Author: quiet thoughts

After going over the situation of the 8-bit chip with Masatoshi Shima and others, Shirakawa Kaede asked Heitaro Nakajima to send some finished products to the HAL Research Institute.

He plans to put the first application platform of this chip on his home game console.

At the beginning, in order to improve performance, we planned to directly install an 8-bit enhanced version of the chip.

But the cost of more than twenty dollars is still too high.

In the final analysis, game consoles are still an electronic toy product for children. In fact, the overlap between its audience and the Walkman is not very high.

Among students, game consoles may be very popular.

But social animals may not necessarily like it, especially the older you get, the narrower the audience.

If an 8-bit enhanced chip is used, its cost alone will be as high as more than 6,000 yen, and the overall selling price is likely to exceed 20,000 yen.

This price is very unfriendly to students. After all, only a small number of people can afford this expense.

Therefore, for cost considerations and to reduce the selling price, the cost of an 8-bit chip of more than 2,000 yen is much more friendly.

As for whether the performance of the 8-bit chip is reliable, there is no need to worry about this at all.

Nowadays, many arcade machines still use a large number of 8-bit chips. As a pocket-sized model of arcade machines, home game consoles have lower chip requirements.

Therefore, there is no problem at all in developing home game consoles using 8-bit chips.

The newly released products from SIC will be sent directly to Satoru Iwata and others so that they can become familiar with the performance and characteristics of the chip as soon as possible.

Game development involves programming and logic operations, which are directly related to the chip architecture.

Different chips on the market have different architectures and have different effects when used to develop games.

This takes time to get familiar with and get used to, and Shirakawa Kaede can only wait patiently for the good news from HAL.

In addition, Shirakawa Kaede also has great ambitions regarding the research and development of a new generation of handheld consoles.

The current configuration of one machine and one software is a bit too shabby to be honest.

You can't find such a fussy game console anywhere in the world, and you can only do this in your childhood.

The strange thing is that this kind of configuration is still very popular in neon, and Shirakawa Kaede once again saw the "exquisiteness" and "little family spirit" of neon.

Although Game Boy, the current handheld console, is selling well, the market has not declined significantly.

But disposable game consoles cannot represent the future after all. With the natural development of technology, they will be eliminated by the market in a few years.

Now that there is a chip with better computing power, Shirakawa Kaede is also preparing to develop the next generation of handheld consoles in advance.

Regarding the design goals of the next-generation handheld console, if nothing else, it cannot be a one-time game console.

Shirakawa Kaede wanted to build the handheld console into a platform, and then develop and sell game cartridges based on this platform.

This will not only win over a large number of game developers, but also make the word "Shirakawa" more popular.

Cultivating the market and building a brand is the next step for Baichuan Game Machine.

However, although the chip is now in place, the other core component of the handheld device, the LCD display, has not yet been perfected.

If you want a handheld console to truly become a game development platform, you must at least ensure that its hardware configuration will not fall behind in 1-3 years.

The current TN-LCD screens on handheld consoles obviously cannot meet this point. They have too many shortcomings and are even on the verge of being eliminated.

The most obvious thing is that there is a delay in the picture. Many complex compositions need to be pre-drawn on the screen in advance and displayed as black graphics after power is turned on.

This design must leave enough feedback time for the circuit to respond, so high delay is a major feature of it.

If future handheld consoles want to be supported by hardware for two to three years, the screen problem must be improved.

But now, not to mention new screen technology, Shirakawa Electric's stuck TN-LCD has not yet been completely solved.

Although an agreement has been reached with Stanley and Nitto Electric to build an LCD factory, let alone products, the factory has not even been built in such a short period of time.

However, in order to improve the LCD supply situation as soon as possible, we are temporarily planning to use the workshop originally reserved for handheld computers to temporarily build an LCD production line.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, take the first step, solve the problem from scratch, and then slowly figure it out.

Besides, each LCD is two to three hundred yen more expensive than before the price increase. Just one handheld machine makes so much less money, and millions of units add up to a huge profit.

Although what is reduced is profit, less profit is loss.

Shirakawa Kaede requires that in the first quarter of this year, its own LCDs must be offline, and Shirakawa Electric handheld screens must complete at least 30% of the production capacity replacement.

He is not used to Suha Seiko and Sharp. If he doesn't sell me things, I will play with them myself.

You even resorted to raising prices due to a fire. Believe it or not, I made your factory really have a fire.

Of course, Shirakawa Kaede just wanted to get high.

Now Shirakawa Electric is also a well-known company, and he has begun to cherish his feathers.

If he wants to regain his position, he prefers upright soldiers to have a head-on confrontation and see who has the last laugh.

