Intel planning flat-panel TV chip

[Gregg Lengling]

Intel plans to unveil a chip that could enable a new type of flat rear-projection TV that delivers a better picture at a lower cost.

The move fits into Intel's strategy of looking for growth beyond its core business of making microprocessor chips that act as the brains of personal computers, into making chips that advance the digital lifestyle in items such as cell phones and handheld computers.

According to consultant Richard Doherty and another person familiar with Intel's plans, the Santa Clara chip maker is expected to give details at the Consumer Electronics Show, which begins Jan. 8 in Las Vegas.

An Intel spokesman said the company's policy is not to comment on unannounced technologies.

Today, the rear-projection TV business is dominated by Texas Instruments and its digital light processing (DLP) chip technology. Flat-screen televisions based on DLP are typically more than 12 inches deep and can cost between $2,000 and $10,000. But the combination of Intel's new chip and new TV-slimming technology from projector company InFocus could narrow the TV's depth to eight inches, and drastically slice the cost.

``We think that Intel is going to try to leapfrog (Texas Instruments) with a more attractive-cost chip and a higher-resolution chip,'' said Doherty, director of research at Envisioneering Group in Seaford, N.Y. ``We believe from the Society for Information Display chatter that Intel is going to have a non-moving-part chip, and it could perhaps halve the cost of rear-projection TVs within a year or two.''

Intel's new chip is based on a technology known as liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS), which works differently from DLP chips. While DLP chips use a million tiny mirrors that tilt to create an image, LCOS uses tiny crystals that sit on top of a mirrored surface, but do not tilt -- making it theoretically cheaper to mass-produce.

Intel has talked about its work on such chips that manipulate laser light, mostly for use in the communications business. In combination with fiber optics, the chip could send data over long distances using a technique called dense wave division multiplexing. That business has been slow lately, and Intel's research with light also has been applicable to rear-projection TVs, where light from a chip gets magnified and projected onto a big screen.

``Intel's been expanding out into other areas,'' said Rob Enderle, founder of Enderle Group, a consulting firm. ``They've gotten out of the failed strategy of building consumer electronics. I think they've realized that their specialty is building chips.''