Texas Instruments Ships 250,000th DLP Subsystem
DLP Business Has Doubled Year on Year: Rate of Growth Expected to Continue
November 1, 1999 11:42 AM
DALLAS, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments (TI) TXN today announced that it had shipped its 250,000th Digital Light Processing(TM) (DLP(TM)) subsystem. The milestone shipment was delivered to Digital Projection Limited.
"As Texas Instruments' earliest development partner and first OEM, Digital Projection is thrilled to have participated in the launch of DLP. We are delighted by DLP's growth and market dominance. This occasion marks the overwhelming success DLP has generated in the digital display market," said Brian Critchley, Digital Projection's Executive Director.
"DLP is redefining the display market. We are, of course, proud to take delivery of the 250,000th DLP subsystem and pass the bright, clear and flexible display benefits it offers to our users, dealers and staging companies," said Mike Levi, President of Digital Projection's North American operations.
TI began shipping DLP subsystems in late 1995, with the first DLP projectors debuting in early 1996. On June 11th 1998, TI announced that it had shipped its 100,000th DLP subsystem.
"It took us just over two years to ship our first 100,000 subsystems -- but just over another year to ship a further 150,000 subsystems," said Sherel Horsley, Senior Vice President and Manager of Marketing for TI's Digital Imaging division, which has the responsibility for the development, manufacturing and marketing of TI's DLP technology. "That gives some indication of the increasing acceptance of DLP-based solutions in the marketplace. Our business has doubled year on year since the beginning, and we expect it to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I wouldn't be surprised if we were announcing our 500,000th shipment a year or so from now."
The typical weight of an early DLP-based projector was 23lbs (10.5kgs) -- low enough to enable it to be classified as 'portable.' But DLP has enabled 'portability' to be redefined. Now, projectors are available from Compaq and InFocus which weigh less than 5lbs (2.3kgs), yet can still be used to deliver 'lights on' presentations. DLP-based portable and ultraportable projectors have topped the best-seller charts in North America for most of the last eighteen months.
At the other end of the scale -- projectors using three DMDs for high brightness applications in large venues, from companies such as BARCO, Digital Projection, Electrohome, Panasonic and NEC -- the advances have been equally amazing. Not only do these projectors feature almost three times the resolution of the first generation, but are also a staggering ten times brighter at 12,000 lumens. DLP-based high brightness projectors now account for 70% or more of all the 5,000+ ANSI lumen projectors sold worldwide.
"When DLP projectors started shipping back in the spring of 1996, few people would have believed that TI would make such dramatic progress in three years," said Bill Coggshall of large-screen displays market research firm Pacific Media Associates. "DLP has become an attractive alternative to the traditional LCD technology offering leading-edge performance in brightness, image quality, and portability. I would expect DLP-based projectors to continue to increase their market share during the coming year."
Today, TI supplies DLP subsystems to more than thirty of the world's top projector manufacturers, who then design, manufacture and market DLP-based projectors. There are now over fifty DLP-based products in the market. Over the past three years, DLP-based projectors have consistently won some of the audio-visual industry's most prestigious awards, including, in June 1998, an Emmy Award from the American Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
At the heart of TI's Digital Light Processing technology is the Digital Micromirror Device (DMD), an optical semiconductor chip that has an array of 480,000 (SVGA), 786,000 (XGA) or 1,310,000 (SXGA) hinged, microscopic mirrors mounted on a standard logic device. These tiny mirrors operate as optical switches to create a high resolution, full color image.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Texas Instruments Incorporated is a global semiconductor company and the world's leading designer and supplier of digital signal processing and analog technologies, the engines driving the digitization of electronics. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the company's businesses also include materials and controls, educational and productivity solutions, and digital imaging. The company has manufacturing or sales operations in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information on TI's DLP technology can be found on the World Wide Web at ti.com.
Digital Light Processing, DLP, Digital Micromirror Device and DMD are all trademarks of Texas Instruments. All other products and names may or may not be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
Contacts:
Ian McMurray David Smith Texas Instruments Rainier Corporation 44-1604-663075 (978) 464-5302, x121 i-mcmurray@ti.com dave@rainierco.com
SOURCE Texas Instruments Incorporated
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