New Substrate Tech Creates System LCDs 129
smartalix writes "Sharp Microelectronics has recently developed a new LCD substrate technology called Continuous-Grain Silicon (CG-Silicon), that enables device integration on a scale previously impossible. The technology enables the creation of System LCDs that integrate all driver and operation circuitry -- including digital logic, LCD driver, power supply, I/O interfaces, and signal-processing circuitry -- onto the glass itself. Eventually even the device's CPU will be included on the substrate. A key SLCD feature is the ability to dynamically control the resolution and color depth, providing output in multiple-resolution modes while lowering overall power consumption. A 3.7-in. SLCD created with CG-Silicon had a power consumption of 14 mW for color VGA, 8 mW for color QVGA, and 2 mW for monochrome QVGA. The first commercially available product that incorporates the System LCD architecture is Sharp's Zaurus SL-C700 PDA, recently released in Japan."
Some information, good Sir (Score:5, Informative)
OLED developments [google.com]
Flexible LCD manufacturing/selling information [google.com]
Link to the actual article (Score:5, Informative)
Re:QVGA? (Score:5, Informative)
QVGA is an emerging standard for Palm Powered devices. Traditionally, Palm Powered devices have featured 160 x 160 pixel screens. QVGA screens feature a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The QVGA standard was originally adopted for the HandEra 330. New products with built-in QVGA technology are anticipated within the coming year.
QVGA-aware applications include support for a high-resolution bitmaps, additional fonts, and a collapsible 'virtual' graffiti area. Optionally, they can also support landscape and portrait screen rotation.
More info on power consumption (Score:5, Informative)
Re:QVGA? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:But.. (Score:2, Informative)
Here's a recent, comprehensive artice from EETimes (Score:2, Informative)
Here's a picture... (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.ixbt.com/short/2k2-11/sharp102.jpg
The New Zaurus (Score:3, Informative)
Here's the press release and spec sheet [sharp-world.com].
It's coming to the US... [linuxdevices.com]
Keyboard doesn't look great [dynamism.com] (but at least it's better than the original tiny Zaurus one)
I've always wanted something tiny I could carry around that would give me decent QWERTY with a landscape screen capable of displaying VT100 readably (or, better, actual graphics) that could also connect to the net when I'm out and about. This looks like it (though expansion is limited to SD & CF - that's enough for WiFi and BlueTooth, though.)
-- Yoz
getting SL-C700 Zaurus in USA (Score:3, Informative)
Re:But.. (Score:1, Informative)
Backward compatibility:
Most of the Zaurus SL-5500 programs that have been tested on the SL-C700 work. The SL-C700 will step down to 240x320 for older programs. However, no software has been thoroughly vetted and no guarantees can be made.
Synchronization:
The SL-C700 uses Samba connection via USB, so the machine will show up as a network device under Windows XP.
Looks like it runs Linux then!
Artaxerxes
Re:QVGA? (Score:3, Informative)
The Clie with the graffiti area displayed is 320x320. If you collapse the graffiti area, the display is 320x480.
So the Clie would essentially be 2 QVGA displays stacked.
Sharp Zaurus SL-C700 with the new display (Score:1, Informative)
Interactive Views and specs on the Zaurus SL-C700 (Score:3, Informative)
On this flashy japanese page [ezaurus.com] you can look at the C700 from different angles in both the input and viewing modes, as well as see the english specs.
OS: Linux Embedix
CPU: Intel XScaleTM(PXA250 400MHz)
RAM: Flash 64MB (user area about 30MB) and SDRAM 32MB (workarea)
Screen: 640x480 ("dots") 64K colors
Cardslots: SD, CF type II.
?: 4 hours, 50 minutes
Dimensions: 120mm W x 83 mm D x 18.6 mm H
Mass: 225g
The front page to get to this was from http://sl.ezaurus.com/ [ezaurus.com] , from http://www.sharp.co.jp/ [sharp.co.jp]
No, you don't. (Score:2, Informative)
a news story from Japanese site (Score:2, Informative)
At Oct.22, Sharp coporation announced CG silicon technology.
CG silicon(continuous grain silicon) has continuity at grain boundary. Movement factor of electron is 600 times of that of amorphous silicon.
Z80 CPU implemented on a glass [impress.co.jp]
Z80 on a glass is really working on a MZ-80 computer [impress.co.jp]
CG silicon has high movement factor of electoron [impress.co.jp]
Road map of System LCD architecture [impress.co.jp]