Oki Starts Volume Shipment for Large-size LCD TV-use Driver LSIs; World's First to Ship One Billion Color Display Chips in Volume
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TOKYO:6703) today announced it has developed a source driver LSI for large TFT LCDs that achieves one billion colors in high resolution. While other chip makers have an 8-bit input with 16.7 million color display, Oki's new chip, the ML9156, has a 10-bit input with one billion color display -- 60 times higher picture quality than other chips. Oki became the world's first company to ship such high picture quality chip in volume.
"Oki's driver chips for LCDs have been evaluated highly from our customers for the reliability and ability to drive large screens," said Akira Kamo, President of the Silicon Solutions Company at Oki. "Because this newly developed chip can display one billion colors, users can enjoy watching movies on their LCD TVs with beautiful vivid colors. We are proud to be the world's first company to provide such product in volume to our worldwide customers."
Utilizing the thin, high quality, light and low power consumption features, LCDs are penetrating into various fields demanding LCD TVs to deliver cinema-quality viewing. A 10-bit driver is a key device to achieve such high quality. However, with conventional technologies, the digital/analog (D/A) converter circuit that takes up most of the chip space would have been four times larger than that used in an 8-bit driver chip, making the cost go up. Oki overcame this technical hurdle by developing an innovative 10-bit driver LSI that suppresses the increase of the D/A converter circuit space to 1.3-fold and can be produced in volume at an affordable price range. In addition, by increasing the maximum 256 tones in 8-bit driver LSIs to a maximum of 1021 tones in the 10-bit LSI, Oki can display the deeper and richer colors as well as the delicate black in dark scenes in movies.
Because LCD panels are used in various scenes, several developments to achieve high quality pictures such as wide viewing angle and improved response time of the liquid crystal are conducted. Though the driving voltage in each liquid crystal varies in general, the maximum LCD voltage of the ML9156 covers a wide range from 10V to 16.5V, which responds to various LCD drive voltages. In addition, by using the Reduced Swing Differential Signaling (RSDS(R)) for its data signal interface, the ML9156 enables low Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI). The chip also mounts output selection functions for various resolutions, which enables it to be used not only in mainstream large LCD TVs such as WXGA, HDTV but also to various resolution panels such as XGA, SXGA, SXGA+.
Oki has delivered its product to Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd. Holding the 25% share in the 22-inch-and-above large-size LCD TV market, Oki aims to achieve 15 billion yen sales for the driver chips in the fiscal year ending March 2007.
About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Founded more than a century ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. With the corporate vision, "Oki, Network Solutions for a Global Society," Oki Electric provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its telecommunications systems, information systems and electronic devices segments. All three segments are integrated into one effective organization that functions as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies, including information and telecom converged solutions. Through its business activities, Oki Electric satisfies a spectrum of customer needs in various markets. Visit Oki's global web site at http://www.oki.com/.