So how can we regain our position, or how can we solve the screen problems of the next generation of handheld consoles?

This is another purpose of Bai Chuanfeng coming to SIC today.

SIC third floor.

"Professor Hosono, Professor Shirakawa, is it possible to further improve today's TN-LCD display? Or what is the next development trend of LCD?"

Shirakawa Kaede knows that the prospects of LCD screens are definitely more than this, but he doesn't know exactly how to develop them.

In order to improve the display effect of LCD and develop next-generation screen technology, he once again invested heavily in research.

The two people in front of me are materials science experts that SIC spent a lot of money to hire. They also have academic backgrounds from Tokyo University of Technology.

Among them, Hideo Hosono was originally hired by SIC to develop an extended format for CD technology. He was mainly responsible for the research on surface coating materials for optical discs.

But with the addition of Heitaro Nakajima and Hiroshi Ogawa, two veterans of CD technology, this part of the work was basically taken over by them.

Moreover, the development of the new CD format has come to an end, so Hideo Hosono was entrusted with research and development work in the field of LCD liquid crystals.

Strictly speaking, Hideo Hosono's area of ​​expertise is the development and application of new materials such as optoelectronic materials, photosensitive materials, and crystallized glass.

Letting him be responsible for LCD research and development work is considered a professional counterpart, and he himself is quite happy.

After all, Bai Chuanfeng promised him to provide sufficient funds and purchase the most advanced analytical instruments.

He had never fought such a rich battle in school, so with Shirakawa Kaede's promise, he immediately transferred to the LCD R&D Department.

As for another professor Hideki Shirakawa, well, he has the same surname as Shirakawa Kaede, but I don’t know if there is any ancestral connection.

This Professor Shirakawa graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry of Tokyo Institute of Technology, but currently teaches at the University of Tsukuba.

Because he is good at research in the field of polymers, conductive plastics, and electroluminescent polymers, he was introduced to SIC by Tokyo University of Technology.

The research directions that these two professors are good at are basically concentrated in the fields of materials science related to light and electricity.

This is closely related to the working principle and manufacturing of liquid crystals, so it is a very suitable choice for them to develop the next generation of LCD technology.

Faced with Shirakawa Kaede's question, Shirakawa Hideki and Hosono Hideo had obviously studied it in depth, and their answers were extremely professional at this time.

"TN-LCD is the first generation screen of liquid crystal display. There is no doubt that as a new material, its development is far from reaching a mature stage."

In order to make the explanation more intuitive, Shirakawa Hideki directly found a schematic diagram of the working of liquid crystal.

"Shirakawa-san, please see, the biggest feature of TN-LCD is the "twisted nematic" characteristic. The arrangement direction of the liquid crystal molecules from the top layer to the bottom layer is exactly 90 degrees in a 3D spiral shape."

In the chart, basically between the two transparent glasses, the filled liquid crystal molecules can be clearly seen to be arranged in a rotating state.

“Through the polarization and refraction of light, what is finally displayed on the screen is the picture we see.

However, due to the limited angle, the screen can only display black and white. And as the screen size increases, the contrast will decrease significantly."

Shirakawa Kaede knows this very well. Today’s LCDs are mostly used in small-screen electronic products such as watches and calculators.

When the screen of Shirakawa Electric's handheld console is slightly larger, the display effect begins to decline.

When the weather is nice or under the scorching sun in summer, sometimes you can't even see the patterns on the screen clearly.

This shortcoming has been criticized and complained by many consumers, but not only Shirakawa Electric, but also Nintendo screens have the same problem.

After all, the process is the same, and if everyone uses the same thing, they will have the same problems.

"So, does the development of next-generation LCD screen technology have to solve this problem?"

Bai Chuanfeng looked at the diagram in front of him and asked subconsciously.

"Of course" Shirakawa Hideki nodded without hesitation, "Theoretically, the greater the twist angle of the liquid crystal molecules, the better the final display effect will be."

As he spoke, he found another concept drawing, which was the vision he and Hideo Hosono had for the next generation of LCD screen technology.

"If the twist angle of the liquid crystal molecules reaches 180~270 degrees, the display effect of the screen will be greatly increased.

The viewing angle, picture contrast, response speed, display quality, etc. will all surpass the TN-LCD screen.

Even in terms of color, in addition to black and white, some other colors can be displayed.

This matrix-driven liquid crystal arrangement is called super-twisted nematic, or STN-LCD."

Bai Chuanfeng's eyes lit up when he heard this. It sounded a bit like the display screen of later generations.

"Can the improved STN-LCD screen display color animation?"
To be continued...