Executive Overview: Skipstone and the IEEE 1394 Serial Bus
Skipstone is focused on developing products for the IEEE 1394 Serial Bus.
But more than that, Skipstone and IEEE 1394 are so intertwined due to
- our long involvement with IEEE 1394 technology and products, and
- our experience gained from designing two generations of IEEE 1394 products,
that we believe we live up to our logo phrase:
Skipstone, the Serial Bus Experts!
To substantiate this, we have been:
Skipstone has more than fifty corporate customers worldwide, including
development activities with miro, Texas Instruments and Mitsubishi Electric.
Skipstone, Inc.
Skipstone is a leading provider of IEEE 1394 products and services.
Founded in Austin, Texas in 1994, our goals are:
Focus on IEEE 1394 products
and services
Be first to market with IEEE
software, developers tools, hardware, architecture, and vision
Bring together an experienced
team, selected and motivated to be efficient and profitable
Current Products
Skipstone's current product is the
TK-10 Developer Toolkit which
includes the PCI-10 Advanced IEEE 1394 Computer Adapter. The TK-10/PCI-10
represents Skipstone's second generation toolkit/adapter combination
and provides the most powerful IEEE 1394 technology on the market today.
The Skipstone toolkit and its adapter reduces the time it takes a
manufacturer to enable their products with
IEEE 1394 bus capability and thus get quickly to market.
The TK-10 Toolkit is currently available for the Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 operating systems running on a PC-compatible computers with a PCI bus.
Additional porting activity is available on a custom basis.
Future Activities
Skipstone is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) supplier of
products for the IEEE 1394 market. With this market moving so quickly,
a wide range of products will be needed. Some products we are considering
include:
- IEEE 1394 computer adapters with a range of capabilities
to meet the needs of both demanding professionals and cost-conscience consumers.
- applications for the IEEE 1394 environment including the
ability to edit still image and motion digital video from the new breed of
Digital Video camcorders on the market.
If these products excite you as they excite us, you should get in
touch with us and let us know how we can help you get into the IEEE 1394 market.
IEEE 1394
The IEEE 1394 High Performance Serial Bus is revolutionizing the
transport of digital data for consumer and professional electronic products,
communications, and computers. By providing an affordable high-speed
non-proprietary interconnect for all digital devices, a truly universal
connection is available. Its scalable
architecture and flexible peer-to-peer topology makes IEEE 1394
ideal for connecting devices ranging from printers and hard drives
to digital audio and video hardware with real time processing
requirements for on-time multimedia.
IEEE 1394's main features are:
- It is available today and is supported by more than 60 member
companies of the 1394 Trade Association
- It is a low-cost cross-platform solution standardized for transporting
all types of digital data
- Its easy-to-use cable and connector allows users to attach or remove
devices at any time
- 100 Mbps (Million bits per second) operation transports compressed
video today while 200 Mbps operation by 2Q96 and 400 Mbps by 1997 will
handle all multimedia data; Gigabit (1 Gbps = 1000 Mbps) and beyond is
on the design board
- Asynchronous data transport provides connectivity to legacy
technology such as printers and modems and provides command and control for new devices
- Isochronous data transport guarantees delivery of
multiple time-critical multimedia data streams
The following information is also available:
Several white papers discussing IEEE 1394 technology
Links to other IEEE 1394 related Web sites
Major corporate interest has backed IEEE 1394
Perhaps the best indication of support for IEEE 1394 is the membership
list for the 1394 Trade Association. Please refer to the Web pages of
the 1394 Trade Association for more details.
Some major events in the history of IEEE 1394:
Fall 93 COMDEX: the IEEE
1394 technology demonstration won most significant Technology award
Fall 94 COMDEX: Texas Instruments and
Skipstone provided a technology demonstration of an IEEE 1394 connection
between a Sony digital video camera and several computers.
1H95: Skipstone provided its first
generation IEEE 1394 developer toolkit to assist manufacturers in adding
IEEE 1394 capability to their products.
2H95: Apple Computer announces
support for IEEE 1394 in all Macintosh products by the end of 1996
2H95: Microsoft indicates
it will feature IEEE 1394 support in a future release of Windows 95
2H95: Sony's shipment of its
Digital Video Handycams with IEEE 1394 capability represented the
first IEEE 1394 consumer products
2H95: Skipstone provided its second
generation IEEE 1394 developer toolkit allowing much higher data transfer rates
2H95: Sony states it will market future PCs with a 1394 interface on its motherboard
1H96: IEEE 1394 achieved
formal IEEE approval
1H96: Microsoft announces 1394 joint multimedia development with Sony
1H96: Apple Computer confirms 1394 Macintosh support via adapters in 1996 and on the motherboard in 1997
The Coming-Out Party
The Fall 95 COMDEX trade show was the first major public declaration of IEEE 1394 support. The 1394 Trade Association organized a large demonstration room at COMDEX to show off its members' products. Sony demonstrated its DCR-VX1000 and DCR-VX700 Digital Video cameras with IEEE 1394 output, Texas Instruments showed off its new 200 Mbps Physical Link chips and a prototype IEEE 1394 front end for a printer, Molex featured its IEEE 1394 cable technology, Apple demonstrated a prototype digital video system, and Skipstone showed its second generation IEEE 1394 developer software and computer adapter as well as a prototype IEEE 1394 front end for a Mitsubishi video monitor.
A Road Map to the Future
Dusting off the old crystal ball, the future offers:
Second half 1996 will see IEEE 1394 computer video adapters for Digital Video cameras thus allowing the first cost effective way to capture, edit, and store digital video. Professional and high end audio and video enthusiasts will embrace IEEE 1394 for its ability to move vast amounts of digital data at 200 Mbps.
In 1997, consumer electronics and computer manufacturers will offer 400 Mbps IEEE 1394 solutions matched by the inclusion of IEEE 1394 into popular operating systems. The public will notice that IEEE 1394 opens new cost-effective ways of moving multimedia data.
In 1998, gigabyte IEEE 1394 devices will be in the market and IEEE 1394 will be a pervasive technology.
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