Energy-saving Decoder Developed On November 16, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute announced that it has succeeded in developing a power-saving decoder that can decode compressed moving picture at 30 frames a second at 7 MHz. For the development of this technology, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Mtekvision, and Astel have joined in the project. This decoder uses an internal memory of 19mb with a size of 4 x 4 mm (before packaging). In particular, by adopting a platform-based design technique, this decoder can support the resolution of up to the level of 720 x 480 pixels, thus making it possible to be used not only for DMB but also the PMP products of various levels. Until now, compressed moving pictures have been decoded 30 frames a second at the 12.5 - 27 MHz range. The size of mobile multimedia market is expected to be US$3.1 billion in 2010 including mobile phones, portable gamers, and PMP. Senior researcher Cho Han-jin, chief of multimedia SoC design team, said: 'By using a 90mm process for chip manufacturing, we have succeeded in reducing power consumption drastically, and this technology will be commercialized in the second half of next year.' Products Samsung Launches New Mobile TV Phone in Italy Samsung launched a new mobile TV phone (model:SGH-P930) to the Italian market this month through Telecom Italia. This newest mobile TV phone combines not only the latest mobile TV technology, but it also combines HSDPA technology which enables high-speed data transmission. Samsung has provided a mobile TV phone (model: SGH-P920) to Telecom Italia since May 2006. Samsung's successful drive in the Italian market has been a big step in leading Europe's mobile TV phone market. Samsung's newest model, the P930, adopts horizontal LCD screen for optimal mobile TV watching and supports stereo speaker for best sound quality. The P930 has wide 2.3 inch (240x320) LCD and supports Picture in Picture (PIP) function to watch two TV channels simultaneously. It adopts a 2 megapixel camera for highquality photo shooting and a VGA camera for convenient video telephony. It also supports a microSD external memory slot for better storage. The mobile TV market is lead by three different standards; DVB-H in Europe, MediaFLO in the U.S, and DMB in Korea. Samsung is leading all three standards by supplying world's first S-DMB and TDMB phone in Korea, Europe's first TDBM phone in Germany, Europe's first DVB-H phone in Italy and by successfully demonstrating the MediaFLO mobile TV technology at CTIA Wireless 2006in the US market. Kitae Lee, President of Samsung Electronics Telecommunication Network Business said: 'Mobile TV will change the lifestyle of people and will be a big contributor in the future of a ubiquitous world.' He added: 'Samsung will lead the worldwide mobile TV market by providing a variety of mobile TV phones with advanced features and premium design.' Low Temperature Poly Silicon LCDs Samsung Electronics is going to extend their production of Low Temperature Poly Silicon (LTPS) Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) by a factor of ten. If Samsung Electronic establishes their LTPS LCD which has the advantage of light weight and high brightness, there is going to be a big match between Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI-LG Philips in the market of AM OLED and premium handy terminals. On November 20th, the director of LCD for Samsung Electronics said: 'An investment in planting and equipment is now proceeding on introduction of LTPS process in the part of Line 4 in Chun-An.' He also went on to say: 'From April 2007, We are going to produce 10,000 LTPS a month.' Samsung Electronics is now producing 4,000 LTPS a month in Line 1 and when the new line begins production, the production scale is going to be expanded by almost 9.8 times. LTPS LCD produced from Line 4 will be supplied to premium handy terminals such as mobile phones, PDAs, and PMP devices. The extension of Samsung's LTPS LCD is expected to affect the LCD business strategies of Samsung SDI and LG Philips. Especially, there is a possibility of a big clash between Samsung SDI and Samsung Electronic with their production of premium mobile phone display. 'The competition of producing LTPS based LCD and AM OLED is about how many customers they can attract,' says the LG Philips LCD director.