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February 2000
NEWS & ANALYSIS
LCD/DLP Rear
Projection Products Impress at CES
There were a number of new rear-projection high definition
products shown and announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January,
and many people have asked what we thought of this new crop. So here goes.
Texas Instruments (Dallas, TX) used CES for their first public unveiling of
their rear-projection HDTV. This single-chip system has definitely improved in
the nine months since we saw it last. The 57-inch set now incorporates TI's new
WXGA (1280 x 720) DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) instead of the larger SXGA
chip. It employs the same 120 W UHP lamp, but the smaller chip (0.8 inches vs
1.1 inches) results in slightly lower on-screen brightness (280 Cd/m2 (peak
white) vs 310). It appeared to be fairly bright, but was in a dark booth.
(More coverage on products from The Home Electronics Division of Hitachi
America, Samsung Electronics America, Displaytech, JVC Professional Products
Company, Zenith Electronics, Sharp Electronics,
CTX Opto, and Philips
Consumer Electronics.)
Three-Five Lays Out LCOS
Roadmap (with Table)
Three-Five Systems (Tempe, AZ) is on a roll. Their STN liquid crystal display
business is booming, lead by demand for cell phones. They have a new and
successful operation in China, and an expanded distribution agreement with
Mitsui & Co., Ltd. of Japan (Kyoto, Japan). In the microdisplay arena, the
company has absorbed property, assets and personnel from defunct efforts at
National Semiconductor and S-Vision. As a result, they should soon reach full
production status for LCOS displays. Finally, their stock has doubled in the
last few months. Not bad. (more)
Kopin Wins Panasonic
Camcorder Order
Kopin
Corporation announced that it has begun volume shipment of its CyberDisplay to
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. , which manufactures consumer
electronics under the Panasonic brand name. The QVGA (320 x 240) monochrome
display is incorporated into a Panasonic camcorder (model NV-VZ-1) that
Matsushita launched in Europe in early February. Motorola is supplying an ASIC,
which is the interface electronics between the CyberDisplay and the Panasonic
camcorder. (more)
FED Corp. Changes Name to
eMagin, Works on SXGA Device
FED Corporation (Hopewell Junction, NY) has not worked on
field emission displays (FEDs) for some time. Instead, they have switched to
developing small-molecule organic light emitting devices (OLED or OEL) on
silicon active-matrix backplanes. Now, they have decided to change their
company name to eMagin Corporation, a name derived from "electronic imaging."
The moves reflects the company's desire to have a name that better reflects
their display technology and its future use in telecom and other e-technology
applications. eMagin's corporate headquarters and microdisplay operations will
continue to be co-located with IBM on its campus in East Fishkill, NY.
(more)
DRL Raises $7M, Establishes
New Facility
Display
Research Labs, Inc. (DRL, Los Altos, CA), a developer of emissive
vacuum-fluorescent-on-silicon (VFOS) microdisplays, has been very busy over the
last year. The highlights include the raising of $7M in a private placement,
the signing of a joint venture agreement with lead investor Kyung In
Electronics (KIE, Seoul, Korea) to market and produce consumer electronic
components in Korea, and the establishment of a new manufacturing facility in
Sorrento Valley, California. The year 2000 should be just as interesting as the
company moves to begin offering microdisplays to manufacturers of digital
camcorders and still cameras, and development on projection products commences.
(more)
APPLICATIONS
Front Projection (with
Table)
News from Sanyo
Fisher, Fujitsu General Limited, Electrohome, 3M, Telex, Ampro, CTX
International, Mitsubishi Electronics America, Lightware, Dukane, Sony
Electronics, Digital Projection and Zenith Electronics.
Home Theater Projection
(with Table)
News from
Madrigal Imaging, Faroudja Laboratories, Audio Plus, Vidikron of America,
Zenith Electronics, Sim2 Seleco USA, Runco International and Sharp
Electronics.
CRT-Based Digital TVs (with
Table)
News from Zenith
Electronics, LG Electronics, Runco International, Pioneer Electronics, Marantz,
Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company, Philips Consumer Electronics, Thomson
Consumer Electronics, Toshiba America Consumer Products, Sony Electronics,
Sharp Electronics and Sim2 Seleco USA.
Camcorders
News from Panasonic, JVC, Sony Electronics, Samsung, Matsushita, and Sharp
Electronics.
Digital Still
Cameras
News from
Casio, Canon, Pretec, 3M and Nikon.
MARKET
INTELLIGENCE
Digital Camera
Vendors Surpass Milestones
DTV Sales Close Out Year
With Gains
Stanford Resources To Update
Faster
New Reports From
DisplaySearch
BOTTOM LINE
SpatiaLight Goes for Nasdaq
Relisting
Silicon Image Reports 43
Percent Growth
Photon Dynamics Shows Strong
Growth
Electrohome Outlook Brighter
in 2000
MOVERS&
SHAKERS
Jordan Watters
and Mark Dziekan. |
