London EC1-based Sygnos Technologies Ltd has launched a stand-alone liquid crystal display monitor which plugs directly into MS-DOS personal computers and Apple Computer Inc Macintoshes. According to Jens Nielsen, managing director of Synos Europe, research has indicated that production of liquid crystal displays will overtake the traditional cathode ray tube monitors by 1995, which is a ghastly thought given how distressingly inferior are most of the liquid crystal panels currently in use, and raises the question why no-one is perfecting the flat panel cathode ray technology pioneered by Sir Clive Sinclair. The other problem with liquid crystal technology is that it is relatively new and therefore expensive – whereas cathode ray monitors can cost as little as UKP200, LCD panels retail at four times this amount – the new Sygnos-S28 is no exception and costs UKP830. The benefits of LCD, according to Nielsen, are that they take up a fifth of the space of traditional CRT monitors, consume a tenth of the power, and emit virtually no heat or radiation. Sygnos launched its first LCD monitor, the Sygnos-S64 EGA in 1988, followed by the S68 monitor and proprietary VGA card package in 1989. The Sygnos-S28, which provides 640 by 480 pixel resolution and has 28 grey scales, has an in-built analogue converter, removing the need for a proprietary card and enabling the LCD monitor to use a standard VGA card. Nielsen reckons this brings the LCD into direct competition with the CRT monitor, as supplied by the likes of Wyse Technology on an OEM basis to IBM and Olivetti. Sygnos LCD monitors are designed and manufactured in Hong Kong, and the company currently sells 50% of its products on an OEM basis although Nielsen wouldn’t say who its customers were, and 50% through a distribution network that operates in the Far East, mainland Europe and Scandinavia. The monitors are available in the UK, although formal distributors have not yet been signed. Sygnos hopes that as the market progresses, its OEM business will increase to 75% of the total.
