Forward-looking: 8K TVs are still a few years away for the average consumer, but being completely free of bezels could be a defining feature that sets them apart from current 4K options. Samsung is building its portfolio of semiconductor devices so that future TVs require fewer components and can have more unique designs.
Making the jump to 8K TVs is both a costly and difficult endeavor for the majority of manufacturers. Samsung Electronics has announced a new 8K display driver IC that will make the transition much easier and offer greater flexibility in design.
Given that 8K TVs contain four times as many pixels as 4K displays, delivering a picture to the screen without any artifacts, blurring, and lag becoming noticeable is that much harder. Based on Samsung's Unified Standard Interface for TV (USI-T), the new chip doubles bandwidth from 2Gbps to 4Gbps.
Increased bandwidth allows for a design with greater efficiency overall, and greater integration reduces the number of supporting components required. As TVs get bigger, Samsung is strongly hinting that bezels are going to be a thing of the past. TVs greater than 65-inches will see the most benefit from the reduced number of parts required.
New features include a smart equalizer with bi-directional communication between timing controllers and single display driver chips. This addition allows for simultaneous programming of all display driver ICs inside of a panel, greatly improving the speed of production and possibility of defects.
Samsung has begun a sampling period for its new 8K display drivers and is now looking to make license agreements with OEMs for use of the USI-T 2.0 intra-panel interface.