The deal, for an undisclosed price, is a further blurring of the boundaries between IT equipment and consumer electronics and is likely to be followed by further acquisitions as Intel uses its $14bn cash to establish the same dominant position in the digital home as its holds on the desktop and server room.
Yokneam, Israel-based Oplus designs the silicon and software that power flat panel plasma and LCD-TVs, projection systems and other emerging digital display applications.
It has established a strong position in one of consumer electronics’ most rapidly expanding markets, with demand for digital TVs growing by more than 40% a year. With a 100-strong workforce and a consumer base that includes many of the world’s largest consumer electronic companies, the venture capital companies that have funded its growth will have ensured that Intel paid a hefty price for its purchase.
Intel set up a consumer electronics group a year ago to provide the silicon and software for a whole range of consumer electronic devices. It was following a trail blazed by the cell phone makers and Apple, which were able to apply skills developed in IT to cater for consumer markets with an increasing hunger for more sophisticated devices.
Oplus processors are geared to provide the higher quality processing needed for wide-screen TVs, where demand has been fuelled by fast-falling prices.
Intel itself has dipped a toe in the market, announcing technology last year that it said could bring about high-definition, large-screen TVs with clearer pictures than current systems for less than $2,000. The technology, code-named Cayley, was based on Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCOS) that produced images that are displayed on large-screen, rear projection TVs.
Long-term, there is expected to be convergence between a whole range of consumer electronics devices so that audio, visual, computer and TV processing can be produced in a single box and transmitted to a whole range of devices throughout the home. Intel’s ambition is to produce the processing horsepower that will make all this possible.
