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Abilis Systems and MaxLinear Introduce a Reference Platform for Satellite Home Gateways That Distrib

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By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

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Abilis Systems and MaxLinear Introduce a Reference Platform for Satellite Home Gateways That Distributes up to Eight Satellite TV Channels to IP-Connected Devices

LUXEMBOURG–(BUSINESS WIRE)– SES Industry Days Conference – Abilis Systems and MaxLinear (NYS: MXL) , leaders in low-power IC design for digital TV applications, today announced the world’s first eight-channel satellite headless gateway reference platform.

This “headless gateway” platform addresses the ever-increasing demand for viewing of high-quality content on multiple screens. This platform is not directly connected to a TV, like a set-top box, but is network connected and accessible by multiple screens in a home. Acting as a media server, these headless gateway platforms are optimized for SAT>IP and DLNA services.

The gateway reference platform converts satellite TV content into IP packets for streaming in home, thus enabling users to enjoy the benefit of watching today’s DTH services on televisions as well as on IP-enabled devices such as tablets, laptops, smartphones, game consoles and other platforms.

The gateway platform has four RF inputs to be used with existing satellite dishes and low-noise block (LNB) downconverters. It combines the high throughput of the Abilis TB101 network processor with the MxL584 receiver to realize unprecedented low-power consumption and a very low bill-of-materials (BOM). This new platform offers satellite operators a cost, performance, and size-optimized solution to expand their TV offering to tablets and smartphones.

The reference platform is very small and can be designed with multiple applications in mind, for example with a single LNB (using DiSEqC) up to four LNBs. The small design is enabled by MaxLinear’s highly integrated MxL584 Full-Spectrum Capture™ (FSC™) DVB-S/S2 receiver.

The four-input MxL584 receiver integrates tuners required for multi-inputs, eight demodulators, and all the active front-end components, including the low-noise amplifiers (LNA) into a compact and cost-effective 10×10 QFN package.

The TB101 integrates a high-throughput demux supporting up to 800Mbps in eight independent TV streams, a CAS to DRM crypto engine and a Gigabit Ethernet. The chip transforms eight HD TV channels into IP format consuming less than 500mW, using only few DMIPS per channel.

“We’re very pleased to team up with MaxLinear to design the next generation of eight-channel satellite gateway platforms. With this unique co-developed cost effective platform, we’re enabling operators to differentiate their offering with easy to deploy solutions for distribution of secured and FTA content

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/18/abilis-systems-and-maxlinear-introduce-a-reference/

Computers

iOS devices hobble Exchange servers when they sync

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Microsoft and Apple recommend that businesses deny certain iPhones, iPads and iPods access to Calendar items until the companies can clear up a problem that slows Exchange servers to a crawl when the devices try to sync.

The problem reveals itself to end users as an error message when they try to update items with Exchange Server 2010 that says “Cannot Get Mail” and “The connection to the server failed,” according to a Microsoft support notification. The only option presented to users is to choose “OK,” Microsoft says.

More problematic for IT is that server CPU use jumps, affecting performance for all users. Microsoft describes the problem like this: “When a user syncs a mailbox by using an iOS 6.1-based device, Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Client Access server (CAS) and Mailbox (MBX) server resources are consumed, log growth becomes excessive, memory and CPU use may increase significantly, and server performance is affected.”

IOS 6.1 comes on iPhone 3GS, 4 and 5; fourth and fifth generation iPod Touch; iPad 2, third generation and fourth generation iPads; and iPad Mini. This makes for a major inconvenience for workers who use these devices at work primarily as a way to access emails and calendaring information.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Automobiles

The Most Wanted List: Profiling Those Who Threaten the C/D Way of Life

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By John Pearley Huffman

The Most Wanted List: Profiling Those Who Threaten the C/D Way of Life

It’s strange and sad that a time of such rapid automotive innovation should produce a vehicle fleet ever more homogenous and bland. But compounding regulation drives up development costs, and humanity is falling out of love with the automobile. The people who design and engineer our preferred mode of transport are left serving a diverse number of masters, few of whom properly appreciate cars as machines of soul and romance. What follows is a rundown of the enemies of cars as we know and love them.

From the February 2013 issue of CAR and DRIVER magazine

↳ Clarence Ditlow
Executive director of the Center for Auto Safety since 1975, Ditlow will never see a car he deems “safe enough.” Formed by Ralph Nader, the CAS has been at the forefront in pushing for vehicle recalls—some justified, others not—since 1970. We’re not going to argue against safe cars, but there’s no way to engineer a vehicle to survive every possible contingency—and trying to do so only makes them larger, heavier, and more expensive. If you’re unbelted and too distracted to avoid running your car into a wall, maybe some shattered bones are a fair reminder of the personal responsibility we all assume when behind the wheel.

↳ Apple, Inc.
Every gadget Apple makes seems to inspire carmakers to marginalize the mechanical in favor of the electronic. Apple is not directly to blame (neither is Microsoft nor Sony nor Samsung), but it’s sucking the joy out of cars. Touch screens, layers-deep climate controls, and inscrutable knobs for increasingly complex media systems distract from the ways a driver should interface with a car: with a firm grip on the wheel; a rear end held in place by a supportive seat; sweetly progressive throttle, brake, and clutch pedals; and a stout shifter in command of the gears in the transmission.

↳ The 1983 Toyota Camry
You should feel the torque coursing through a car’s structure, and the front tires grasping for traction in a turn should translate to tugs and twitches in the steering wheel. A brake pedal should boast all the naked tactility of fingertips on bare skin. A great car should excite the senses, not lull them to sleep. But ever since the appearance of the hyper-refined Toyota Camry 30 years ago, car buyers have expected even ordinary cars to function with seamless anonymity. Damn you, Toyota, for hooking car buyers on the sweet drug of Oxyrefinement.

↳ The Insurance Industry
Cars are expensive, but insuring them is what breaks the bank. Market-research firm IBISWorld says America’s combined premiums tally $178 billion a year. According to one survey, adding a teenage driver to the typical family policy increases premiums by an average of 156 percent. Average. That smothers youthful passion for cars before it gets a chance to express itself. As with automotive safety, insurance isn’t an intrinsically negative concept, but it has been taken to ridiculous extremes. In the long run, if car ownership isn’t affordable, there will be no customers for car insurance.

↳ Light Rail
It’s the public transportation system of the future—that’s forever never coming. So far, L.A.’s new Exposition Line has cost $930 million, and Reason magazine says it’s carrying only 13,000 passengers a day, about half of what was expected. Politicians love projects like this, even if they don’t attract enough riders to pay for themselves and suck up cash that could be used to fix roads or expand bus service. At best, the Exposition Line should recoup its capital costs in 65 years. And your great-grandkids won’t want to ride it, either.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Car & Driver