TI Chips to Enable High-Res, Flicker-Free Displays

BANGALORE, INDIA (03/28/2000) - Engineers at Texas Instruments (India) Ltd. have designed integrated circuits that will enable high-resolution, flicker-free digital displays such as desktop LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors.

The receiver chips are already sampling with LCD makers in Taiwan, Japan and Korea, according to Vivek Pawar, general manager of the mixed signal products group of Texas Instruments (India), a wholly-owned design and development subsidiary of U.S. parent company Texas Instruments Inc. (TI). LCD makers are expected to announce products based on the TI chips by the third quarter of this year.

The receiver chips are compliant with the DVI 1.0 (Digital Visual Interface) standard for high-speed interfaces to high-resolution digital displays. The standard was endorsed in April of last year by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG), an industry organization established by Intel Corp., whose members include major PC and display manufacturers.

The chips provide a selection of frequencies ranging from 25MHz to 165MHz supporting resolutions from VGA (video graphics array) -- 640 x 480 pixels -- up to UXGA -- 1,600 x 1,200 pixels. Along with the receiver chips, TI also this week introduced the transmitter chips that control data flow from the motherboards to the LCD displays.

For traditional CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors, digital signals from the PC motherboard are converted to analog. Some implementations of digital LCD monitors often convert the analog signal back to a digital signal again, thus weakening and introducing noise to the signal, as well as increasing the cost of the LCD displays, Pawar said.

In the TI solution, the data transmission from the motherboard to the display is entirely digital and at 1.65GHz, the fastest so far. The receiver chip samples the signal at 6.6GHz.

The high-speed digital transmission improves picture sharpness, reduces flicker and makes it easier to design larger LCD displays, according to Abhijit Patki, lead designer in the display solutions business unit of Texas Instruments (India)'s mixed signal products group. The transmission will also lower manufacturing costs as it eliminates steps in signal conversion.

Texas Instruments (India) plans to integrate other functions into the chip such as row drivers and column drivers that are currently implemented on separate chips on the LCDs. This move will help further bring down the cost of LCD displays to about 1.5 times that of CRT displays, Pawar said.

Texas Instruments (India) Ltd. in Bangalore can be reached at +91-80-526-9451 or http://www.ti.com/india/.

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.

More about IntelTexas Instruments Australia

Show Comments
[]