computer science

Intercast

Intercast is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Intercast rather than just read about it. In short: Intercast was a technology developed in 1996 by Intel for broadcasting information such as web pages and computer software, along with a single television channel. It required a compatible TV tuner card installed in a personal computer and a decoding program called Intel Intercast Viewer.

Key takeaways

Intercast belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Intercast to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Intercast from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Intercast was a technology developed in 1996 by Intel for broadcasting information such as web pages and computer software, along with a single television channel. It required a compatible TV tuner card installed in a personal computer and a decoding program called Intel Intercast Viewer. The data for Intercast was embedded in the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) of the video signal carrying the Intercast-enabled program, at a maximum of 10.5 Kilobytes/sec in 10 of the 45 lines of the VBI. With Intercast, a computer user could watch the TV broadcast in one window of the Intercast Viewer, while being able to view HTML web pages in another window. Users were also able to download software transmitted via Intercast as well. Most often the web pages received were relevant to the television program being broadcast, such as extra information relating to a television program, or extra news headlines and weather forecasts during a newscast. Intercast can be seen as a more modern version of teletext. The Intercast Viewer software was bundled with several TV tuner cards at the time, such as the Hauppauge Win-TV card. Also at the time of Intercast's introduction, Compaq offered some models of computers with built-in TV tuners installed with the Intercast Viewer software. Upon its debut, Intercast was used by several TV networks, such as NBC, CNN, The Weather Channel, and MTV Networks. On June 25, 1996, Intel and NBC announced an arrangement which enabled users to watch coverage of the 1996 Summer Olympics and other programming from NBC News. Intel discontinued support for Intercast a couple of years later. NBC's series Homicide: Life on the Street was a show that was Intercast-enabled.

References

External links Archived copy of Intercast's web site from archive.org Article about Intercast, NBC, and the 1996 Summer Olympics Businessweek article Microsoft press release regarding Intercast and Windows 98 Intercast dying of neglect

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Intercast

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Intercast claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Intercast before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Intercast ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Intercast

In research: Intercast appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Intercast in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Intercast is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computer-related introductions in 1996, Multimedia, Streaming television in the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Intercast outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Intercast in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Intercast means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Intercast out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Intercast in simple terms?

Why does Intercast matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Intercast?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Intercast.