The leading standard that connects PCs and digital displays will move to consumer devices in the next four years, research firm In-Stat/MDR predicted last week.
Digital Visual Interface (DVI) was developed by a group of companies led by Intel Corp, the now defunct Compaq Computer Corp, Fujitsu Ltd, Hewlett-Packard Co, International Business Machines Corp, NEC Corp and Silicon Image Inc.
The interface was introduced in 1999, and has been slow to take off. The one exception is Japanese-made digital camcorders that hook up directly to computers, digital flat-screen displays and digital television sets.
"The idea behind the spec was that since PCs produce digital output, and digital displays can accept digital input, it made sense to develop a digital connection in order to avoid any digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversions along the way," said Brian O'Rourke, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR.
Computer displays and televisions are making the move to digital. The latest flat-panel liquid-crystal-display computer screens and televisions are digital. There are now around 60 million subscribers to digital pay-TV services around the world, In-Stat/MDR reports, and that figure will grow to over 83 million by 2006. The companies that provide digital content for these services and for the Internet prefer DVI as it offers anti-piracy features, In-Stat's report found.
"Content providers especially liked the fact that DVI had high-bandwidth content protection," O'Rourke said. "Content providers in turn influenced service providers and consumer electronics manufacturers to consider DVI among their interface choices."
The In-Stat report said that this year more digital television makers are interested in DVI, and forecasts that over the next four years, the number of devices with DVI interface will grow at 100 percent annually.
Taiwan is a major supplier of digital consumer devices such as DVD players, DVD recorders and set-top boxes. Taiwan is also the world's leading manufacturer of notebook computers, accounting for more than 50 percent of global market share, said the Market Intelligence Center. Until now, local manufacturers have concentrated on low-end DVI products such as cables and connectors.
The move to consumer electronics will not slow down the growth of DVI in the notebook and desktop PC market, the report said. LCD projectors also use DVI connectors, allowing mobile business executives to use their notebooks to give presentations in meeting rooms. And those who use a notebook as their primary work PC can hook up to an office LCD monitor if they need a bigger screen.
"This should be enough to push DVI to 17 percent penetration of the notebook PC market by 2006," O'Rourke said.
Apple Computer Inc has led the computer market in implementing DVI. The company has a standard DVI port on its Power Mac G4 desktop, and Titanium PowerBook G4 notebook PCs. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced earlier this year at the launch of the LCD iMac that the company was abandoning CRT monitors and moving totally to LCD.
It makes sense that Apple was the first PC manufacturer to implement DVI, O'Rourke said.
* Computer displays and televisions are making the move to digital.
* The latest flat-panel LCDs computer screens and televisions are digital.
* There are now around 60 million subscribers to digital pay-TV services around the world.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would not produce its most advanced technologies in the US next year, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the comment during an appearance at the legislature, hours after the chipmaker announced that it would invest an additional US$100 billion to expand its manufacturing operations in the US. Asked by Taiwan People’s Party Legislator-at-large Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) if TSMC would allow its most advanced technologies, the yet-to-be-released 2-nanometer and 1.6-nanometer processes, to go to the US in the near term, Kuo denied it. TSMC recently opened its first US factory, which produces 4-nanometer
GREAT SUCCESS: Republican Senator Todd Young expressed surprise at Trump’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running US lawmakers who helped secure billions of dollars in subsidies for domestic semiconductor manufacturing rejected US President Donald Trump’s call to revoke the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, signaling that any repeal effort in the US Congress would fall short. US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated the law, on Wednesday said that Trump’s demand would fail, while a top Republican proponent, US Senator Todd Young, expressed surprise at the president’s comments and said he expects the administration to keep the program running. The CHIPS Act is “essential for America leading the world in tech, leading the world in AI [artificial
REACTIONS: While most analysts were positive about TSMC’s investment, one said the US expansion could disrupt the company’s supply-demand balance Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) new US$100 billion investment in the US would exert a positive effect on the chipmaker’s revenue in the medium term on the back of booming artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from US chip designers, an International Data Corp (IDC) analyst said yesterday. “This is good for TSMC in terms of business expansion, as its major clients for advanced chips are US chip designers,” IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) said by telephone yesterday. “Besides, those US companies all consider supply chain resilience a business imperative,” Zeng said. That meant local supply would
BIG INVESTMENT: Hon Hai is building the world’s largest assembly plant for servers based on Nvidia Corp’s state-of-the-art AI chips, Jalisco Governor Pablo Lemus said The construction of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) massive artificial intelligence (AI) server plant near Guadalajara, Mexico, would be completed in a year despite the threat of new tariffs from US President Donald Trump, Jalisco Governor Pablo Lemus said. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is investing about US$900 million in what would become the world’s largest assembly plant for servers based on Nvidia Corp’s state-of-the-art GB200 AI chips, Lemus said. The project consists of two phases: the expansion of an existing Hon Hai facility in the municipality of El Salto, and the construction of a