TeleCruz: EDN Ghost Article

Zenith Electronics Corp. will use TeleCruz Technology Inc.'s interactive TV-on-a-chip device in new analog TV sets due for shipment in the second quarter of 2001, making it the first major consumer electronics company to embrace TeleCruz's interactive TV platform. The chip will give Zenith's 27-inch sets features as web surfing, e-mail, on-screen caller ID and shopping without using a set-top box.

The TeleCruz TC702 chip includes a 32-bit MIPS R4000 RISC core, graphics coprocessor, direct interfaces to TV peripherals, an enhanced VBI decoder, and support for SDRAM and flash.

Zenith decided to work with TeleCruz because of “the exceptional ease-of-use and the high level of integration the TeleCruz solution offers,” said Richard Lewis, senior vice president for research and technology at Zenith. The price premium of a TeleCruz-enabled interactive TV over a regular set is about $100, Lewis said. “It's much less costly than a $600 set-top,” he said.

TV manufacturers will find the TeleCruz interactive TV platform attractive because it “comes with a complete software package,” said Kris Narayan, founder and chairman of TeleCruz. TeleCruz offers a host of software for the platform, including drivers, API and the underlying VxWorks real-time operating system, together with TV applications such as Gemstar, Wink and Device Mosaic. 

Zenith will be able to offer purchasers of the interactive TV free e-mail, free-to-view Web surfing, and online shopping features through an agreement with Transcast, a provider of Internet access service and Internet portals for TVs.

Zenith will demonstrate its first TeleCruz-enabled TV sets at the Consumer Electronics Show, to be held next month in Las Vegas. A few other companies that TeleCruz hasn't identified will also be showing off TVs based on the TeleCruz platform, Narayan said.