Java and the stampede to the Internet are seen as giving new chip architectures a small window of opportunity to make a mark against the entrenched might of the iAPX-86 franchise, and San Mateo, California-based iTV Corporation Inc has high hopes for a low-cost, high-speed processor designed to use a fraction of the memory and draw a fraction of the power of conventional microprocessors. The company plans to launch it in a consumer Internet access device later this year. The thing is dubbed a Minimal Instruction Set Computer, and has all the unneeded functions eliminated, making it so small that 600 to 800 can be derived from one 6 wafer. The company, a spin-off from the NASA Ames Technology Commercialisation Center at Moffat Field, Cal ifornia, was co-founded by Chuck Moore, creator of the Forth language, which includes its own execution environment so does not need an operating system, and the chip uses a programming technique that requires substantially less memory compared with conventional microprocessors. ITV claims that its chip is a variant of a device that will be used for NASA spacecraft, designed to handle the massive streams of data generated by satellite imaging of planet surfaces and other image processing appli cations. The processor runs at 400 MIPS, uses 100 times less electricity and costs 50 times less than a Pentium chip, asserts Gary Langford, iTV’s president and co-founder, and it will be used in a consumer Internet product he estimates will sell for well under $300, linking television set, a telephone line and a keyboard. The company stresses that it is not a fully-fledged Network Computer but an Internet adaptor that simply connects a phone line to the television for Internet access, elect ronic mail and browsing. The iTV pitch is that where the computer industry is trying to reach the consumer market for Internet access by downsizing their existing hardware and software, iTV’s approach is to start with an unconventional but highly ef ficient processor design, and put all the necessary co-processors on the same chip.
