LCDs will offer books on screen

Electronics Times, July 17, 2000

Toshiba and Microsoft are to collaborate in the development of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for portable electronic equipment that can download Internet books.

The displays will be based on specifications developed over the past year by the two firms, which will urge other electronics makers to use the specifications in other mid size electronic book devices.

The full colour, 7.7in diagonal displays will be based on Toshiba's latest generation low temperature polysilicon TFT LCDs and use Microsoft's ClearType technology for displaying text. The two firms hope to have prototypes of the panels by the end of this year.

The eBook LCDs will have 640 5690pixel with a resolution of 150pixel/in, and a transmissive, colour TFT in portrait mode.

Commenting on the development, Sakae Arai, chief technology officer at Toshiba, said: "Currently, suitable paperback sized portrait-mode colour LCDs that support ClearType do not exist in the market.

"Toshiba believes that the success of electronic books lies with next generation portable eBook devices that deliver a reading experience that rivals paper. Microsoft Reader with ClearType combined with our latest LCDs gives us that."