Who invited Intel to the entertainment room?
I guess if you're as big and successful as Intel, then you really don't need an invite. They invited themselves earlier last year with the development of an LCoS chip. That didn't seem to work out too well; in fact, it didn't work at all and was basically scrapped. Now there are signs that they want to rejoin the HDTV party with the purchase of Zarlink Semiconductor for roughly $70 million.
Zarlink manufactures DTV demodulators and other DTV tuner technologies, so does this mean that Intel is focusing more on the signal technologies and not the display? I don't think so since they bought a display company earlier this year by purchasing Oplus Technologies.
With Microsoft's push into the digital home via Media Center Edition PCs and Xbox 360, are we going to see WinTel-powered HDTVs in the future? It's not a stretch if you go one step farther and look at traditional PC-maker, HP, and their networked high-def sets. What do you think? I didn't invite Intel inside, did you?
