China Research Laboratory

Advanced television set-top box (STB) devices are at the center of the growing convergence of television, the Internet and digital communications, incorporating services such as video-on-demand, Web browsing, Internet gaming, e-commerce, and e-mail. TV set-top boxes are expected to be one of the first home gateway products that would eventually outpace even consumer PCs.

IBM China Research Laboratory (CRL) is working with IBM Microelectronics Division on Linux-based solutions in response to this trend. With MontaVista's HardHat Linux operating system, CRL has developed the essential set of the device drivers to support IBM's PowerPC based se-top box controller. That means electronics manufacturers can combine IBM's scalable PowerPC technology with Linux-based open standards software to develop new consumer applications for set-top boxes. CRL will also develop software solutions to integrate and support IBM home service gateway functions, JVM, SMF, and IP VOD on this platform.

CPRM / CPPM

The CPRM / CPPM Specification defines a renewable cryptographic method for protecting entertainment content when recorded on physical media. The types of physical media supported include, but are not limited to, recordable DVD media and flash memory. It was designed to meet the robustness and renewability requirements of content owners while balancing the implementation needs of both the Consumer Electronic and PC industries.

CRL is investigating to develop a reference implementation of CPRM on set-top box to protect the broadcasting and recordable digital media.