DVI~ Multimedia Chronology May 13, 1992 April 1992 TELETOTA, Paris, announces the first DVI~ PAL compression facility for European developers. March 1992 FAST Electronics, Munich, demonstrates a DVI add-in card for Toshiba color laptops based on the i750~ video processor. Product scheduled for availability Fall 1992. March 1992 Intel teams with Microsoft and IBM to announce digital video extensions to the Media Control Interface, a multimedia API for Windows and OS/2. Tandy, Software Publishing and NCR express immediate support for the expanded specification. Application developers and hardware manufacturers want to develop products to the spec to ensure compatibility. March 1992 Intel agrees to license its RTV algorithm via the IMA, giving others the opportunity to build cross- platform compatible products. Lotus, IBM and DEC support the IMA's request and Intel's response. March 1992 CD-ROM Professional awards Intel and IBM the development product of the year for ActionMedia~ II hardware and software. Feb. 1992 IBM also introduces Linkway Live! for DVI products under DOS, an authoring tool which crosses many of IBM's DOS products. Feb. 1992 Data East, an arcade game vendor in Japan, introduces its first DVI product. The game uses compressed video to tell players fortunes. It has proved very popular in its first months. Data East is also marketing the game machine motherboard, with the i750 video processor on it, to other interested game manufacturers. Jan. 1992 IBM develops an application for Blockbuster Video to test market multimedia's ability to service customers and build store traffic. Customers can preview movie titles and get movie recommendations from the networked system. Jan. 1992 New Video announces DVI boards for the Macintosh. Priced from $2495. Nov. 1991 Fall COMDEX 1991 is the venue for Intel and IBM to introduce the second generation of ActionMedia II products (the delivery board contains the commercially available i750 video processor), Windows and OS/2 system software, new DOS system software, and second generation compression algorithms. The boards cost almost 50 percent less ($2,600) than the first ActionMedia boards and, with the new compression algorithms, signficantly improve image quality. Windows and OS/2 system software, called AVK, is easily ported to new operating environments. A new generation of DOS system software also protects existing customer's investments with backward compatibility. Companies demonstrating products supporting DVI multimedia include Asymetrix, Authroware, CEIT Systems, Comsell, DeignTech, Digital Video Arts, Kodak, MacroMind, MicroGrafx, New Video, Novell, ProtoComm, Software Publishing, Straylight, Synthetic Images and Tandy. Nov. 1991 Intel and Fluent announce a strategic agreement to develop and market additional software for DVI products. Fluent will port its FluentStreams networking software to the AVK Windows environment. Nov. 1991 Intel and IBM are awarded "Best of Show" and "Best Multimedia Product" at COMDEX by Byte magazine for ActionMedia II hardware and software. May 1991 Sun Microsystems uses the i750 video processor to build a prototype board for its SparcStation. The DEMO '91 presentation includes live video- conferencing in the Unix environment. Wayne Rosing refers to a "remarkable chip set". Feb. 1991 Intel publishes its first developers catalog with references to DVI application or tool development at 74 companies. System software upgrades are announced, and Intel becomes a sponsoring member of the Interactive Multimedia Association, and contributes to the IMA's work to promote cross- platform compatibility. Customers announcing or demonstrating new products include Ace Coin, Attica Cybernetics, Datalus, New Video, New York Life, ProtoComm, and TouchVision Systems. Nov. 1990 Intel introduces the i750 video processor, the first commericially available multimedia components for compressing and decompressing digital motion video and audio. The 82750PB pixel processor and 82750DB display processor sell for $85 in quantity. The chipset is based on a programmable and open architecture, which allows it to support Intel's existing alogorithm products, plus the new JPEG proposal. IBM, AT&T, Compaq, Lotus, Microsoft, New Video, PictureTel, Olivetti, Sun and Aplix endorse the architecture. Nov. 1990 Intel announces that it will license the bitstream for its PLV algorithm, which produces the highest- quality full-motion video at CD-ROM data rates. August 1990 Intel and PictureTel announce a joint agreement to create desktop multimedia and videoconferencing components. The products will support Intel and PictureTel video compression algorithms, as well as MPEG and Px64 proposed standards. Feb. 1990 Intel and IBM introduce ActionMedia~ 750 hardware and software. The two-board platform replaces the Pro750TM ADP and integrates the functionality previously requiring seven boards. The ActionMedia 750 capture and delivery boards for ISA and Micro Channel bus PCs significantly reduce the cost of implementing DVI multimedia. Full- motion, full-screen digital video and audio hardware now costs $4,500. Software tools are upgraded as well. Nov. 1989 CEIT Systems, Inc. introduces a DOS authoring package designed for DVI products called Authology~: MultiMedia. CEIT Systems, Inc., is a developer of software tools for multimedia