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After listening to its customers, Intel Corporation (Santa Clara,
CA) (www.intel.com) has decided
to shift its LCOS microdisplay commercialization plans from a
1280 x 720p panel to now focus on a 1920 x 1080p panel. The company
publicly announced its entry into the LCOS arena at CES 2004,
stating that it planned to first commercialize the 720p panel,
and it expected its first RPTV customers to bring a product to
market by Q1'05. With the strategic shift, customers will not
introduce a 720p RPTV as planned.
"Our customer have been telling us they want a true 2-megapixel
microdisplay," said Kevin Cornelius, Intel's director of
marketing for the Advanced Displays Group. "Pixel density
is the inherent strength of LCOS, and our customers want to leverage
this into a 2-megapixel device."
The move is an acknowledgement that the window of opportunity
for 720p LCOS has passed, and that system integrators need to
look at the next generation - 1920 x 1080 - as the place to integrate
LCOS technology into RPTV products. It is a realization that 720p
solutions with HTPS-LCD and DLP technology are meeting customers'
needs, and LCOS does not offer a compelling value proposition
in terms of improved performance or lower cost.
Such shifts of focus have plagued LCOS development from the beginning.
Initially, development efforts focused on rear-projection desktop
monitors, until LCD monitors changed the dynamics. Next, efforts
shifted to front projection, but such systems were light challenged
and did not offer a differentiated solution. Rear-projection TVs
came next, leveraging 1280 x 1024 resolution LCOS panels, but
these did not fare well. Finally, developers focused on 1280 x
720 designs for RPTVs, but only a few have come to market so far.
1080p panels are on the roadmaps for most LCOS developers, and
these are clearly gaining ascendancy as the focus of development
efforts.
Intel, for its part, says it is confident in its ability to manufacture
the LCOS panels - otherwise, it would not be shifting its strategic
development efforts. It will continue to evolve the technology
and the 1080p panel. By focusing on this panel, Intel will be
able to offer customers a more differentiated RPTV.
As for timing, Intel has backed off making any commitments in
public about availability of the 1080p panel. The company plans
to sell only this component to engine and RPTV system integrators.
Intel won't speculate on when potential customers might bring
a product to market either, but our guess is the latter half of
2005.
Nor would it speculate on which engine architectures (one-, two-
or three-panel) might be chosen by its customers. "This will
depend mostly on brightness and screen size decisions by our customers,"
noted Cornelius. Given that 1080p systems are more likely to be
larger-screen-size TVs, we suspect that three-panel architectures
will be preferred.
As for customers that may have committed already to the 720p designs,
they will need to think about shifting plans to a 1080p solution.
However, the panel size will remain the same, so optical designs
will not have to change very much.
Longer term, Intel is clearly looking at how it can leverage its
LCOS technology with other Intel silicon that will be used in
home appliances. Rival Texas Instruments is already executing
a similar bundling strategy by leveraging DSP image processing
technology and bundling it with its DLP microdisplay technology
to offer a more integrated - and hopefully better performing and
lower-cost - solution.
Intel, Kevin Cornelius, 503-456-1102, kevin.c.cornelius@intel.com
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