Forget L.C.D.; Go for Plasma, Says Maker of Both

What kind of company takes out ads in daily newspapers attacking one of its own type of products? In the case of Panasonic, the answer is a company that has significant investments in a rival technology.

Panasonic, the consumer electronics company owned by Matsushita Electric Industrial, is the world’s biggest seller of plasma TVs. And it has long extolled the benefits of that technology compared with L.C.D., another flat-panel TV product. At the same time, the company sells a full line of L.C.D. sets.

But the company believes that plasma technology is under unfair attack from competitors making “desperate attempts” to denigrate what it sees as plasma’s superiority, according to Bob Greenberg, Panasonic’s vice president for brand marketing.

There is another issue as well, which is that the profit margins on L.C.D. TVs have fallen sharply because of competition.

To demonstrate plasma is better, the company has offered picture comparisons for journalists at electronics shows. And it has developed marketing materials that dispel some of the myths of plasma’s limitations, like how often to refill the plasma gas (never) and the problems with picture burn-in (none anymore).

This holiday, Panasonic went a step further, running an ad in newspapers around the country under the heading “Six facts you need to know before you buy a large flat-panel TV.” The ad points out plasma’s superior contrast, color rendition, crisp motion, viewing angle and durability when compared to L.C.D. TVs.

Not so fast, says Sony. The company, which exited the plasma TV market to concentrate on L.C.D. sets, is running its own series of sportslike newspaper and magazine ads that promote what it calls an HD challenge. Once consumers see reflections of fluorescent lighting in the plasma set, they will opt for L.C.D., the ad contends.

While most people do not have fluorescent lights in their living rooms, Sony believes its challenge shows how bright light bulbs and other reflections can spoil a picture.

“The showroom is the only place where a consumer can compare two TVs,” said Phil Abram, the company’s vice president of product marketing.

To help Panasonic maintain sales of both technologies, it sells plasma sets from 37 to 65 inches on the diagonal, while its L.C.D. TVs can only be purchased in sizes from 23 to 32 inches. Sony, Sharp and other manufacturers sell L.C.D. sets from 19 to 65 inches on the diagonal.

Panasonic also looks to segregate the market. The company argues that L.C.D. TVs, which look brighter in daylight, are the right choice for kitchens and other rooms that need smaller sizes. But in larger sizes and for fast-moving sports scenes, plasma is the right choice, said Mr. Greenberg. Since the ad campaign began, “field research shows that the dialogue is changing. Once you point out that the blacks in plasma are blacker than in L.C.D., it is like pointing out the rabbit in the painting.”

Both technologies are gaining market share at the expense of traditional tube sets, with L.C.D. sales this year overtaking picture tube sets for the first time.

According to data compiled by the NPD Group, L.C.D. TVs held 49 percent of the market in 2006, compared with 26 percent last year. Plasma’s market share increased to 10 percent from 5 percent. At the same time, sales of picture tube TVs dropped by more than half, to 21 percent this year from 46 percent in 2005.

Does Panasonic’s strong support of plasma technology mean that it will never sell a very large L.C.D. TV? Well, not exactly.

“Panasonic in Japan is studying L.C.D. in its larger formats,” Mr. Greenberg said. “If we introduce larger-sized L.C.D. TVs, we will have overcome the problems in that technology.”

(c) www.nytimes.com

Panasonic Says It Has Made A Safer Lithium-Ion Battery

By Antone Gonsalves

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., better known as Panasonic, says it has made a safer lithium-ion battery that won't overheat within a notebook computer or other electronic device, preventing the potential fire hazard that led to the recall earlier this year of millions of batteries.

Matsushita on Monday said it has developed a heat-resistant layer made of insulating metal oxide that would replace the polyolefin lining often used to separate cells within the battery pack. If a short circuit were to occur, the protective layer would prevent the battery from overheating and possibly bursting into flames.

Dell this year recalled 4.1 million Sony-manufactured batteries after several fires were reported as a result of the devices overheating. There were no serious injuries. The recall was the largest ever in the consumer electronics industry. Other companies also have recalled Sony batteries, including Hewlett-Packard and Apple Computer.

The battery problems stem from microscopic metal particles that float within the battery pack. The particles can't be avoided in the manufacturing process, but battery makers try to minimize the number and size. A fire hazard can result when conditions in a laptop, such as rising temperatures or the recharging process, cause the particles to move aggressively in the battery cavity. If a particle pierces the lining protecting the battery cell, a spark can result and ignite the highly flammable lithium salt electrolyte inside.

Matsushita, based in Osaka, Japan, said in a statement that even if such a spark, or short circuit, was to occur in one of its new batteries, "it will cease without causing the battery to overheat."

Matsushita's subsidiary Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. developed the patent-pending safety feature. Matsushita says it's ready to mass-produce the safer batteries.

(c) www.techweb.com

Costa Living: Why Blu-ray Will Win

This column is about actually testing and living with cutting-edge technology, which is what makes it different from the artificial rhetoric, deliberate provocation, and blatant bloviating that is increasingly common in technology journalism. Still, there comes a time when you just have to make a straight argument in favor of or against a new technology. That's why I have to say, in the HD-DVD versus Blu-ray battle, Blu-ray is going to hand HD-DVD its ass on a sliding platter.

HD-DVD had a head start, to be sure. And some industry luminaries jumped on board with two feet. First mover advantage and the blessing of Microsoft? How could it fail? Keep watching, it will. To be fair, there is nothing inherently wrong with HD-DVD, and it isn't vastly inferior or anti-consumer in any particular way. It just doesn't quite match Blu-ray in a number of key areas. Therefore, it will lose.

