DLP Cinema® Unveils New .98 Chip as it Marks 350% Growth Globally of Theaters Powered by DLP Cinema Projectors
18 Top-Grossing Films of 2006 Released Digitally as Worldwide Adoption of DLP Cinema Technology Continues
LAS VEGAS, March 13 - Texas Instruments (TI) (NYSE:TXN) DLP Cinema® unveiled the new .98 DLP Cinema chip today at ShoWest, the largest annual convention for the cinema exhibition and distribution community. The announcement aligns with a banner year at the box office for DLP Cinema, marked by 350% growth in deployed DLP Cinema projectors globally and where for the first time ever, the 18 top-grossing films of 2006 were released in digital format and shown on DLP Cinema projectors.
The new .98 DLP Cinema chip offers the same flawless, pristine picture as the original 1.2 DLP Cinema chip introduced in 1999, and is optimized for screen sizes up to 40 feet. The .98 chip is housed in a smaller, more efficient cabinet and outputs up to 18,000 lumens to produce an immersive picture. It has already been adopted by Barco, one of the leading digital cinema projector manufacturers, which recently announced it is building its new DP-1500 and DP-2000 model projectors around the .98 chip technology and has been contracted by GDC Technology to supply 700 digital cinema projectors in China. Christie and NEC are expected to adopt the new chip in the near future. The new chip enables these DLP Cinema licensees to ultimately become more competitive by providing an increased variety of projector options to theaters around the world looking to convert to the digital format. In addition to the .98 ship option, new products will continue to be manufactured and deployed globally on the original 1.2 chip, including the recent announcement of Christie's CP2000-ZX DLP Cinema projector.
DLP Cinema adoption increased by over 350% globally through 2006 with both new commercial screens and major studio offerings. Currently 3,334 screens in commercial theaters worldwide are DLP Cinema equipped and more than 100 films were released in digital format last year. 2006 delivered record-breaking achievements of every movie that grossed $100 million or more at the box office and the 18 top-grossing films of the year being released in DCI compatible format to be shown on DLP Cinema projectors. Over the last year, an estimated 35 million moviegoers were introduced to the digital cinema experience featuring DLP Cinema technology.
"We are pleased to introduce the new .98 chip, which will make the conversion to digital cinema easier and more cost-effective for many theatres around the world," said Nancy Fares, Business Manager for DLP Cinema Products Group. "The strength of DLP Cinema is made clear by the enthusiastic support from the motion picture industry, which released all of their box office blockbusters on the digital format last year."
DLP Cinema is a proprietary technology that delivers clear, sharp, bright and accurate images to movie theatres globally. To manufacture and market under the DLP Cinema trademark, technology licensees, including Barco, Christie and NEC, must meet stringent standards and guidelines meant to ensure the best possible performance and picture quality. This digital picture and standard of excellence ensures that a DLP Cinema movie screening looks flawless and each showing is as perfect as the first with no annoying scratches, tears or weaving that detract from the movie-going experience.
For more information, or to find a DLP Cinema theatre near you, please visit www.dlpcinema.com
About Texas Instruments DLP Products
DLP display technology from Texas Instruments offers clarity down to the most minute detail, delivering pictures rich with color, contrast and brightness to large-screen HDTVs and projectors for business, home, professional venue and digital cinema (DLP Cinema®). 75 of the world's top projection and display manufacturers design, manufacture and market products based on DLP technology. DLP is the only HDTV technology built from a foundation in the digital cinema where it set the industry standard demonstrated by the deployment of DLP Cinema technology in more than 3,300 theaters worldwide. At the heart of every DLP chip is an array of up to 2.2 million microscopic mirrors which switch incredibly fast to create a high resolution, highly reliable, full color image. DLP technology's chip architecture and inherent speed advantage provides razor-sharp images and excellent reproduction of fast motion video. Since early 1996, more than 10 million DLP subsystems have been shipped. For more information, please visit www.dlp.com
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated provides innovative DSP and analog technologies to meet our customers' real world signal processing requirements. In addition to Semiconductor, the company includes the Education Technology business. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has manufacturing, design or sales operations in more than 25 countries.
Texas Instruments is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TXN. More information is located on the World Wide Web at www.ti.com
Source: Texas Instruments
CONTACT:
Kateri Gemperle,
Manager, WW Media Relations
Texas Instruments DLP® Products,
+1-214-567-3617
Eric Raymond,
Rogers & Cowan,
+1-310-854-8128,
eraymond@rogersandcowan.com
Web site:
http://www.dlp.com/
http://www.ti.com/
http://www.dlpcinema.com/
