HannStar SmartPanel Monitor

We all want to see flat panels get cheaper, and while market demand is definitely a factor, decreasing the cost of building the things can have an even more significant impact on their price. In that vein, Sage Inc. has been working with HannStar Display to try speed the time to market for LCD monitors. At the SID symposium , the two companies announced that HannStar will be using Sage's SmartMonitor s9350 display processor in its LCD panels. HannStar will show off the displays to OEMs this month, and move to mass production shortly thereafter. Sage's new dual interface s9350 incorporates all the components needed to drive a flat panel on a single chip to lower overall system costs. HannStar's LCD SmartPanel monitor will be shown for the first time during the symposium. The company says it was able to incorporate Sage's s9350 SmartMonitor into its LCD panel and achieve a fully functional product in only three weeks. The s9350's components include ADC/PLL, a DVI receiver, a scaling engine, a timing controller, and a microcontroller. The HannStar panels also use Sage's Transition Minimization Logic (TML) to reduce EMI and eliminate the need for an external spread spectrum IC. No word yet on just how much the chip will reduce the cost of LCD monitors, but we can always keep our fingers crossed.