PixelQi’s Three-in-One 3Qi Display Due Next Month

Display startup PixelQi's first display - the 3Qi - combines black-and-white, e-paper, and full-color modes...and it's due next month.

At the Interactive Displays 2009 conference in San Jose, PixelQi head Mary Lou Jepson says her startup company is getting ready to ship samples of its first display, the 3Qi, as soon as next month. The innovative display will feature a low-power black-and-white mode, an e-paper mode, and a full-color mode—and, appropriate to having been a co-founder of the OLPC project, the display should be readable in full sunlight and cheap.

Jepson noted that, in her opinion, the versatility of displays will drive the future of portable computing and communications, and that displays will need to integrate directly into devices’ motherboards both to improve performance and improve battery life. Jepson also noted that touch and multitouch technologies will be key to future portable devices, but for getting technology into developing markets, the ability to be readable in direct sunlight and consume as little power as possible are initially more important.

PixelQi continues to work with the OLPC project, and it’s possible the 3Qi display may make it into future OLPC designs; in the meantime, the OLPC project has just announced it is switching from low-power AMD processors to low-power chips produced by Via in its “generation 1.5″ systems. OLPC’s “generation 2″ machines are currently targeting a 2011 release date.