Three-Five Systems (TFS) took wraps off 0.85W liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) display with 1,920x1,200 resolution, volume production to start in fall 2002. Microdisplay, which is available in kit form for $6,500, has 650:1 contrast and 250 nits brightness, company said. Thomson is expected to ship 50W rear projection with TFS’ 0.78” microdisplay by year-end to limited number of retailers on West Coast. Thomson is building light engine for set using lens from Corning Precision Lens and assembling device at plant in Mexico. While it has quoted $5,900 price for set, retailers said it could hit $5,000-$5,200 by launch. Thomson postponed plans to ship first sets in late Sept. as it worked to improve resolution. Part of delay has been tied to development of components including imager, sources said. “It has had to be perfect,” TFS Strategic Programs Dir. Joseph Riccio said: “It’s new technology and they don’t want to have anybody say, ‘you forgot something.'” At same time, TFS plans to have 0.53” microdisplay with 1,900x1,200 resolution available in “critical volumes” for rear-projection TVs by first quarter next year. TFS has backed off plan to supply 0.53” display for InFocus Systems-designed front projector, largely because of latter’s focus on model with Texas Instruments’ Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology, Riccio said. “They've slowed that down because DLP is so much simpler for them to build and when their business slowed down, they didn’t want to spend the money to develop this,” he said. InFocus has said that any LCoS-based front projector was at least 2 years away and that development of sub-2 lb. DLP-based front projector was being considered. InFocus had considered using 0.53” TFE display for 1.5-lb. front projector. Samsung Electro Mechanical Co. (SEMCO) also has shown 43W rear-projection TV based on TFS 0.78” microdisplay that’s expected to target Far East market. Samsung earlier had worked on developing o.78” microdisplay for 25” PC monitor, but moved to larger size in bow to lower priced LCD technology.
Nyko Technologies became latest licensee of Immersion’s TouchSense technology. Technology will be used by Nyko in its current line of videogame console peripherals that are compatible with GameCube, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, PS2, Xbox. Nyko and Immersion said they would “work together to bring touch feedback to new gaming peripherals in the future.”
Disney said it sold 7 million copies of Pearl Harbor in week since Dec. 4 home video release, earning $130 million. Studio said DVD accounted for 3.7 million sales -- topping 3 million first-week record for Universal’s Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Disney movie got lukewarm reviews and box office this summer, earning $199 million in U.S. against $135 million production cost. Independent audit of home video figures should be available this week.
Microsoft still has no plans to launch Xbox videogame console in Taiwan. Reuters report from Taipei quoted COO Richard Belluzzo as telling news conference: “We do not have specific plans at this point for Taiwan. We have launched in the U.S. but we have to make sure in every country we enter that we have a complete solution around the product and that we have the ability to deliver the product.” Microsoft spokesman said Wed. company still “has not announced specific launch plans for any regions beyond North America, Europe and Japan.” After Nov. 15 debut in N. America, Xbox is scheduled for rollout in Japan Feb. 22 after being delayed from late this year. Console then id to make bow March 14 in Europe.
Midway Games began shipping Mortal Kombat Advance for Game Boy Advance (GBA). Chicago game maker said that in multiplayer mode, gamers could challenge others using GBA Game Link Cable.
Flat-panel display component market will grow to $52 billion market by 2006 from projected $23 billion this year, Stanford Resources Pres. Joseph Castellano predicted. Growth is expected to come at expense of CRT business, which was forecast to hit $21 billion this year, but expand only slightly to $25 billion in 2006, Castellano said. Leading charge in FPDs will be LCDs, with sales more than doubling to $40 billion by 2006. Active matrix will have lion’s share, increasing to $35 billion in 2006 from $15 billion this year, while passive matrix remains flat at $5 billion. LCD desktop monitors will expand to $22 billion from $7 billion this year. Plasma sales are forecast to increase to $8.2 billion in 2006 from current $2 billion and light-emitting diode business to rise to $1.6 billion from $600 million. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is projected to jump to $1.2 billion from $500 million and inorganic to $400 million, up from $100 million. In projection market, rear models will increase to $9 billion from $5.5 billion this year, Stanford said, with front reaching $9.5 billion, up from $6 billion.
Kmart’s e-commerce subsidiary, BlueLight.com, said Wed. it had expanded Music and Movie Stores at www.bluelight.com. Increased inventory now has more than 65,000 CDs, DVDs and VHS titles, company said. In addition, it said it had added features, including ability for consumers to listen to CDs before they bought. In conjunction with opening of Music Store, company offered autographed copies of Jewel CD This Way to those who bought recording for limited time, along with exclusive releases and other promotions.
Westwood Studios said it would include Discreet’s gmax modification software in Command & Conquer Renegade, company’s first 3D action game for PC. Title is to ship under EA Games brand Feb. 26. Westwood is wholly owned subsidiary of Electronic Arts.
SonicBlue escalated battle with rival TiVo Wed., saying it would file suit for patent infringement in U.S. Dist. Court, San Francisco. CEO Kenneth Potashner said it was “no longer acceptable” for TiVo “not to enter some kind of relationship with us.” He said companies had been discussing possible licensing agreement for 3 months and SonicBlue, which purchased ReplayTV earlier this year, gave rival “one last chance in good faith to negotiate with us.”
Fathammer, San Jose, Cal.,said it optimized X-Forge mobile videogame engine for Intel’s StrongARM SA-1110 processor and XScale microarchitecture. Fathammer said engine provided game developers with ability to deliver high frame rate, console- quality 3D games with low memory footprint on wide variety of handheld game devices, PDAs, smartphones.