP would support multiple audio streams through a shared codec design-unlike Microsoft's Windows 95 - Mr. Schuler said, as well as support multiple audio compression algorithms such as GSM and Truespeech.

While differing views of Microsoft and Intel was evident in a number of conference papers addressing audio integration into desktop and mobile systems, it was highlighted by comments by Microsoft's chairman William Gates following his WinHEC keynote address. Mr. Gates said that while NSP will likely take over some functions - just what remain "to be determined in the marketplace."

Stressing the need for continued "communication" with Intel, Mr. Gates added that "it is important that nothing comes out of NSP that conflicts" with what Microsoft tells the industry in terms of application programing interfaces, or device drivers. Mr. Gates said Microsoft intends to support all options for system makers now faced with integrating telephony and other multimedia features, including strategies involving host-processors, discrete chipsets and digital signal processors.