[opendtv] Re: FW: ScalableDisplay: LCOS: New TV Display Elusive
- From: Bob Miller <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 14:35:00 -0500
I have similar questions about Sony's SXRD technology. Saw both their
rear and front projectors, $13,000 and $30,000 respectively. Was blown
away and wonder what others think of them, their price and the
posibility that they will be much less expensive in future years.
I must have one of these!!!
Bob Miller
Tom McMahon wrote:
>Question regarding the article below - maybe some of the technologists on this
>list will have answers (or at least theories):
>
>What exactly is it about LCOS that make it so difficult to produce? Why is it
>still a "black hole of investment cash" at this
>point? The article never pins down the exact issue(s). Is it a yield
>problem? Cost? Contrast? Colorimetry? Latency or response
>time? Temperature stability or drift? Life expectancy under bright
>illumination?
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>December 30, 2004
>
>CALIFORNIA
>
>New TV Display Elusive
>
>Many big firms have worked on a screen advancement called liquid crystal on
>silicon. But the complexity and cost have led to
>widespread failure.
>
>From Reuters
>
>It reads like a VIP list of failures - Hewlett-Packard Co., Toshiba Corp.,
>Intel Corp., and Royal Philips Electronics.
>
>Each of these technology powerhouses tried to conquer a promising technology
>for making thin, big-screen televisions - called LCOS,
>or liquid crystal on silicon - only to back out in defeat.
>
>"The roadside is littered with those who have tried and failed," said Sandeep
>Gupta, chief executive of MicroDisplay Corp., a
>privately held designer of LCOS chips based in San Pablo, Calif.
>
>As the television market moves to bigger and better screens, LCOS is one of a
>few technologies that, in theory, fit the bill to
>replace bulky cathode-ray tube televisions and costly plasma displays.
>
>In an LCOS TV set, light reflects off one or more small microchips made up of
>a layer of liquid crystal and a layer of transistors,
>projecting an image onto the front of the screen.
>
>The pictures from LCOS sets can be rich and bright. But as more than one
>technology giant has discovered, LCOS is also a black hole
>for investment cash.
>
>Meanwhile, Dallas-based Texas Instruments Inc., using another rear-projection
>technology called digital light projection, has sold 5
>million DLP engines, used in cinemas, projectors and TVs.
>
>"TI has done a fantastic job marketing DLP," said Bob O'Donnell, director of
>personal technology at market research company IDC.
>
>A year ago, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel announced at North America's
>biggest consumer electronics show that it would reshape
>television with LCOS products.
>
>"It's real," Intel President Paul S. Otellini proclaimed at the International
>Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, adding that
>TVs built with its high-definition displays would be on the market by the end
>of 2004.
>
>That forecast deeply embarrassed the world's largest chip maker, which delayed
>the project and then canceled it in October. Intel
>said it overestimated the economic payoff, though experts familiar with
>Intel's technology say the company had an unrealistically
>complicated design.
>
>It was deja vu for Chris Chinnock, a senior analyst with market researcher
>Insight Media. He has watched as project after project on
>LCOS - developed in the 1990s by Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM Corp. and Japan's
>Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.'s JVC - has been
>canceled or quietly shelved.
>
>"It has cast a serious pall and doubt about the technology," Chinnock said.
>
>Among the first large companies to try to commercialize LCOS was Palo
>Alto-based Hewlett-Packard, which originally expected high
>volumes of components in 1999. Chinnock said the project was shelved soon
>after.
>
>"They couldn't get the price and performance," he said.
>
>In 2002, France's Thomson pulled the plug on an $8,000 television set built
>with LCOS panels from Tempe, Ariz.-based Three-Five
>Systems Inc. Three-Five later spun off the LCOS business into another Tempe
>company called Brillian Corp., which earlier this year
>lost a lucrative deal with retailer Sears, Roebuck & Co. amid component
>shortages.
>
>Just before Intel put aside its LCOS adventure, the giant Dutch electronics
>company Royal Philips Electronics backed out of its LCOS
>project, saying it realized it wasn't "big enough" to bring mature products to
>market quickly. Japan's Toshiba Corp. also halted its
>LCOS plans after a supply snafu with Hitachi Ltd., Chinnock said.
>
>What is it about LCOS that seems destined for failure, and what keeps bringing
>companies back?
>
>For one, the technology promises a seemingly straightforward technical
>solution to a problem facing the entire TV industry - how to
>make big, gorgeous TV displays on the cheap. It's an especially attractive
>idea for chip makers, since LCOS displays get better and
>better as the silicon components gets more advanced.
>
>And it can be done: JVC is making a big push on a mainstream LCOS set this
>year, and Sony is using the technology in its high-end
>projectors.
>
>"If you actually dig a little bit deeper, I think what we've found and
>concluded is that these were really failed approaches to the
>LCOS solution, which does not necessarily mean that LCOS is dead," Chinnock
>said.
>
>Among those trying to turn the technology into a profitable business is
>MicroDisplay. It has been working on LCOS products for a
>decade.
>
>Gupta, the company's CEO, said LCOS can be a maddening technology to develop,
>with engineers fixing one problem only to uncover an
>even deeper flaw. There are eight technological disciplines required to make a
>good LCOS product, from optical expertise to software
>to analog chip design, more than many companies realize, he said.
>
>MicroDisplay said it has the advantage - at least until the next big
>technology company tries again.
>
>
>
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
>
>- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
>FreeLists.org
>
>- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
>unsubscribe in the subject line.
>
>
>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
