CES2006: HDMI Supporters Announce Next-Gen HD Technology

The seven HDMI founder companies will demonstrate the next-gen of HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) at CES2006, starting Jan. 5 in Las Vegas. Products that will incorporate new HDMI technology, targeted to reach retailers in the first half of 2006, will include enhanced support for HD "deep color," higher speeds, and easier integration into personal computers.

The seven HDMI firms include: Hitachi , Matsushita (Panasonic) , Philips , Silicon Image , Sony , Thomson , and Toshiba . (HDMI Licensing LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Silicon Image.)

For its part, Silicon Image's new products will tap into its iTMDS technology. The company said iTMDS (internal Transmission Minimized Differential Signaling) has more than twice the bandwidth of comparable interface technologies, which will enable manufacturers to build HD monitors that support deep color (30-bit and 36-bit RGB) for improved detail, while lowering the cost of integrated circuits, cables and connectors.

Silicon Image will soon send its two iTMDS products to market: the SiI 7170 transmitter and SiI 7171 receiver. In a company statement released at CES, the firm said the integrated circuits (ICs) give the HD internal links the ability to support color depths of up to 36 bits at 1080p resolution, using only four differential signal pairs. Both new devices offer a scalable bandwidth of 25-225 megapixel-rate input, and are compliant with DVI 1.0.

The firm's iTMDS technology is based on TMDS, which was developed by Silicon Image for transmitting high-speed serial data such as digital video. While TMDS is used for external interfaces (HDMI, DVI and UDI), iTMDS is designed to extend internal TMDS for data transfer inside devices such as HD sets. The company is featuring a 1080p 30-bit DLP HD demo equipped with iTMDS technology in its CES suite this week at Harrah's.