Regarding the questions about my PEK blog post a few weeks ago…

Hi all,

Thanks for all your comments/questions on my blog post regarding the PicoP Evaluation Kit (PEK), a few weeks ago.  Here are some responses to your questions:

Martin asked about how many PEKs we’ve sold and what’s inside them and how many people support the technical integration of the units? And, then Martin followed up with a question regarding the heat sink that comes with PEK and if the SHOWWX will have a sink as well?  On the first set of questions, we don’t as a matter of policy discuss specific sales prior to formal financial reporting.   What’s inside the PEK is a PicoP display engine for evaluation purposes (see below for further discussion on this).   We have a large team of engineers at Microvision (over 100) that currently support the PEK, PicoP development, PicoHUD, etc.   Regarding the heat sink…The answer is no.  The SHOWWX will not have a heat sink (and it really doesn’t need one because the unit has very capable thermal management inside, which explains why it only feels warm to the touch as Martin highlighted).

Ryan asked about ANSI contrast?  The published contrast of the PEK is the same as the SHOWWX, 10000:1.

Robert asked if the $5000 PEK is the same device which is in the $500 SHOWWX?  Yes and No.  Yes that the core technology, the PicoP display engine is the same.  Red, blue and green lasers, electronics, optics, and MEMS scanner.  The difference is that the SHOWWX is not a developers tool that can be manipulated by developers for their application.

For example, the PEK can be embedded (and has been by a number of customers).  Also, this unit comes with a digital interface the customer can use to send digital input to the device.  It also comes with a vertical synch output that enables applications that require synchronization of the image rastering (like image capture applications).  A full rundown of why developers should develop with PEK is found  here.

Finally, George asked about why not allow developers access to the pieces that make the PicoP display engine run so they can best manage the space available in their applications? (I’m paraphrasing here, but I believe this is the gist).  The PEK is offered as an ‘evaluation kit’.  It’s designed to provide a way for developers to begin working on proofs of concept and prototypes in advance of us launching a production PicoP display engine module.  Essentially, these customers are getting a head start in their product development.  Future advancements in the product roadmap will allow is to offer a smaller form factor that will be primarily designed for developers to integrate what the final production module will look like.  Keeping the module as a single contained unit instead of availing developers to the ‘pieces’ also helps us to protect our IP.

I hope these answers help out.  Thanks again to everyone for your questions.

Bill

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Pico Projectors, PicoP Evaluation Kit (PEK).
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