Description

This article is from the Amiga Networking FAQ, by Richard Norman with numerous contributions by others.

28 What is a Set top?

A twinkle in some entrepreneur's eye.  It will most likely occupy the __TOP__ of
your television __SET__. Some call it Interactive TV.  Some call it info-pliances.
It could possibly bring the internet to your home via cable TV or phone  lines,
but more than likely it will only bring limited expensive services.
AT&T says, "YOU WILL."     I say,  "I AIN'T YET."  ;-)
A newspaper article listed the following companies as  competition for IBM in the
set top market:   General Instrument,  Scientific Atlanta, 3DO, and Nintendo.   NO
mention of HP, Sony,  SEGA, or <insert Amiga owner of the week here>. Hmmmmmmm.
AS most of you know ESCOM's Amiga Technologies is hawking the Amiga as THE
platform for making set top boxes. So we shall see.  VIScorp is also very
interested in the Amiga as a set top box.  
The race will be to develop a box and service that will sell (i.e. it has to be
cheap and yet do a lot.)
The starting gun has sounded in the States with the telecommunications bill which
opens up the phone and cable markets.
Several operating systems are being developed for set top boxes. Since the box has
to be cheap, Win NT is obviously not in the running. JAVA is Sun's bid which is
gaining a foothold in the Web market. Apple is rumored to have an OS tailored
specificly for set top's. So keep the top of your set open ;-)

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