Entertainment PC 98 Design Issues

The PC 97 Hardware Design Guide introduced the Entertainment PC as a distinct category of Windows-based PC, differentiated from the Basic PC by its ease of use and the breadth and quality of its multimedia capabilities. For example, the graphics, video, and audio subsystems for Entertainment PCs are designed to optimize the capabilities of software that uses Microsoft DirectX® interfaces.

Since its introduction, nearly all key Entertainment PC technologies and design points have either appeared in innovative new products or progressed technically toward realization. Some key technologies have been adopted and advanced faster than expected.

Entertainment PC 98 aims to accelerate this momentum by appropriately evolving key system components, as well as by adding some new technologies that will support feature and performance demands that will be placed on the PC hardware industry by consumers and software developers in 1998. Compared to last year’s model, Entertainment PC 98 will run faster, will deliver new types of high-quality audio, video, and data content from a wider variety of sources, will better enable the PC Theater “10-foot” usage model, and will maximize the quality of user experience for multimedia applications.

It is hoped that the Entertainment PC-8 guidelines will enable and promote innovation within the PC market by defining PCs targeted at high-quality entertainment and communications experiences along with ease-of-use features that will overcome barriers to adoption for new users. An Entertainment PC 98 system is optimized for the following uses:

• Games. The best titles, with the most complex, realistic graphics and audio.
  
  
• Education. The most engaging titles, with full-screen video, interactive animation, and so on.
  
  
• Active Internet. Enhanced web communications capabilities, with personalized and animated web sites, chat rooms, and so on.
  
  
• Personal communications. Multimedia e-mail, Internet audio phone, video phone, and so on.
  
  
• Interactive, high-resolution television and movie viewing. Higher video quality, real-time links to content producers, and so on.
  
  
• Connection with traditional consumer-electronics devices. Home theater surround audio such as Dolby Digital (AC-3) for games and DVD movies, and fast and easy capture, editing, and playback of personal video.

Following are the key design challenges for Entertainment PC 98:

• Combining a high-performance 2-D and 3-D graphics subsystem designed for the best games with better-than-television quality, full-screen, MPEG-2 motion video to deliver DVD movies, digital television (DTV), and so on.
  
  
• Enabling connection to large-screen displays, including standard televisions, for a more realistic graphics experience than smaller desktop monitors can provide.
  
  
• Implementing a high-fidelity audio subsystem on par with consumer stereo systems, enabling delivery of rich content such as games with positional 3-D audio, professionally mastered music CDs, and so on.
  
  
• Enabling new types of “digital pipes” into the PC for video, audio, and information data, such as analog and DTV signals from broadcast, cable, and satellite links.
  
  
• Enabling PC connections, using USB and IEEE 1394, to consumer-electronic devices such as camcorders, VCRs, and home-theater stereo systems.
  
  
• Providing home appliance usability for ease of use, in both desktop (“2-foot”) and family room (“10-foot”) usage models.
  
  
• Extending human input device support with remote control, game input controls, and other control devices that use USB, IEEE 1394, and other external connections.
  
  
• Bringing advanced but easy-to-use communications capabilities to the home, and integrating these with entertainment functions. Examples include caller ID, family-room speaker phone and video phone, and so on.

It is intended that the Entertainment PC 98 guidelines provide much room for innovation, such that OEMs will design to a variety of form factors. In addition to traditional desktop multimedia PC designs, Entertainment PCs will be designed for the PC Theater category. PC Theater systems are fundamentally targeted at a 10-foot usage model and contain the necessary hardware, software, and industrial design to enable users to enjoy PC-enhanced entertainment content in the family-room environment. It should be noted that although the Entertainment PC 98 guidelines attempt to call out some of the key design differences related to 2-foot and 10-foot usage models, it is not intended as a comprehensive specification of PC Theater design issues.

Whether defined for use on the desktop or in the family room, Entertainment PC 98 guidelines are defined to deliver the best digital home entertainment of any platform or combination of devices. The following table summarizes the Entertainment PC 98 system components.

Entertainment PC 98 System Summary