IBM Solves Major Problem In LCD Monitor Production

nublord writes "IBM has an article up on their website that really caught my attention. They've managed to solve the most troblesome problem when manufacturing LCD monitors: getting the liquid crystals to line up correctly. The old process was invented 95 years ago and required a velvet cloth to line up the crystals - a very error prone process. The new process uses a beam of ions to create atomic-scale channels that the liquid crystals connect to easily. IBM states that this will save LCD makers millions of dollars each year - and give us more LCD monitors of better qualtiy at much lower prices. Maybe I can finally have a wall of LCD monitors without having to rob a bank!"

Re:Organic LEDs

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, current Organic LEDs fade out after a long time of usage. (If I recall correctly, it's the blue LEDs that have the worst problem.) LCDs have much better longevity.

Where?

[TheLink]

Where can you get it for USD$399?

Link.

A wall of LCD displays?

[Yottabyte84]

Mmmmmmm.... Just the thought of that gives me an orgasim. I wonder though, would'nt this prosess also increase resolution a lot, as well as making things cheaper?

Re:Well bravo...[slow claps]....

[skizzy]

Obviously, you do not work in the diamond industry. Supply and Demand does not work in those scenarios and I can see where it might not work with this one either, *if* the process was kept proprietary long enough.

MMMMM cheap high quality LCD's

[Supa Mentat]

It's all about getting multiple, large screens and then arranging them in such a way as to get a really cool perspective in games. A friend of mine has a 2 monitor set up but maybe now good LCD screens will be cheap enough that I'll be able to beat him out!

Re:Well bravo...[slow claps]....

[Eccles]

Maybe it's the paranoia in me, but in my opinion what in reality is going on is that IBM sees a definite threat to LCD products in the form of emerging or emergant technologies and has decided to shed some of the massive profits it makes on LCD screens.

As a business person, lowering my costs does not mean I have to lower my prices; it just means I can make more per item sold. (That's the whole incentive for doing this sort of research, after all.) Now, if I lower my costs, I might lower my prices so I can sell more units (profits being profits/unit * units sold), but unless it was for marketing reasons, I would never intentionally make my costs high.

Apple Studio Display != LCD

[stilwebm]

The Apple Studio Display title applies to all of the current Apple display product offerings. The $399 product you are looking it is actually an overpriced 17" CRT. Go ahead, order one.

Well bravo...[slow claps]....

[psicic]

It's pretty shallow, don't chya think?
What with Plasma displays, LED displays and other nifty technologies becoming available, suddenly they 'discover' this method? Colour me unimpressed and unconvinced. As others who've kept an eye on things have noticed, every few years there are these 'breakthroughs' that will allow the cheaper manufacture of LCD screens - $70(£60) should buy you a 13" LCD monitor at this stage. Maybe they've been concentraiting too hard on LCD technology in watches - bringing the (retail)cost down from over $1000 per watch to less than $1.
No, probably not. Maybe it's the paranoia in me, but in my opinion what in reality is going on is that IBM sees a definite threat to LCD products in the form of emerging or emergant technologies and has decided to shed some of the massive profits it makes on LCD screens. Rather than admit overnight that it's no big task to slash LCD prices, IBM will employ this 'new' technology, start manufacturing dirt cheap LCD screens and cut the legs from beneath its main rivals. I suppose it's going to be cool but it still doesn't give us back those years we spent using overpriced chunky monitors for no reason.

Or whatever....

8)

Yah, but...

[cmowire]

I dono if anybody else has noticed this, but they have been touting different ways to better manufacture LCD screens for years. I remember reading in the paper version of Byte at least 4 years ago (but probably more) about a technique that they were using to do this.

Does anybody know what happened to all of the other attempts to better manufacture LCD screens? I thought that they had already moved past the velvet-rub method of LCD production.

LCD shortage? What shortage? :)

[Snowfox]

You can find the Apple Studio LCD all over the net for $399 apiece.

These displays are DVI, and work on a PC with a $97 Geforce 2 MX card. So $500 and shipping gets you a 1024x768 all digital display with a fast video card.

The only downside to these, as compared to non-Apple DVI displays, is that they're soft-powered, so the power button has no effect. I set my systems up to use power management after 3 minutes, so I need only get up and walk away, and the things shut themselves off.

This is good, but I still need to get one

[corran__horn]

The question about LCD's is are they worth all of my hard earned money vs buying a better computer?
I don't think that is possible, plus seems better to have the ability to buy a better motherboard, but I guess if they were cheap enough *looks at sony et all* I would most certainly buy it.

If people can connect to one another even the smallest of voices will grow loud.

Organic LEDs

[boltar]

Even with this new advance LCDs will still be too expensive, too complex and too power hungrey (the backlight). Organic LEDs are a far better technology in very respect (except for maybe viewing in direct sunlight) and the sooner they start appearing in monitors the better.

A bit more about LCDs

[PicassoJones]

An interesting whitepaper on display technologies: http://www.euro.dell.com/countries/ie/enu/gen/topi cs/vectors_1999-displayt.htm I'd also like to mention that Liquid Crystals were first discovered in 1888 by Austrian botanist Fiedrich Reinitzer who discovered them by melting a type of cholesterol. Now, if someone could find out what they were rubbing with velvet in 1900, I'd appreciate it! :)