Speaking at the Needham & Company Display Industry Investors Conference here Wednesday (March 15), Berkoff said current imaging processing components in flat-panel TVs rely too much on what he referred to as "localized intelligence," degrading image quality while raising system costs. This has contributed to a maze of different interfaces, resolutions and other variations in flat-panel TV technology, particularly for high definition.

"HDTV must be able to work like a toaster," said Berkoff, who joined Enuclia in January after six years at display supplier LG.Philips LCD Co. Inc. (Seoul, South Korea). "Even top TV brands suffer from complicated products."

Symptomatic of the problem is the fact that optimal TV processing, from both a cost and quality standpoint, cannot be achieved with a single chip, Berkoff noted. But HDTV demands that the TV architecture be able to produce resolutions of 1,920-by-1,080 pixels—seven times that of NTSC architectures.

"Today’s image processing architectures have a long way to go," Berkoff said. He cited existing TV architectures that often employ multiple microprocessors and memory systems along with other complex designs.

One possible solution could be an architecture being developed by Enuclia called Pipeline Video. While declining to give details, Berkoff said the architecture would use a combination of advanced algorithms and electronics. The architecture would allow the use of smaller components and reduce electronics cost.

Berkoff, known for making bold industry predictions, said many industry forecasts calling for rapid flat-panel TV growth were realistic, even with several quarters of excess capacity or shortages. He nevertheless questioned how much longer the current race among LCD suppliers to build next-generation fabs would continue.

"Unless you have a market it doesn't make sense to keep investing."