It's a set-top! It's a home server! It's a digital hub! Whatever you call it--a souped-up cable box or a hard-disk recorder with wings--companies know that whichever gets it right will rule the entertainment gateway to the home.
The more than half a dozen companies who are scrambling to capture the multi-billion-dollar market for this new device agree on what it should do: record, archive, and play back video and music, organize digital photo albums, and distribute digital media around the home. But they disagree strongly on what form that device should take. Should it be a set-top box? How about a stereo component? Or perhaps a home computer?
IEEE Spectrum sorts out the competing visions of a digital hub's future, looks at which companies are likely to be first out of the gate, and takes you "under the hood" of a typical digital hub. It also introduces you to a group of Linux hackers who think such devices ought to be made at home, not bought at Circuit City.
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