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Chunghwa Picture Tubes to Develop Widescreen, High-Resolution Panels for Next-Generation Mobile Devices

PenTile RGBW™ technology from Clairvoyante will help display manufacturer gain competitive advantage in low-power, high-;brightness panel market

Yokohama, JAPAN—October 18, 2006—In response to the multimedia trends influencing emerging mobility products, Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Ltd. is utilizing PenTile RGBW™ technology from Clairvoyante to build widescreen, high-resolution display panels that meet the needs for very bright displays and extended battery life in next-generation mobile devices. The 4.0-inch and 7.0-inch widescreen VGA panel prototypes will be demonstrated in Clairvoyante's booth No. 782 and in CPT's booth No. 281 today through Friday at FPD International in Yokohama, Japan.

More than half of all new notebooks on the market today have wide–aspect ratio displays, and wide screens have become the new standard. The pressures on small displays for video-;centric applications to conform to the standards of larger displays have thus increased. Developing widescreen panels enables CPT to meet these demands. Furthermore, integrating PenTile RGBW technology into these panels will help solve other portable display design challenges by affording CPT's customers greater flexibility in determining an appropriate ratio of brightness to power for their product and application.

The new CPT high-brightness panels are 800 x 480 widescreen VGA, well-suited for the high-resolution, high-performance needs of today's ultra-mobile personal computers (UMPCs), personal media players (PMPs) and high-resolution portable DVD displays. For computing applications, the widescreen format can eliminate the horizontal scrolling sometimes required when web browsing, making these panels ideal for devices enabling Internet access.

"A key factor in the success of mobile video is the availability of portable displays capable of replicating the home video-watching experience as much as possible, meaning bright, wide-format screens," according to Joel Pollack, president and CEO of Clairvoyante. "With the integration of PenTile RGBW™ technology to increase luminosity of their widescreen panels, CPT is poised to capture a part of the consumer electronics market that is forecast for tremendous growth."

According to industry analyst firm IDC, the worldwide converged mobile device market will reach 181 million units by the end of 2009 1 and worldwide portable multimedia player shipments are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 95 percent from 2005–2009 2.

"Our partnership with Clairvoyante allows CPT to expand our range of display solutions for video-centric portable devices such as UMPCs and PMPs, thereby enabling us to enter promising emerging markets," said Kuan–Lang, Wolf, Chen, R&D vice president for Chunghwa Picture Tubes.

Estimated Brightness Improvement for 4.0-inch Widescreen VGA

This week at FPD International, both companies will exhibit high-resolution, widescreen displays integrated with PenTile RGBW™ technology. When compared to an RGB stripe design of equivalent size and resolution, CPT's 4.0-inch VGA widescreen panel with PenTile RGBW™ technology is estimated to be almost twice as bright while maintaining low power consumption. The table below compares these panels:

	(actual) 4.0-inch PenTile RGBW™ Display	(estimated) 4.0-inch RGB Stripe Display
Visual Resolution	800 x 480 (wVGA)	800 x 480 (wVGA)
Effective DPI	233 DPI	233 DPI
Source Drivers	1,600	2,400
Gate Drivers	480	480
Transmittance	10.0%	5.5%
BL Display Power	420 mW (7 LEDs)	420 mW (7 LEDs)
Estimated Brightness	400 cd/m 2	220 cd/m 2
NTSC Ratio	60%	60%

The PenTile RGBW™ panel has almost double the transmissivity resulting from improved aperture ratio and the RGBW pixel layout. With an average brightness level around 200 nits, the current majority of RGB Stripe portable displays are incapable of displaying viewable mobile video, which is inherently dark. By integrating PenTile RGBW™ technology, CPT panels are able to reach a brightness level closer to the 400-nit minimum standard for viewing video on a home television, but on a 4.0-inch mobile display.

PenTile RGBW™ Technology Adoption

This is the second licensing agreement between Clairvoyante and Chunghwa Picture Tubes, who previously built both 2.0-inch and 2.2-inch qVGA PenTile RGBW™prototypes that used only 70 percent of the power of the equivalent RGB Stripe design. CPT joins a growing number of display manufacturers worldwide who recognize the benefits of incorporating PenTile RGBW™ technology and are licensing it for their IC drivers and displays.

About Clairvoyante

Clairvoyante, Inc. develops and licenses unique pixel architectures and algorithms to the flat-panel display industry. The company's proprietary subpixel rendering technology optimizes the performance of next-generation LCD displays in terms of brightness, resolution and power consumption. Founded in July 2000, Clairvoyante maintains offices in Sebastopol and Cupertino, Calif. The company's investors include American River Ventures, Intel Capital, Pacifica Fund, Rocket Ventures, Selby Venture Partners, The Angels' Forum and Yasuda Capital. For more information, visit www.clairvoyante.com.

About CPT

Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd. (CPT) was established in 1971 in Taiwan. CPT is an innovator in optronics technology and a leader in the development of displays for the telecommunications industry. A corporate philosophy dedicated to the ideal of "CREATION, PERFECTION and TEAMWORK-, coupled with its superior technologies for wide-viewing angles, faster response time for moving pictures, and high color saturation, allow CPT to successfully focus on the continuous development of a wide range of new and improved display products and services that satisfy their customers' expectations for performance and quality.

[1] Source: IDC, Worldwide Mobile Phone 2005—2009 Forecast Update and 1H05 Vendor Analysis: November 2005, Doc #34408, November 2005

[2] Source: IDC, I'll Take Mine to Go: Portable Multimedia Player Forecast and Analysis 2005—2009, Table 2, Doc #34424, November 2005

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