Intel’s plans for LCOS chips, the ones to be used in flat panel televisions have hit a snag. According to various news sources, the company is delaying release of these chips which were quite a smash at the consumer electronics show earlier this year. “We’re evolving our product development plans,” Intel spokeswoman Laura Anderson told the Oregonian. “We’re still very bullish about the silicon opportunity in this segment. We remain committed.” Intel was quick to fire a broadside against Texas Instruments, which has been making quite an impact with its DLP chips.

David Mentley, a senior vice president with iSuppli/Stanford Resources, a market research firm, told the Oregonian that he is not surprised and pointed out that most LCOS-based products over past five years have had quality issues that marred colors. “It’s not just making chips,” Mentley said of LCOS technology. “It’s making complex electro-optical chips that need to be flat, have certain properties of reflection. The packaging and materials are different from what’s used on a regular chip line.” In fact, Mentley’s comments are quite true of a lot other Intel product lines. The company assumed that since it could make complex processors well, it tried to expand in many different categories, and as a result as started to suffer product delays across the board. Here is a link to my previous story on major Intel delays.