Fujitsu Ltd is launching what it claims is the largest colour flat-panel AC plasma display screen currently available, the Plasmavision M21. The screen is 21 by 2.4 thick, weighs 21.6 lbs and Fujitsu says it has a 140 degree viewing angle, making it ideal for information services in public places such as lobbies or exhibition halls. In fact, the New York Stock Exchange has just installed 1,000 of the screens, in the company’s first deal outside Japan. Fujitsu says that unlike cathode ray tube-based screens, with which it is comparing picture quality, the M21 is flicker-free and impervious to magnetic interference. Its resolution is 640 by 480 and the display controls each red, green and blue colour in 64 grey scales and 4,096 brightnesses to yield more than 260,000 colours. Although Fujitsu appears to be marketing the M21 for public information screens and high-definition television it is compatible with personal computers, with VGA controllers, and can be easily integrated, says the company. Fujitsu is just one of a number of companies developing large-size colour AC plasma displays; it already has a 16 display with superior resolution, 1,280 by 1,024, that is used on some Sparcstations. The interest in the field makes it unlikely that the M21 will remain the largest available for very much longer. Wesport, Connecticut-based Plasmaco Inc says it has a 21 screen that will be available in the fourth quarter, which it will sell OEM to Fujitsu, as well as offering it as a complete kit. Plasmaco is also working on displays up to 40. NEC Corp announced last year that it’s working on a 40 colour plasma display panel that will be available within one to two years ((CI No 2,510). Like Fujitsu, NEC is aiming the display at information scr eens. Oki Electric Industry Co, Dai Nippon Printing Co and Matsushita Battery Industrial Co are working to develop a 40 display for the Japanese broadcaster NHK. Competitors to Fujitsu, such as Thomson-CSF SA, say that while the M21’s specifications are impressive, producing an AC plasma screen at that size, with only VGA resolution takes the shine off the achievement. Thomson-CSF says it has a 26 screen using VGA in the lab, but that this is not what users want and so will not be turning it into a commercial product. What they really want, reckons the company’s electronics division, is a large screen with high-end workstation resolution. Thomson-CSF says it is about to launch a 19 colour AC plasma screen with a resolution of 1,024 by 768, and is working on a 19 screen with 1,280 by 1,024 resolution. Plasma display screens bigger than 20 are popular among screen manufacturers because of the wide viewing angle viewing and the fact they they have better yield. Liquid crystal and Thin Film Transistor displays are prone to low yields once they reach the upper limit of their size, at around 20. The M21 has been available in Japan, where it is made, for about a year, and Fujitsu has just recently increased output to cope with expected overseas demand. Samples are ready now at รบ6,500.