Capacity

HD-DVDs are easier and cheaper to make, but Blu-ray discs store more data. You can get 25GB on a single-layer Blu-ray disc, compared to 15GB on an HD-DVD. And the first double layer 50GB Blu-ray discs just hit the market. The first movie to get this honor: Adam Sandler's Click. (Because fart jokes are way funnier in PCM uncompressed audio.). Think of it this way: Has any format war ever been won by the technology with less capacity? If you can think of one, e-mail me.

Hardware support

HD-DVD has two main backers: Toshiba and Microsoft. Toshiba has used its clout to push HD-DVD into a few laptops, but Blu-ray has a much broader base of support. Panasonic, Sony, Philips, and Samsung will all have players shipping by the end of December. Yes, Blu-ray players have been plagued by delays. Still, it isn't like HD-DVD players have been flying off store shelves in the meantime.

Studio Support

There are about 100 Blu-ray titles available for sale right now, but that number isn't so significant. Right now, there aren't too many players out there, so studios are proceeding cautiously. That said, Blu-ray has the support of seven of the eight largest movie studios. And five of those have pledged to support Blu-ray exclusively. That means if you want to watch a Sony, Disney, or 20th Century Fox film in high def, it has to be on Blu-ray.

The argument has been made by people I trust and respect that the whole packaged media business is doomed anyway. Soon we will all be ordering our movies on demand either from our cable provider, through iTunes, or via Bittorrent. There is some truth to this. I already watch a ton of downloaded TV and movies on my PC. The thing to remember here is that this isn't a high-definition experience. Broadband is great, but sending high-definition video, to say nothing of lossless audio, bonus tracks, and interactive features, all out over the Internet just isn't practical over existing technologies, or anything we are likely to see soon. Anyway, that trend would kill HD-DVD just as fast as Blu-ray.

Of course, I wouldn't buy a Blu-ray player now. They are too damn expensive, and I still need to make the switch to HD at home. Then again, if it was part of a PS3 if might be worth it. Sony sold 195,000 PS3s in the U.S. in November alone. And every one of them is a fully functioning Blu-ray player. I dare say that number alone blows away HD-DVD sales for the last year. Nuff said.

[Thanks goes to www.gearlog.com for this article]

Sony, Toshiba, NEC Electronics Develop 45nm Chip Platform

Sony, Toshiba and NEC Electronics Corp., said on Thursday they had jointly developed technology to mass produce cutting-edge chips.

The platform developed by the three Japanese companies will be used to make system chips, which combine multiple functions on a sliver of silicon, using 45-nanometre technology, the firms said in a joint press release. This technology was unveiled on December 13 (US Pacific Standard Time) at Session 27.2 of the 2006 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco, CA.

Chip makers worldwide are locked in a race to lower production costs on 90-, 65- and 45-nanometre chips, with the smaller circuitry widths allowing more power per chip for complex devices.

The three companies are developing a platform for low-power system chips, to be completed in early 2007.

Toshiba and NEC Electronics are also working to standardize technology to make advanced chips with circuitry width of 45-nanometres or finer with Fujitsu and Renesas Technology Corp.

The key elements of the new platform are a fully renovated MOSFET integration scheme, and a hybrid structure with a low dielectric constant (low-k) film that assures high performance and reliability.

The MOSFET integration process applies strained silicon technology to the transistor, utilizing crystal lattice distortion to induce performance-boosting local strain at key locations. Optimization of the strain boosts transistor performance to a level 30% faster than that achieved in the present generation of technology.

Application of a low-k film in the intermediate metal layer of the chip during the back-end process reduces parasitic capacitance and improves circuit performance. The three partners confirmed a dielectric gate film with an effective 15-year lifetime, a span surpassing the average lifetime of a high performance LSI. They also carried out tests of the platform and proved a layer yield of over 98% for the challenging back-end process, confirming that the technology achieves the reliability essential for mass production.

In addition, the partners have led the industry in applying immersion lithography technology with an ultra-high numerical aperture (NA) of over 1.0 to formation of the transistor node, achieving a cell with an area of 0.248 micron m2 in an ultra high density SRAM. The new cell is the smallest yet achieved.

The three companies are simultaneously developing two 45nm processes -- the current platform, which is ideal for high performance LSIs, as well as a platform for applications with low power consumption requirements, which is expected to be completed in early 2007.

[original post: www.cdrinfo.com]

Sony patents LED-infused, motion-tracking controller

While the PS4 might be "just around the corner," and Nintendo's Wiimote is sure to give you all the (potentially dangerous) controller flinging fits you can handle, it appears that Sony's giving the whole "controller innovation" thing another go. Sure, Sony's faced its fair share of lawsuits (hasn't everyone?), and had noticeable trouble with Dual Shock in particular, but the less-than-revolutionary SIXAXIS controller is apparently lacking a heavily-desired feature: motion tracking. We're fairly certain that Sony is watching its toes to make sure the next lawsuit to hit doesn't come from the big N, but its latest patent describes a "handheld controller having detectable elements for tracking purposes," which admittedly sounds awfully familiar. The design looks simply like a revamped version of the current SIXAXIS, with embedded LEDs on the front of the device and an "external camera (Sony's sensor bar patent?) to capture the movements" of the user. After combing through the patent jargon, there's little doubt that the goal here is to deliver a controller that allows gamers to maneuver and react with more than just button mashes, but whether or not this development will actually be realized (or if games / lawyers will end up supporting it) remains to be seen.

[original post: www.engadget.com]