http://www.playerschoicevideogames.com
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NUON Enhanced DVD/CD Video Player with Component
Video Output Item Number: DVD-N501 NUON
enhanced A/V processing system
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VM Labs’ new technology puts entertainment media
together
One of the early live-video interactive games,
"Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective," has gained a
second life with the help of NUON technology.
Feb. 7 — Everybody knows that Sony’s
PlayStation2 will be a game console that plays movies.
Fewer people know about a new line of DVD movie decks that
will play games.
TOSHIBA, MOTOROLA, Samsung, and Raite
Optoelectronics (pronounced “Rite”) have announced plans
to manufacture DVD movie players with a new technology
called NUON that will enable them to play games.
Developed by Silicon Valley-based VM Labs, NUON
(which was previously known as Merlin and Project X) is a
technology that adds interactivity to digital products. As
VM Labs and its partners demonstrated at this month’s
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, it does much
more than play games.
A LANGUAGE OF THEIR OWN
‘NUON allowed us to accept things like MP3 as
they come into the market with a software solution. It
also gave us maximum flexibility in getting services to
consumers by giving us programmable architecture.’
— ROGER KOZLOWSKI
Motorola media systems division director of
strategic
alliances
VM Labs spokespeople have long befuddled the video
game-covering press by using a different lexicon of terms
than other game companies. Sony and Nintendo talk about
megahertz and polygons; VM Labs people have generally
spoken about MIPS (millions of instructions per second),
flares, and Caviar Voxel non-polygonal 3D graphics.
Whereas Sega spokespeople are practically bursting at the
seams to talk about benchmarks, VM Labs people refuse to
define their technology by benchmarks.
Talking technology with VM Labs people is so
frustrating that you sometimes expect to have an aneurysm
on the spot. Ulcer-causing or not, they do have a point.
NUON is a versatile technology that addresses gaming,
among other tasks.
Motorola, for instance, has incorporated NUON
with Power PC technology (which Motorola refers to as
“DigitalDNA”) into its Streamaster Mustang series of
set-top boxes to add Internet access and movie viewing
options.
“NUON allowed us to accept things like MP3 as
they come into the market with a software solution,” says
Motorola media systems division director of strategic
alliances Roger Kozlowski. “It also gave us maximum
flexibility in getting services to consumers by giving us
programmable architecture.”
Used in conjunction with NUON-enhanced movie
discs, VM Labs technology also provides consumers with a
powerful viewing interface that offers new options such as
changing camera angles. It also enables users to access
extra features such as games and scripts that might
otherwise require a computer.
Most importantly, according to Kozlowski, NUON
brings consumers this power and versatility at an
affordable price. “Compared to other solutions, the cost
of NUON does not appreciatively add to the price of the
final deck. If you want interactive DVD, NUON offers the
most cost effective solution. We are not targeting the
loss-leader DVD market.”
“NUON does two things: it expands DVD capability
and it makes programmable architecture available to
consumer OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers).”
It would appear that adding NUON technology to
DVD decks does not drive up the cost. In April,
Taiwan-based Raite Optoelectronics is releasing the
RDP-741 NUON-enhanced DVD player for the fairly standard
price of $299. (It should be noted that the “loss leader”
units that Kozlowski alluded to sell for as low as $179.)
Samsung’s first NUON player, the N2000, a higher-end unit,
will retail for $499.
AS A GAMING PLATFORM
Among the games available in a NUON version is a
version of the classic Atari game Tempest.
As a gaming platform, NUON’s performance seems
fairly competitive with the current generation of
consoles. Legendary Atari designer Jeff Minter has
designed a NUON version of the arcade classic Tempest that
is fast, furious, and visually stunning, but does not
necessarily appear to be out of reach for current
PlayStation technology.
Additional games that have been announced
include Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective and Dracula
Unleashed — two early full-motion video games that
appeared on the PC market in the early 1990s as multimedia
became a household word; Myst, the biggest-selling CD-ROM
game of all time; Merlin Karting, a Mario Kart-esque
racing game; and an interactive version of the Rocky
Horror Picture Show.
It should be noted that NYKO Technologies and
other peripheral companies that are generally associated
with gaming have announced plans to make joysticks and
other game peripherals for NUON-enhanced DVD players.
If VM Labs was somehow hoping to compete against
Sony and Nintendo with its NUON technology, the company
has made a mistake. Consumers looking for the latest and
greatest video game-playing equipment are unlikely to be
excited by hardware that functions as well as the current
PlayStation and plays games like Myst and Dracula
Unleashed. This, however, does not seem to be VM Labs’
goal. The purpose of NUON seems to be giving movie
enthusiasts a chance to do more than watch movies; and
judged by this standard, NUON may well measure up. MSNBC.com
NUON™ Delivers Total Video Entertainment
As entertainment technologies quickly converge,
media-hungry
consumers expect much more from their
televisions. DVD players
powered by the NUON media processor meet and
exceed con-sumer
expectations by delivering a variety of
spectacular interactive
content while revolutionizing the way consumers
interact with their
televisions. With NUON, consumers will have
access to a variety of
media-rich applications including:
NUON Enhanced DVD Movies
Interactive Audio
3-D Video Games
Multi-player Network Games
Edutainment & Education
Reference Multimedia
Internet Web Browsing & Email
Unparalleled Support for Industry Standards
New entertainment technologies are being
introduced at a startling
rate. Frantically trying to keep pace with
emerging standards, DVD
manufacturers using hard-wired silicon solutions
must wait as their IC
vendors scramble to spin new silicon. The
implications of these delays
are drastic. Since NUON is a software
programmable media processor,
these delays are virtually eliminated. While the
competition waits
helplessly for new silicon to arrive, NUON gives
programmers the
opportunity to quickly create the software code
that will deliver the
new standards ahead of schedule. Standards
supported by NUON
include:
DVD-Video, VideoCD, CD-DA
MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, NTSC, PAL, Sub-picture video
Dolby™ AC-3, Dolby ProLogic™, DTS™, LPCM,
Spatializer™,
MPEG audio
CD-DA, HDCD™, CD-TEXT, DVD Audio, MP-3, S/PDIF
HTML, JAVAScript™, JPEG, GIF, Macromedia Flash™
Creativity Without Constraints
With access to 16 million colors, 256 levels of
transparency,
anti-aliased scaled fonts and multiple 2D and 3D
rendering engines,
programmers and artists are free to design a
completely custom
environment. By supporting familiar languages
such as C/C++ and
HTML, programmers are given the freedom to
develop specialized
Graphical User Interfaces, differentiating new
features, and
cutting-edge software applications for NUON.
