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LG self-refreshing panel a boon to laptop-makers

by Tarinder Sandhu on 15 September 2011, 02:41

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), LG Electronics (066570.KS)

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The central theme to this year's Intel Developer Forum is one of promoting a new range of laptops called Ultrabooks. You can read all about them here and they're designed to be low-power, full-performance notebooks on a weight, power-draw and form factor diet.

Bringing down system-wide power is a multi-faceted job on a laptop. Intel can only do so much work with the CPU and chipset, so the onus is on panel, memory and hard-drive manufacturers to lend a hand to drive average power down and battery life up.

LG

LG has stepped up to the plate with a panel that uses self-refreshing technology, shown on the right. Called Shuriken, the panel itself houses a small amount of memory that copies the content of the notebook graphics' frame buffer. Having the current frame resident in the panel's memory means static images, such as pictures, can be displayed without having the battery-sapping CPU and graphics draw any power. The display, once a frame is in memory, is completely independent of the notebook's CPU and GPU; they can be put to sleep.

While having panel-side memory isn't convenient when playing movies or games, where the screen is constantly updated, this kind of technology makes a lot of sense when the graphics are largely in idle mode - writing emails or checking Facebook, for example. LG reckons that using a self-refreshing panel can save 0.5W compared to a conventional LVDS-connected panel - or, putting it another way, can increase battery life by up to 45 minutes on certain low-power notebooks.

Self-refreshing panels are expected to infiltrate the market over the next two years, said Intel, and they'll go hand-in-hand with future chip releases to push power-draw down further.



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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OLED or GTFO TBH ;)
This would work fine with OLED as well, wouldn't it?
Don't see why the concept wouldn't work with any screen. The actual innovation slots between the GPU and the screen. The screen itself isn't affected unless I've missed something.
TBH I am fed up with the monitor market at the moment, True there are more and more IPS panels coming out but the market is still flooded with crap TN panels.
What I want to see is a true move forward, if were to have 3D forced down our throats then give me a 3D capable IPS panel.
What I would really like to see is OLED kick off big time but I know there are technical limitations.
What I dont get is why resolutions haven't risen? there was a time when every 6 months there were higher res monitors out, the GPU's out today are more than capable.
When can I buy a 20 - 24" 2560x1600 screen?
You can but they are expensive, its simply supply and demand.

A 747 doesn't impress me half as much as concorde, but one i still in service.

Average joe doesn't want to pay for the good stuff, he just wants 24 inches.

Its a free market failure in some ways, but nothing like as much as the crap pre-loaded on a PC, because the margins are so tight every 50p from google/mcafee/whoever is worth it. I honestly think there would be a good paper for economics on such study of pre-loaded crap….