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IAN POOLE LOOKS AT WHY THE “PAPERLESS” SOCIETY HAS NOT HAPPENED YET

AND ALSO REPORTS ON A DISPLAY THAT USES 15 MILLION TRANSISTORS AND

1.6 MILES OF THIN FILM WIRING.

Paper Chase

The idea of the paperless

society is a wonderful idea.

Whilst the technology is avail-

able to achieve this in theory,

everyone knows that in practice

things are rather different. De-

spite all the technology that

should enable less paper to

be used, we actually use

much more.

There are many reasons

why the paperless office or soci-

ety has not happened. It is often

much easier to print out a docu-

ment to read at leisure. Also,

the fact that we have better and

faster printers means it has

become much easier to

print documents.

Another reason is that

printed sheets are much easier

to read. There are a number of

reasons for this. Reading a PC

monitor causes more eyestrain

because it is necessary to scroll

the document up and down. In

some cases it may be neces-

sary to zoom in and out to catch

the required detail.

Sometimes these fine de-

tails are not so easy to decipher

because of the limited resolu-

tion of the screen. Whatever the

reason the end result is the

same. The documents on the

screen are not as easy or con-

venient to read.

If the paperless office is to

succeed then it will be neces-

sary to make the technology

more compatible with people's

real requirements. Only when it

is more convenient to read a

document on the screen will

Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc

people start to reduce the

amount of paper that

is produced.

In view of the green issues

and cost savings of introducing

a real paperless office, it is

likely that there will be a signifi-

cant uptake of the solution. As a

result several companies are

now working towards this end.

Roentgen

In a program that has taken

place at IBM Research, an ac-

tive liquid crystal display (LCD)

with a resolution of 200 ppi

(pixels per inch) has been de-

veloped. This active matrix liq-

uid crystal display (AMLCD) has

a resolution that is near the limit

of the human eye.

This prototype display is

named Roentgen after the fa-

mous German physicist, Wil-

helm Konrad Roentgen (1845-

1923), who discovered X-rays.

The display is optimized to pro-

duce exceedingly sharp images

that are virtually indistinguish-

able from the equivalent paper

copies. The jagged edges that

distort curved or angled

lines are virtually eliminated,

making viewing far more pleas-

ant and natural.

The screen is a further de-

velopment of a monitor that was

known as “Monet”. This was a

10 5 inch diagonal 150 ppi Su-

per XGA LCD monitor. How-

ever, IBM have been research-

ing into high quality displays for

many years and started their

work into active matrix displays

in the mid-1980s.

The prototype “Roentgen”

screen is 21 5 inches high and

16 5 inches wide, giving it a 16 3

inch diagonal viewing area. On

top of this, the total depth of the

whole display unit, including the

base, is only 9 5 inches

a defi-

nite improvement on the stan-

dard cathode ray tube (CRT)

screen. The whole assembly

weighs less than 20lbs, making

it less than a third of the weight

of a comparably sized CRT

monitor.

There are also significant

power savings over the equiva-

lent CRT. It consumes less than

half that of an 18-inch CRT and

the output luminescence is high.

With a 44W backlight, a bright-

ness of 130 cd/m2 is achieved,

making it ideal under virtually

all normal lighting conditions.

Many pixels

Crammed into the display

are over five million full color

pixels, giving it a full 2560 x

2048 line up. In order to achieve

this, it has been necessary to

use over 15 million transistors,

and a staggering 1 6 miles

of thin film wiring within

the display.

The exceedingly high per-

formance of the display carries

some penalties with it. The

screen has over four times the

number of pixels of today's

highest definition screens of the

same size. This means that the

amount of data that is required

to drive it is increased. Conse-

quently, improvements are re-

quired in the computer that

EPE Online, March 1999 - www.epemag.com - 355

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drives the display if the full ben-

efits of the display are to be re-

alized and problems resulting

from the increased amounts of

data are not to be encountered.

Realizing the possibility of

these problems in advance, IBM

researchers developed a

scaleable graphics adapter ar-

chitecture. This is compatible

with all the current operating

systems and it is capable of

handling these types of high im-

age content displays.

A further advantage is that

the adapter is based on off-the-

shelf components. This makes it

a relatively cheap card to manu-

facture, unlike one using spe-

cialized components that would

add significant costs to the

whole system.

Whilst this should help in

allowing people to view more

data on screen, and thereby re-

ducing the number of copies

that are printed out, there will

also be other uses. In the imme-

diate future, while their cost is

relatively high, they are more

likely to be used in applications

that demand very high

levels of definition.

In particular, they are likely

to be included in the ever-

increasing number of databases

of digital images. These include

digital libraries, architectural

and electronic blueprints, histor-

ical archives, and scanned

records; including those used by

hospitals and insurance

companies.

It is also expected that with

the exceedingly high level of

definition and crispness there

will be a high demand for this

type of display for graphic de-

sign and electronic publishing

applications.

should mean that very high defi-

nition displays will be available

in the foreseeable future.

To make the paperless of-

fice a reality, other develop-

ments will be required to ensure

that people are as at home with

data displayed on a screen as

they are with that on paper.

There are many reasons for

wanting a document to be

printed out. The convenience of

being able to look at it when re-

quired, without requiring a com-

puter, the way it looks, and the

way many of us were brought

up to look at paper at school

rather than screens.

However, with more com-

puters being installed in schools

and the younger generation be-

ing more used to them, it is pos-

sible they may use less paper.

The best way to cut down on

paper usage would be to make

printers less convenient to use,

or much slower. Unfortunately,

this is most unlikely to happen!

Future

Whilst there are many areas

where these displays can be

used, and it is expected that de-

mand will be high, there are no

plans to market the Roentgen

(AMLCD) display at the present

time. It is only a prototype used

to prove the viability of the tech-

nology, and the results of the

work have given IBM a very

good insight into the develop-

ment and fabrication of highly

complex displays. As such it

has been a great success.

However, it will need devel-

oping for manufacture and at

the moment IBM are in discus-

sions with a number of cus-

tomers around the world to in-

vestigate its production. This

Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc

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