Acorn Online Media
Online Media
<company> A company formed in August 1994 by {Acorn Computer
Group} plc to exploit the {ARM} RISC in television {set-top
box} decoders. They planned to woo {British
Telecommunications} plc to use the box in some of its {video
on demand} trials.
The "STB1" box was based on an {ARM8} core with additional
circuits to enable {MPEG} to be decoded in software - possibly
dedicated instructions for interpolation, inverse {DCT} or
{Huffman} table extraction. A prototype featured audio {MPEG}
chips, Acorn's {RISC OS} {operating system} and supported
{Oracle Media Objects} and {Microword}. Online planned to
reduce component count by transferring functions from boards
into the single RISC chip.
The company was origianlly wholly owned by Acorn but was
expected to bring in external investment.
[Article by [email protected] cross-posted from
tandem.news.computergram, 1994-07-07].
In 1996 they releasd the imaginatively titled "Set Top Box 2"
(STB20M) with a 32 MHz {ARM 7500} and 2 to 32 MB {RAM}. There
was also a "Set Top Box 22".
(http://www.khantazi.org/Archives/MachineLst.html#STB1).
(http://www.mcmordie.co.uk/acornhistory/riscpc700.shtml).
(http://acorn.chriswhy.co.uk/NC.html).
(2007-11-12)