The Change Mariner

Intel prepares for assault on digital TV market

SeattlePI:
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which opens Jan. 8, Intel is expected to disclose the development of a class of advanced semiconductors that technologists and analysts say will improve the quality of large-format digital televisions and substantially bring down their cost, according to industry executives close to the company.

Intel's prodigious manufacturing capacity and its ability to integrate display, television receiver and computer electronics all on a single piece of silicon are likely to open up new markets for a class of products that have generally sold for $3,000 to $10,000 until now.

By doing so, Intel and other companies should be able to take greater advantage of Moore's Law, named for Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel who accurately predicted decades ago that computer chips would double in capacity about every 18 months.

"I think this brings Moore's Law to digital television," said Richard Doherty, a consumer electronics industry analyst who is president of Envisioneering Inc., a consulting firm based on Long Island. He predicted that the low-cost display technology, which can be incorporated into "rear-projection" television sets, could lead to lightweight 50-inch displays only 7 inches thick for about $1,000, perhaps as early as the 2004 holiday season.

Intel's expected decision to enter the television market is another powerful indicator of the accelerating computer industry assault on the consumer electronics industry. Gateway and Dell are already selling large-format digital televisions made for them in Asia, and Hewlett-Packard has indicated it will also enter the .Such a powerful marketing and technology combination could blend easily with Microsoft's media center software, which is aimed at using personal computing technology as the heart of home entertainment centers.