As Motorola Inc plans to enter into the world of set-top box digital entertainment with its Blackbird consumer electronics platform (CI No 3,426), reports are emerging that it is planning to close down its Consumer Systems Group as part of its ongoing restructuring efforts. Motorola issued an internal memo that details plans to refold the Hong Kong-based group – which also employs large teams in Austin, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona – into other Motorola units (see Finance section). Blackbird – intended for use in set- top boxes, televisions, DVD players and games machines – will be launched by Motorola’s Semiconductor Products Sector. It is expected to be based on the Project X video entertainment platform from VM Labs, developer of Atari’s ill-fated 64-bit Jaguar console. Los Altos, California-based VM’s embedded technology is based around replacement circuitry for MPEG 2 decoders and a set of development tools and APIs, which the company claims transforms ‘passive digital video products such as DVD players’ into ‘interactive multimedia centers.’ Motorola has added networking capabilities, the David real-time operating system from Microware Systems Inc and the Spyglass Inc browser (CI No 3,477). Blackbird is due to be announced at the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam on September 12.
