'Intel Inside' Comes To Flat Panel TVs

New Scientist ^ | 1-4-2004 | Celeste Biever

[blam]

'Intel inside' comes to flat panel TVs

14:05 09 January 04

NewScientist.com news service

Computer chip giant Intel is to enter the consumer electronics market for the first time with a chip specifically designed to power cheaper, better flat-panel TV displays.

Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini told the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Thursday that his company’s new liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) chips would yield displays priced below $2000 and provide crisper images than rival technologies. These include the digital light processors (DLP) pioneered by Texas Instruments - those displays sell for between $3000 and $6000.

Philips, Sony, Mitsubishi and Toshiba are already selling flat panel LCOS displays that are cheaper than DLP equivalents. But Kevin Cornelius, display technologies manager at Intel, says TVs with Intel chips will have crisper images. This is because the Intel chips are 100 per cent digital, whereas most LCOS technologies still control the liquid crystals using analogue voltages, which are more difficult to produce accurately.

Analysts say Intel's position as the world’s largest chip producer makes its entry into the market significant.

"There are currently thousands of TVs with this technology, but Intel will have an interest in producing millions," says Richard Doherty, a consumer electronics industry analyst at consultants Envisioneering in Seaford, New York. "Intel coming into this is justification that we are on the right track."

Blurred lines

Furthermore, Intel’s entry into consumer electronics reinforces the convergence of the PC and home entertainment systems. "The lines are blurring," Otellini said. The trend is being driven by the increasingly digital nature of entertainment media and the ability to connect devices wirelessly.

In another move highlighting the trend, Microsoft's Bill Gates unveiled software on Wednesday that will allow TVs to display content from PCs and allows users to use a remote control to navigate music files, digital photos and other stored media.

"The home is changing from a technology standpoint, and Intel has recognised that where there is change, there is opportunity," says Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media, a digital consulting firm in Norwalk, Connecticut. "LCOS is a hot segment right now. There is more demand than supply."

Micro-projection

LCOS is a "micro-projection" technology. It is cheaper than earlier direct-view technologies, such as plasma and liquid crystal, because it requires only a tiny amount of optical-quality glass.

An LCOS image is created on a one-inch chip by individually controlling millions of tiny pixels. The image is then projected on to the much larger display surface with a device called a light engine. With direct-view technologies the image must be created at the actual size that it is viewed, requiring much more optical quality glass. Direct-view TVs cost between $6000 and $10,000. The first micro-projection technology was DLP. These use arrays of micro-mirrors that tilt to control how much light is reflected. Higher resolution can be achieved by adding more mirrors. But, because the mirrors cannot easily be manipulated below a minimum size, the chip must get bigger. This then requires a bigger lens, meaning a more expensive product.

Molecular twist

LCOS does not suffer this problem and in 2003 companies including Hitachi, Philips and Sony brought out the first LCOS chips. Instead of reflection, these chips use refraction to create varying grayscale and therefore avoid the need for moving parts.

An LCOS chip consists of a layer of silicon transistors that control the voltages in a second layer of transistors. The second layer of transistors sits next to a layer of liquid crystals, molecules that twist in response to a change in voltage.

This twisting controls the refraction of the light and generates the grayscale variation. Higher resolution is achieved by using a smaller area of liquid crystal per pixel, meaning the chip stays the same size.

Celeste Biever

[blam]

Consumer electronics of this nature is a brutal business...I would keep an eye on my Intel stock price.

[goldstategop]

If they can cut the price of a flat screen plasma TV down to $500, Intel stands to make a huge profit.

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[ken5050]

What are they gonna do with all those old, giant, projectio TVs?..you know, the ones that are the size of VW and take jup 2/3 of the den...are they gonna dump them in the ocean, like old railroad cars, to make a man-made reef?

[Arkie2]

Hey! Stop talking about my TV that way!

[Bikers4Bush]

Don't ever buy a plasma screen, the quoted life is some BS that would supposedly last 7 years but in reality their only getting 3 years out of these things.

There have been some nice advancments in LCD that have seen the sizes increase and the benefit is that the bulbs can actually be changed. Not so for plasma, once it's dead it's dead.

[ken5050]

I was gonna get one a few years ago, when I thought the jets might make the Super Bowl, but my old lady had a cow..no way, she said..now, I'm glad I waited....

[truthandjustice1]

"like old railroad cars, to make a man-made reef?"

Small condos for the homeless?

[ken5050]

Nah..they've thrown the cartons away already..

[billbears]

If they can get down to under $2000 for some of the larger ones they stand to make a huge profit. Admittedly the prices have fallen but I'm not going to pay $1,000 for a 17 inch flat panel

[discostu]

Hollow them out and rent them as studio appartments.

[Arkie2]

Mine is actually a Sony flat screen and only 5 years old so I'll stick with it for several years to come. By that time I expect to get a killer deal on the latest plasma screen. ;^)

[hopespringseternal]

I was looking at TVs the other day. It was depressing. The stuff above a couple of thousand looks amazing. In fact, it makes the lesser TVs that are reasonably priced look downright lousy.

My current television is dying, I just hope it lasts long enough for the prices on the next generation stuff to drop to a reasonable level.

[goldstategop]

Moore's Law says that everything gets cheaper and better. By the time it wears out, the new model will be cheaper and better than when you originally bought it. Same with flat screen TVs.

[BrooklynGOP]

I got a DLP projector and couldn't be happier. Takes up *NO* space, weighs 3 lbs.

[ken5050]

I've been looking seriously for a few months....I think Gateway is gonna try and buy market share, as well as try to save its ass, by dropping prices on theirs real soon..they've got a huge marketing campaign on now, and in a few months, before they startto introduce the new models for the Xmas season, they'll be a 20-30% price cut.......

[Bikers4Bush]

That may be so, but I'm not willing to pay $5,000 for something that will wear out in 3 years.

[Petronski]

So, will Intel have two versions of their tv products? You know what I mean, one version that works beautifully and one stamped Celeron that only does 70% of the job?

[azcap]

I don't understand all the people last year lining up to buy 6 and 8 Thousand Dollar flat screens. I want one too but I can wait two years for the day when I can buy a same or better set for $400. Don't any of these people have a clue how consumer electronics development and pricing works? DVD players are $35 and LCD computer monitors are $200. Flat TVs will be no exception.

[Bikers4Bush]

Did you mount it to the ceiling? I'm considering doing something like that with a Fujitsu projector only down side being I'll need to buy a few spare bulbs for the future and they aren't cheap at $400+ each.