With this kind of flexibility, NUON products not
only stand-out from
the competition, but allow OEMs to differentiate
products across a
company’s entire digital video prod-uct line
using the same media
processor. Product lines can be created by
simply incor-porating
different software, yielding varying degrees of
features. As a product
matures, it is possible to upgrade existing
hardware by issuing a
software change or upgrade.
NUON™ is More Than a Media Processor
NUON defines the standard for interactive
content in the living room.
Representing a significant advancement in DVD,
NUON delivers
enhanced interac-tive DVD movies, video-enabled
interactive audio,
high-performance video games and Internet
connectivity. Motion
picture studio endorsement is impelled by the
desire to offer extra
assets and interactivity to consumers, without
having to negotiate
the pitfalls of the PC world. Video game,
edutainment, and new-media
developers and publishers recognize NUON as the
prodigy interactive
family platform for the living room.
Through strategic retail positioning of NUON
enhanced hardware,
software and peripherals, the association of
NUON with the highest
quality video entertainment experience
cultivates consumer
confidence and brand recognition. Awareness of
NUON brand
reputation is conveyed to any product promoting
the name; from
NUON enhanced DVD players to NUON enhanced
digital set-tops.
NUON™ DVD Features
Smooth Shuttle, Slow and Fast Forward, Rewind,
Zoom, Pan
and Scan Picture in Graphics, Video Scaling,
Graphics Overlay
Wide screen, Letterbox, Multi-Angle, Closed
Caption
16 Million Color User Interface / On-screen
Display
256 Levels of Transparency with Alpha Blending
Advanced DVD Karaoke
NUON™ After-Market Applications and Peripherals
NUON Enhanced DVD Movies
NUON Video Games
CD Audio Interactive Video Light Show
Game Controllers, Keyboards, Modems, Printers
Multi-player Network Game Support
NUON™ Media Processor Specifications:
Over 1,500 MIPS
216 Million 32-Bit Multiply-Accumulate
Operations per Second
864 Million 16-Bit Multiply-Accumulate
Operations per Second
13.5 Million (4x4) x (4x1) Matrix
Transformations per Second
(32-Bit Elements)
Firmware and Library Specifications:
Digital Video
MPEG-2 MP@ML Audio/Video Decode
Video Scaling, Zoom, Picture in Graphics
DVD Subpicture
Graphics Overlays
PAL/NTSC
Digital Audio
Dolby™ AC-3, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, LPCM, PCM
3D Spatializer™, ProLogic™
CD-DA, HDCD™, CD-TEXT
DVD Audio, MP3, DTS™
SPDIF Output
ADPCM and PCM Sample Playback
32-Voice General MIDI Wavetable Synthesizer Full
MIDI Sample
Set
Advanced Karaoke: Reverb, Chorus, Echo, Flange,
Key Control,
Vocal Partnering, Harmony
2-D Graphics
MML2D - Full Featured 2D Graphics Library
2-D Drawing Functions (Line, Rectangle, Ellipse,
Arc, Polygon,
Bit-blit)
Support for Various Line Styles, Widths,
Gradient Blends,
Anti-Aliasing
Real Time Scaled and Compressed Fonts, TrueType™
Outline
Fonts
16 Million Colors, Alpha Blending With 256
Levels of
Transparency
3-D Graphics
MGL 3D Graphics Library
Patterned After Computer Graphics Industry
Standard OpenGL™
Bilinear Filtering, Perspective Correct Texture
Mapping
Automatic Mip-Mapping, Lighting
M3DL 2D/3D Graphics Library
Console-Style Library Familiar to Console Game
Programmers
2D Sprites & Tiles, Bilinear Filtering 3D
Graphics
Perspective Correct Texture Mapping, Mip-Mapping
Caviar™Voxel Graphics Library
Non-Polygonal 3D Library
Audio Libraries
Wavetable Synthesizer
Full Featured General MIDI Compatible
Automatic MIDI File Parsing
Voice Editor Allows Creation of
Application-Specific Wavetable
Banks
Low-Level API Access
PCM Engine
Plays Digital Audio Samples
Choice of Sample Rates
Supports ADPCM Formats, Digital Audio Streaming
NUON and the NUON logo are trademarks of VM Labs, Inc. |
Adam Pratt atariwizz@yahoo.com
on
Wednesday, July 12, 2000 at 08:00:33
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nuon is quite different from your everyday processor, as it allows for much more creativity than you can get with a RISC-based processor. Basically, a developer can use any form of rendering they can concieve, whether its polygons, voxels, real-time raytracing, whatever. It's also 128-bit, for anyone who may care. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |