“Attractive content is the key for growth in HD-capable PCs and digital media equipment markets”
“Attractive content is the key for growth in HD-capable PCs and digital media equipment markets”
Interview:Mr. Taiming Parng, CTO, ASUSTeK Computer, Inc. Core Technology Center
A low-cost mobile PC called "Eee PC" (Figure 1) is selling well. Eee PC is made and sold by Taiwan's ASUSTeK Computer, Inc., a major motherboard manufacturing company. ASUSTeK has a wide variety of product lines including high-performance models for PC gamers and the "Lamborghini Model," a new concept laptop computer for the high-end market segment (Figure 2).
HD Processing Forum (HDPF) interviewed Mr. Taiming Parng (photograph), Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the company's Core Technology Center, about the trend of PCs becoming more high-definition (HD).
(Junichi Oba, TechnoAssociates, Inc. Tokyo, Japan)
HDPF: ASUSTeK has grown with the PC ODM business, and you now have your own branded PCs. What is your current situation like in both your ODM and own branded PC businesses?
Mr. Taiming Parng: Our ODM business was spun off from ASUSTeK in January and is now an independent company called Pegatron. The ODM/OEM business for PC motherboards and other components is being handled solely by Pegatron.
HDPF: Which country do you think is most advanced regarding HD video?
Parng: HD video is most popular in Japan.
HDPF: What is your view on the adoption of HD capabilities for PCs, such as next generation DVDs?
Parng: I think HD capability adoption is yet to come. In the adoption of HD capabilities, attractive content will be most vital. If enough attractive contents are available in Blu-ray or HD DVD, the use of HD-compatible video content by the individuals will grow. Then, when a lot of applications support HD content, HD-capable PCs will gain the required momentum, and I am sure the necessary hardware will sell more.
HDPF: For example, Toshiba demonstrated an HD-capable PC, which attracted a lot of attention, equipped with a stream processor called SpursEngine during trade shows such as CEATEC Japan 2007 and 2008 International CES in the US.
Application demos shown include: upconversion from SD (standard definition) to HD ("Super Resolution Technology" in Toshiba's terminology); image search/recognition and video indexing ("Face Navigation"); and 3D image recognition and video synthesis ("FACEMATION"). What are your thoughts on these technologies?
Parng: I thought video indexing may be attractive to audio-visual enthusiasts. Watching the FACEMATION demo, I thought it would be well suited for robotics. There is a need for video upconversion or upscaling even in Taiwan, so I think it is a very useful application.
HDPF: What are your thoughts on the PC interface that uses gestures ("Gesture Interface")?
Parng: I do not think it is possible to immediately replace all features of a PC OS (such as Windows) with the use of gestures. However, voice, multi-modal interface, and so on is the direction that the next generation PC is heading in. And in that sense, elemental technology such as Toshiba's gesture interface is very interesting.
"The PC market is becoming more polarized, and ASUSTeK is closely following this trend."
HDPF: What are your thoughts on gaming PCs and video game consoles?
Parng: In order to stimulate the game application business for PCs and game consoles, we need a good strategy. For example, we should learn from Nintendo's Wii. Offering HD capabilities at a price point that is similar to or just slightly higher than the Wii would be a start.
HDPF: You have developed and been selling the PhysX accelerator card based on AGEIA, Inc.'s technology. Would you like to make a comment about this?
Parng: There is not much content supporting AGEIA's PhysX yet. I think that companies like Sony or NVIDIA should buy AGEIA so that they can make good use of the PhysX technology to come up with new products and solutions.
(Note: Right after this interview (February 2008), NVIDIA Corp. announced that it had acquired AGEIA Technologies, Inc.)
HDPF: All right. Let me ask you one final question. You have both low-cost PCs with limited features and performance such as Eee PC and high-end, high-performance PCs such as the Lamborghini model. Which product line is going to receive more corporate attention?
Parng: The PC market is becoming polarized. So ASUSTeK will closely follow this trend, and provide PC products that are in demand. In other words, we offer products like Eee PC in the low-end market and ones like the Lamborghini model in the high-end market. As ASUSTeK, we would like to provide total solutions for the PC market.