Hitachi Develops XGA-Compatible 41-Inch Color Plasma Display for Business Applications.

TARRYTOWN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 1997--Hitachi, Ltd. today announced that it has developed 41-inch XGA color plasma display (aspect ratio 4:3). The new display, which is intended for business applications, has more than 2.5 times the pixels of a conventional VGA display.

Color plasma displays are a new technology, increasingly regarded as the optimum way of producing large-screen color displays that are both flat and lightweight. The increased use of multimedia in recent years has fueled the demand for larger, higher-resolution displays.

Large-screen color plasma displays are mainly targeted at business applications such as the system displays for public facilities, traffic information services and related monitoring and control purposes, and are also being used in an increasing number of industrial sectors such as distribution, financial services, medicine and manufacturing, especially for presentations and as a multimedia- based educational and training tool.

Hitachi has already announced that on December 1 it will start shipping samples of a 25-inch XGA color plasma display, the CMP250X-J HIPLASMA. The 41-inch plasma display was developed to meet growing demand for even larger screen sizes.

The XGA capability of the 41-inch plasma display means a resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels, or 2.36 million on-screen dots, 2.5 times more than a VGA display (640 by 480 pixels). The display is 15 cm deep, weighs around 37 kg, has a wide viewing angle of 160 degrees, both vertically and horizontally, and features excellent brightness and contrast. It incorporates multiscan technology that automatically adjusts to XGA, SVGA and VGA, and also has video input ports.

For the future, 40-inch and larger wide-screen color plasma displays are being planned for the consumer TV market, where multimedia is becoming increasingly popular.

The 41-inch color plasma display prototype will be on demonstrated as a reference exhibit at the Electronics Show '97 at Makuhari Messe.

(a) As a member of the Hi-Vision PDP consortium, Hitachi has been participating in the development of fundamental PDP technology right from the beginning.

Main features of the display

1. 41-inch XGA color PDP

A fine dot pitch of 0.27 mm and RGB pixel pitch of 0.81 mm made it

possible to achieve XGA resolution (1,024 by 768 pixels) in a

41-inch screen size.

2. High contrast ratio

A contrast of better than 300:1 (under no ambient light conditions)

provides sharp, brilliant colors.

3. Optimized high-speed driver circuitry

High-output scan-drive ICs in the form of insulated gate bipolar

transistors are used that have twice the drive capabilities of

earlier drive ICs.

4. Multiscan capability

Hitachi developed special multiscanning circuitry that automatically

adjusts to XGA, SVGA and VGA inputs. Video input is also supported.

(a) VGA and XGA are trademarks of International Business Machines

Corporation of the US. -0-

Main specifications of the display

Effective display dimensions(mm) 829 (W) by 622 (H) (Aspect ratio 4:3)
Number of pixels                 1,024 horizontal by 768 vertical (XGA)
Number of dots                   2.36 million (1,024 by 3 by 768)
Dot pitch (mm)                   0.27 (W) by 0.81 (H)
Max. brightness (cd/m2)          250
Contrast ratio                   More than 300:1 (no ambient light)
Number of colors                 260,000 (64 gray levels)
Viewing angle                    160 degrees
External dimensions              (mm)976 (W) by 796 (H) by 150 (D)
                                  (excluding stand)
Weight (kg)                      37 (with built-in power supply,
                                 and not including stand)
Supply voltage                   AC 100 V    50/60 Hz

CONTACT: Hitachi America, Ltd.

Ken Mizoguchi, 914-333-2902