stemcell computing
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Zii Labs and ARM team up for SiVO home media devices
Remember CES last year, when Creative debuted the Zii and -- true to its marketing pitch -- everything you know changed? Looks like the company (in the form of its subsidiary, ZiiLabs) is teaming up with ARM this go 'round to further blow minds with its new SiVO Digital Home Platform. Harnessing the newly released Zii Labs ZMS-08 (not to mention ARM's 1GHz Cortex-A8 processor), the digital media hub boasts 1080p HDTV playback, 3D graphics, support for all your favorite media (including H.264, H.263, XVid and DivX, WMV9/VC1, MP3, WMA8 lossless, AAC-LC, and FLAC), web browser, Adobe Flash Player 10, and Adobe AIR. If you're an OEM, ODM, or just a huge fan of Stem Cell computing, you're in luck -- this bad boy is making its debut this week in LV. PR after the break.
ZiiLABS ZMS-08 offers Cortex A8-powered Full HD and Flash acceleration for netbooks
We haven't even seen the Zii EGG make its long-anticipated consumer debut yet, but Creative is already building up steam for its next Zii venture. ZiiLABS' ZMS-08 is a third generation mobile media accelerator / system-on-a-chip that boasts its predecessor's 1080p playback and 24fps encoding, and HD video conferencing via simultaneous 720p encoding and decoding, while adding all-new OpenGL ES 2.0 support, an integrated HDMI controller, X-Fi audio and Flash acceleration. Paired to a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8, and running a custom flavor of Android alongside Plaszma OS, the new Zii chip will look for homes in "web tablets, netbooks, connected TVs" and the like, but seemingly not smartphones. ZiiLABS has already signed up a number of clients, who'll start receiving shipments in Q1 of 2010. Full PR and an architectural diagram after the break.
Video: Creative Zii EGG 3D gaming demo
Now that the gang at Creative have 'fessed up to the Zii EGG first seen at the FCC earlier this month, we imagine we'll be encountering this bad boy quite often over the coming months. If you need your StemCell Computing fix right now, we have a video that showcases the newest developer platform running a racing game in all of its accelerometer-packing, 3D OpenGL ES-enhanced glory. Peep for yourself after the break.[Via EpiZENter, thanks Michael]
Creative debuts Android-powered Zii EGG for developers and OEMs
It's hard to know where to begin with this, but Creative has confirmed that Zii EGG handheld we saw pass through the FCC a few weeks ago, and proceeded to slap every odd marketing term the company has come up with over the past few years on it. The Zii EGG runs the new "Plaszma" platform, which has something to do with "StemCell Computing" and allows developers to simultaneously develop for Plaszma and Android. Since for now the Zii EGG is aimed at developers and OEMs, it runs fairly vanilla Android on top of Creative's ZMS-05 chip. The hardware itself is rather impressive, with front and rear facing cameras, HD playback, 1080p video output, OpenGL ES support, X-Fi audio processing, 32GB of built-in memory and a full SD slot. Other more "run of the mill" features include WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and a 3-axis accelerometer. The 320 x 480 screen sounds strictly ordinary, but on top is some 10-point multitouch capacitive input -- Synaptics' new ClearPad 3000 if we had to guess.The big drawback here is the lack of cellular data, but hopefully somebody can solve that before long. The Zii EGG is a developer platform, after all, but Creative says the platform is "market-ready" for picking up by OEMs for production -- hopefully they aren't far removed from shoehorning a 3G chipset in there somewhere as well. The Zii Plaszma Starter Kit bundled with the Zii EGG can be had for $400. A video demo is after the break.[Via DAP Review]
Eyes-on the Creative Zii (or parts of it, anyway)
We stopped by Creative's booth to see what the haps was with the Zii earlier, and... well, there wasn't a ton going on there, but we wanted to document the experience for you anyway. What we saw didn't enhance our knowledge of what we learned earlier in the day: the system-on-chip architecture for media applications (the first part being the ZMO5 Media-Rich System-On-Chip which is apparently a newer version of 3DLABS's DMS-02 chip) is touted as a springboard for commercial applications -- and we hear that at least PowerLinux has signed on to use the platform for an advanced video conferencing system. Sounds exhaustingly exciting right? And it was. Creative doesn't want anyone getting too close to their components -- they were all encased in glass -- but check the gallery after the break for what we did see.%Gallery-41294%
Creative unveils Zii
