Sony, Samsung pile into 50-inch flat panel production

SAMSUNG said it and Sony have sorted out and sealed an agreement to build an eighth generation LCD panel line.

That's in addition to the seventh generation amorphous TFT-LCD production line at Tangjeong.

The two firms will plunge nearly $2 billion into the eighth generation project, with production starting in autumn 2007. The fab will throw out 50,000 panels a month.

The JV, called S-LCD Corporation, said that the investment amount doesn't include the cost of the land or the buildings.

The firm said that it can get six panels for 46-inch TVs, eight panels for 40-inch TVs, or 12 panels for 32-inch TVs out of a seventh generation substrate.

So expect more glass from Generation Eight. µ