Interesting to hear about the joint
company that’s been formed
between Renesas, Sharp Corp.,
and Powerchip Semiconductor
Corp. (PSC). Its view is to feeding
the future LCD market with drivers
and controllers.
There is no doubt that the demand
for LCD panels has demonstrated
explosive growth in recent years.
It has been driven mainly by the
global demand for LCD TVs, mobile
phones with more sophisticated
displays, and the expanded application
of LCDs in control systems,
car navigation products and game
consoles. So have Renesas, Sharp,
and Powerchip Semi made the right
call to commit to this joint venture?
What is certain is that collectively
they have enormous cash reserve,
especially Renesas with its revenues
of €953billion and Sharp showing
very healthy sales figures of
€3,127,771million. Not surprising,
then, that the fledgling joint venture
company, Renesas SP Drivers Inc.,
will have a capital base of €5billion
and ownership pie will be
sliced as follows: Renesas 55%,
Sharp 25%, and PSC 20%.
All well and good, but have they
read the market signs correctly? I
say they have. Put LCD TV demand
to one side for the moment and
focus instead on the global mobilephone
market.
The market growth for small and
mid-size LCDs is expected to be
especially dynamic. That’s due to
the demand for mobile phones that
must support sophisticated multimedia
capabilities, such as integral
digital cameras and reception of
TV programs.
Factor into the demand for greater
phone functionality, plus the situation
in countries like China and
India where huge swathes of the
population are waiting to get their
hands on the latest mobile phone,
and this joint venture looks to be
perfectly timed.
As if by way of endorsement and
hot on the heels of the Renesas,
Sharp, and PSC news came an
announcement from the Mobile
World Congress about next-generation
graphics and multimedia for
mobile devices. Advanced Micro
Devices was showing off its Adapt
II platform, which is based on the
Freescale i.MX31 applications
processor and includes the AMD
Imageon M180 media processor.
This will provide ultra-fast, highresolution
image processing, DVDquality
video, and high-definition
audio for mobile applications.
AMD also demonstrated its
OpenVG graphics technologies
that are designed to enable even
more compelling games, user interfaces,
navigation, animations, and
flash content on next-generation
mobile devices.
Looks like the LCD trio just may
have timed it right.
