Update on the flat panel display front.
As I promised last night, I'm starting to do some research on Genesis Microchip to present to the thread. While nowhere near done yet, I came across something so interesting and timely that I thought I'd go ahead and give a quick update this evening.
First, a quick industry overview. Most FPD's manufactured today use the same analog interface that our old-fashioned CRT's use. This is clearly necessary if they're going to work with the current generation of PC's. However, on the horizon, there will transition over to a straight digital interface between the PC and the display (ie a new connector on the back of the PC). There is an industry working group (Digitial Display Working Group) that published a proposed spec for this interface in April of this year.
Where does Genesis fit in? They initially made chips that would take the analog CRT signal and display it on the LCD's. They now have chips that can handle analog, digital, or dual mode. The real value added that the chips seem to bring is in image quality. Their special strength seems to be in scaling the image (VGA to SVGA to XGA, etc.) This seems consistent with the FPD reviews I've read in computer mags (FPD's using GNSS chips always rate highly on image quality). While I'm no lawyer and have no experience reading patents, they do have patents awarded in this area.
Why did I want to go ahead and post this evening? Well, in the course of reading the material on the DDWG, I kept seeing a company named Silicon Image mentioned as one of the primary contributers to the spec. Turns out they have a patent on the technology that transmits the digital signal from the PC to the FPD. A symbol search on Nasdaq got a hit (SIMG) but I couldn't find a quote. Then I finally tracked down the following information over on the MF:
NEW YORK, Oct 5 (Reuters) -
Company Name Silicon Image Inc.
Priced At $12
Estimated Pricing Range $10-12
Number of Shares 3.9 mln
Lead Underwriter Credit Suisse First Boston
NOTE: Cupertino, Calif.-based Silicon Image, a
semiconductor maker, raised its estimated price range today
from $8-10 to $10-12.
So if you believe that FPD's may eventually replace CRTs as the standard PC display, we may have another potential gorilla candidate in SIMG to track (seems like they would have a share of every PC sold that had the digital interface), and we can watch it all the way from its IPO.
OK, back to doing my homework now. |
