Re: FW: transputers in TV set-top boxes

["P.H.Welch" <P.H.Welch@xxxxxxxxx>]

Roger wrote:

> > From a BSkyB news release:
> >
> > "Digiboxes The first set-top boxes - or digiboxes - are designed and
> > manufactured by Pace, Panasonic, Grundig and Amstrad. Beneath the four
> > individually-styled exteriors lies a common specification with the
> > power to turn the TV set into the hub of the home's entertainment and
> > interactive services.
> >
> > Based around a high-speed ST20 processor from ST Microelectronics ... "

and:

> > Wouldn't it be cool if they found out how to program the box using the
> > serial port to interface it to a computer.
> >
> > Then you could write or load in a better interface.
> >
>
> My comment to Barry Cook at the time was "If only they knew!!

Please remind us (is this right?): the ST20 is a re-engineered T414 with
a few extra goodies (like more on-chip RAM, the semaphore instructions
from the dear old T9000 and a not-so-nice set of interrupt pins).  And
it's much smaller than the T414, consumes less power and is clocked at
50MHz?  But, underpinning that, there's the full T414 instruction set
plus all the microcode for process scheduling and channel communications?

I remember someone posting on this list before about experiences with
the ST20 (that were not so good!).

Did you ever find out whether the digibox transputers had a single OS link
and whether that link was brought to a plug on the outside of the box - and
if so, could we connect it to a PC via a standard link cable and boot it up?
I've not invested in one of these things but that might tempt me!

Peter.