If, despite our warning, you were still hoping that the Zii was some sort of new form factor media player or maybe even a futuristic computer that could morph and change shape as needed, prepare to be a bit disappointed. Creative has revealed all, and while everything we know has indeed not changed (contrary to earlier promises) we can now confidently tell you that Zii is a system-on-a-chip architecture for high-demand media applications, featuring numerous discrete processing elements that, to our untrained ears, sounds at its core a bit like Sony and IBM's Cell. It's said to offer performance to rival a supercomputer, easy scalability to provide limitless growth (from gigaflops to petaflops), and some sort of integrated throttling to enable higher efficiency by shutting down disused aspects of the system. The first piece of hardware from this platform is called the ZMS-05 Media-Rich System-On-Chip, and companies like MSI and PowerLinux have pledged their support, the latter of the two planning to use the processor for its embedded Linux video conferencing systems. We're definitely eager to see what sort of innovative uses come out of this new architecture, but for some reason we don't quite feel like the hype was warranted.Update: Philip wrote in to let us know that the ZMS-05 is effectively just an updated and expanded version of 3DLABS's older DMS-02 chip, which, while also impressive, didn't change everything we know either.Update 2: Video added after the break.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Creative Zen Zii screenshots unearthed, possibly faked
As you know, we've been hearing some mind-blowing Zii hype lately. If this latest rumor has any weight to it, among earth-shattering revelations unearthed in Creative's booth at CES will be a Zii-powered Zen. Of course, screenshots like these can be faked all too easily -- but really, why would anyone bother? What we have here is something that resembles previous Zen interfaces, formatted landscape rather than portrait, with what appears to be a widescreen display. Really, guys? Is this what passes for "revolutionary" these days? Call us jaded, but it's rather hard for us to believe that any PMP would have the power to "better lives beyond our imagination." Unless, of course, you're talking about the MySpace MP3 player. We so want one of those.[Thanks, Oscar M.]
Creative sheds some hype on Zii 'stem cell computing'
Pretty big talk, Creative, for such a mysterious product. According to information gleaned from an email that's making the rounds, Zii is "revolutionary" -- in fact, it's about to change everything you know. Everything. The company says they've invested over 10 years, over one billion dollars, and 10,000 man-years (that's a lot of men! and years!) on "stem cell-like silicon that is able to grow and multiply into different solutions and ecosystems," which will "better lives beyond our imagination." Has your mind been blown yet? No? Just wait until you "discover incredible recession-friendly business opportunities that enable you to thrive and prosper." Just what we need in the midst of these turbulent times. Of course this begs us to ask the question: if life as we know it is over, couldn't they have spent a little time coming up with a name other than Zii? And might there be a better place to announce this epoch-making discovery than booth #30651 at CES?[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Creative's Zii actually a CES-bound processing chip
While our vivid imaginations certainly had something more invigorating than this in mind, we suppose Creative could still surprise us at CES 2009. The curious Zii website we peeked a few days back is reportedly referring to an all new processing chip, and while eipZENter isn't being too forthcoming with details just yet, we are told that it will likely be "one of the biggest projects Creative has invested in." If that's just too vague for your tastes, try this: "[Zii] is completely different from the X-Fi audio chip and it will be used in a variety of upcoming products." Alrighty then.[Thanks, Swild]
Creative's Zii "Stemcell Computing" is not likely to be awesome
Look, we have no idea what's going on here, and you know what? Maybe it's better that way. Creative -- a company always on the edge -- has clearly gone off the deep end. A new teaser on its site promises that "Everything you know is about to change..." and forwards on to the dubious Zii.com -- with a logo that couldn't be more obvious about its Wii inspiration. Four leaf clovers shimmer and shake, and a trademarked term chills us to our very core: Stemcell Computing. Yeah, how about no. If this is at all interesting to you, we recommend registering for updates soon, before this company manages to implode the Earth with its mad, mad science.[Thanks, Grayson S.]
