Emerging computing environment (David Du)

Fast processing power
    MPEG-1 can be easily decoded with 166 MHz CPU
    MPEG-2 can be decoded with 400 MHz CPU
    MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 encoding requires more processing power
Improved storage technology
    23 GB/drive, 10,000RPM, 5-10 Mbps sustained transfer
    rate, 20-30 Mbps sustained transfer rate in near future(2-3 years)
Emerging highspeed network infrastructure
    ATM 155 and 622 Mbps and SONET/SDH 1.2 and 2.4 Gbps
    Direct satallite broadcast, cable modem (hybrid fiber and
    coaxial), xDSL(ADSL 7-8 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps upstream)
    Multichannel multipoint distribution systems MMDS
    Local multipoint distribution systems LMDS
Fast growing internet
Emerging digital TV
    10 US cities offer Digital TV end of 1998
    All analog channels swapped with digital by 2006
    19.2 Mbps channel, MPEG-2 video, Dolby AC-3 audio
    pixels x vertical lines (1920x1080, 1280x720,
    704x480), 16-to-9 aspect ratio (NTSC 4-to-3)
    PC vs consumer electronics industries
Video
    MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 are current standards. MPEG-4 was
    originally designed for very-low-bit-rate channels,
    but has evolved to complex tool kit of providing
    solution to video, audio and interaction, dealing
    with audio-video objects AVOs and BIFS binary format
    for scene description (animation and video).
Audio
    stereo sound, sourround sound, 3D sound
Digital Set-Top-Box
    system-on-a-chip
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language SIML
    released in 1998, conform to XML of W3C
    URL site: http://www.w3.org
EDUCOM Instructional Management System IMS
    project established in 2/97, define a number of
    interfaces to support on-line learning content,
    tools, etc. metadata, coantent, management, profiles
    and external to be released in 9/98
    http://project.org
Challenges
    new applications for new environment
    special processing features
    new systems bottleneck
    integrated solution