Guys Upstairs - Tech

Flexible OLEDs are not a new concept, but they are still heavily in development. Sony and the Max Plank Institute demonstrated a new transparent, flexible OLED display. They were able to overcome the previous problems such as size and distortion when folded by using a special combination of organic compounds in a viscous polymer matrix.

KDDI debuted a 3.1 inch WVGA OLED display made by Samsung at CEATEC. They also showed a panel which can convert 2D images to 3D in real time using a special parallax barrier method. There is no word yet when KDDI when release these, although it should be soon.

[TechRadar and Engadget]

Regal Cinemas, AMC Entertainment, and Cinemark will be getting more than $1 billion to switch more than 20,000 screens in the US and Canada to digital projection over the next three years. The studios currently backing this are Universal, Paramount, Disney, Lions Gate and Fox although Warner Bros. and Sony are expected to join in as well. The studios signed a virtual print fee (VPF) agreement under which they will pay a large portion of the $100,000 cost per system. Digital distribution is expected to save the studios millions per year because they will save the cost involved with printing on traditional film. A concern is that this will cause all but the major theaters to go out of business.

[Reuters]

Japanese site PC Watch just released a report today stating that Sony is leaning heavily toward basing the PlayStation 4 on the same cell processor which the PS3 runs on. This is a step away from tradition for Sony, which has pushed the boundaries of processor and hardware for both the PS2 and the PS3. One of the reasons for this decision may be that it would cut down on the price of production as well as the price for the consumer.

The Cell processor has the capability to reach 32 cores based on current technological trends, but redesigning the processor would be expensive enough for Sony to most likely go with around 10-12 cores. The current plan is also for the chip to shrink from 90nm to 45 nm and only a slight increase over the current 3.2 Gz clock speed.

PC Watch reports that Sony could potentially switch to DDR3 memory over the expensive Rambus XDR used in the PS3. The low power DDR3 memory could have a decreased latency if it is coupled to the processor.

While this pushes the expected release date from 2010 to 2011, the good news is that game developers should be able to start working on games for the PS4. The delayed release of quality games for the PS3 could have been what led to at least a sluggish start for the system, something that may be avoided for the PS4.

[Electronista and Gamecyte]