News out of Japan today states that Sharp Corp along with Semiconductor Energy Laboratory and Advanced Film Device have announced a 13.3-inch 8k (7,680 x 4,320-pixel) notebook display prototype panel using OLEDs.

In a lecture at the SID 2014 academic conference, lecture number 44.1 to be specific, the noted companies revealed that their new 8k panel features a resolution as high as 664ppi (pixel per inch).

According to the companies involved, the display was realized by combining white-light OLEDs with three kinds of microcavities to narrow wavelengths down to those of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) lights and applying color filters to them.

The one minor drawback that was noted is that its red color reproducibility is slightly low and due to this was given an 84% color gamut on NTSC standards while many OLED panels are closer to 100% color gamut.

For super geeks and scientists, the companies revealed that the backplane of the panel was realized by using the CAAC-OS (c-axis aligned crystalline oxide semiconductor) technology. Each OLED is driven by five transistors and one capacitor (5T+C) including the circuit for compensating the fluctuation in threshold voltage. The number of pixel transistors is as large as 497,664,000.

What we really wanted to know and didn't get was an expected release date for this next generation display. Though considering that 4K displays are only coming to market later this year, the new displays are likely to only begin rolling out commercially in about two or three years' time. Though knowing Sharp, this may come our way a little faster.

Just when you thought that 4K displays were going to be the greatest displays ever – progress says think again.

In the shorter term it was revealed at this year's Computex in Taipei that by the end of the year we'll be seeing 4K based 23.6 inch PLS displays built-into new all-in-one desktops that are using new Intel Core processors.

Whether that will actually translate to 4K displays coming to Apple's iMac later this year is unknown at this time. To date, the display quality built-into every iMac has been well ahead of the quality found on traditional PC displays. Here's to hoping that Apple will maintain their leadership with 4K Retina Displays (or equivalent) later this fall.

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