and interactive video authoring, located in San Jose, California. Authology: MultiMedia simplifies the development process, using a windowing interface and mouse input making application development easier. Non- programmers will be able to generate a variety of DVI applications, greatly reducing development costs. Nov. 1989 IBM exhibits networked DVI applications, using two Personal System/2 computers connected via a Token- Ring network. Motion video images were transmitted and played at full speed between the computers. DVI products use compression algorithms to convert motion video information to streams of binary bits which can then be transmitted over networks like any other digital data. The demonstration consisted of image digitization, compression and decompression in real-time with RTV 1.5 software. Images were captured from the show floor with a video camera connected to a DVI prototype board and displayed on a PS/2 VGA monitor. Oct. 1989 Intel and Bellcore jointly submit a proposal for a video compression algorithm to the MPEG working group of the International Standards Organization (ISO). The proposal was submitted for consideration for the delivery of compressed motion video from digital storage media such as CD-ROM and hard disks. The algorithm submitted provides good image quality and can be implemented in a cost-efficient manner. Further, it can be transcoded with the CCITT-SG-XV (Px64) and WG8 (JPEG) evolving standards, providing important synergy with international standardization activities. Intel plans to provide multimedia hardware and software products that are compatible with the Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) proposal, at the same time that it remains backward compatible with current algorithms. Oct. 1989 Intel announced a video compression breakthrough: the ability to compress video footage in real time, at 30 frames per second (fps), on a PC platform. The DVI software, known as RTV 1.5 (real-time video), enables motion video compression and playback immediately, at full speed, full screen. RTV is expected to revolutionize "quick turn- around" applications in key markets, including desktop presentation systems, video editing, networking and electronic mail. Further, it will be vital in training and education applications, where instant visual feedback and analysis greatly accelerate the learning process. RTV is also used as an authoring tool. It allows developers to compress their own video, design and edit their applications, and then replace the RTV segments with even higher quality video at a later stage of application development. Sept. 1989 Intel Japan K. K. (IJKK) announces the creation of its Market Development Office to develop DVI business in the Japanese market. Tokyo Media Labs, created at the same time, is a showroom for DVI application development. August 1989 Time Arts~ announces LUMENA~ paint software for the Pro750 ADP. Time Arts is shipping LUMENA paint software through Intel. LUMENA is a professional-level paint program that enables designers to create sophisticated color graphics for output to a wide variety of media. In the DVI product environment, LUMENA provides a rich variety of paint and graphic layout tools. The 16- bit program delivers up to 32,000 colors. It is available in two versions from Intel: Basic LUMENA for $1500 and Production LUMENA for $2500. July 1989 Intel begins shipping production volumes of Pro750 Application Developer Platforms and drops the price to $22,000. June 1989 Intel moves DVI technology into a new facility in the Princeton area; a new, 35,000-square-foot site at 313 Enterprise Drive, Plainsboro, NJ. The site houses an engineering group to develop components, boards, systems, software, training and support, as well as marketing and finance. March 1989 Intel announces the Pro750~ Application Development Platform (ADP), an Intel386~ microprocessor-based PC with seven DVI boards (a 3-slot solution) for multimedia software development. The Pro750 ADP is a DOS-based development platform with video, audio, and CD-ROM interface boards, digitizers and added memory modules. System software and authoring tools are installed on a 40MB hard disk for application development in the C programming language. The product is introduced at $25,000. March 1989 Intel and IBM announce IBM's intention to develop Micro Channel~ version, DVI products for IBM's Personal Systems/2~ computer family. As part of the development contract, IBM will work with Intel to define new DVI products, including boards, software and integrated circuits. Oct. 1988 Intel acquires DVI technology from General Electric and begins work on commercial products. DVI technology was originally developed at RCA's David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton. In October, 1988, Intel acquired the technology from General Electric/RCA, hired the development team from SRI International, and established the Intel Princeton Operation. DVI, ActionMedia and i750 are registered trademarks of Intel Corp. Pro750 and 386 are trademarks of Intel Corp. Mircro Channel and Personal System/2 are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp. Comdex is a registered trademark of the Interface Group, Inc. Time Arts and LUMENA are registered trademarks of Time Arts, Inc. Authology is a registered trademark of CEIT Systems, Inc.