Gas plasma displays

From: Paul E Coad <pcoad_at_crl.com>
Date: Thu May 15 18:47:26 1997

On Thu, 15 May 1997, Doug Spence wrote:

> Recently I picked up a manual for a machine called the "Laser Concept
> 286/16 Laptop" for the sole reason that it has a couple of good photos of
> the machine's red gas plasma display.
>
> I remember seeing some other systems with this kind of display in
> magazines. (The GRiD Compass comes to mind?)

I can think of two others, the HP Integra and the Toshiba 3100(?).

>
> Anyway, I'm wondering why this technology was so little used. What were
> the major disadvantages? And do these displays still survive today? (Does
> anyone have one?)

Didn't it require a good deal of power compared to LCD? I'm really just
guessing, but I'll bet that as LCD technology advanced, GPDs lost favor,
especially once color LCDs of reasonable size dropped in price and increased
in size. Both of the machines above I believe could run on batteries
for some period of time, but both were also pretty heavy compared to today's
laptops.

I passed oppertunities to buy both machines in the last few years. I kind
of regret passing on the HP. It was a pretty cool machine, it had Unix in
ROM! I would snap another one up in a minute today.

--pec
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Received on Thu May 15 1997 - 18:47:26 BST